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Approved 9/20/2017 263 Theo Letman added that he has been talking with partners at MPO meetings about connectivity and how it is hard 264 for riders to navigate to Durham and Raleigh and other local destinations, and how everyone should work together 265 to do a better job at connecting and helping with the commutes for riders. Mr. Letman shifted the discussion to a 266 new brochure (see presentation) and drew attention to efforts over the next month - and -a -half to market the 267 rebranding with the help of the media department, radio, public television, and other outlets. 268 269 Alex Castro requested large font size on their advertising. 270 271 Alyson West asked if the department was connected to any app services. 272 273 Theo Letman answered that as the department expands its resources in the future, Staff hopes to include apps 274 (subscription packages). 275 276 Ted Triebel asked if along with the new roll -out, if Staff set any specific goals for new ridership? 277 278 Theo Letman said that they want more riders. 279 280 Ted Triebel elaborated and asked if the department was setting -out objectives and timelines to help figure out 281 where they are headed. He urged the department to have some concrete goals. 282 283 Theo Letman said that he hesitated to answer the question because there must be an order to things; first, the 284 department needs to understand where it is, in this point in time, to know where it is going. Because the department 285 has been using more old- school methods to collect data, it appears that much of its data is not accurate. Staff is 286 scrubbing the data now and is implementing new methods for data gathering. There are also requirements from the 287 FTA that track what the department is doing, like ridership numbers, mileage and other related indicators. Once the 288 department establishes this baseline, they will establish targets for the future. Mr. Letman said that this is a fluid 289 process, especially when they are adding new service and that they do plan to expand ridership, but that he could 290 not say what that would look like right now. 291 292 Erle Smith questioned if goal setting is dependent on the department's current numbers. He suggested that the 293 department could look at similar systems in similar situations (i.e. percentage coverage by particular area) and base 294 goals on that. By looking at current numbers and similar systems, two goal- setting measures could operate 295 simultaneously. 296 297 Theo Letman responded that if the department had a good comparable service, perhaps those measures could be 298 considered, but Orange County is unique; this is a huge rural area. Orange County cannot compare to Durham or 299 Raleigh. Orange County is just coming into fixed routes. Alamance County is just starting its service but with 300 Burlington they have an even larger urbanized area than Orange County. It is a hard comparison. 301 302 Erle Smith suggested that if Staff opened the aperture and examined the flyover states, they may find some areas 303 that are common with the situation here. 304 305 Theo Letman responded that he thought that could be possible. 306 307 Erle Smith said that he agrees with Ted Triebel about the importance of goal- setting and that if the department does 308 not yet know where it's going, and how it get there. 309 310 Peter Murphy revisited the slide presentation on passenger count comparisons. Passengers - per -hour is compared 311 with similar peer counties (about 15 counties out of 100 counties statewide), a grouping by NCDOT. The 312 department does compare there and based on this, the target for passengers is 3.6 per hour. The County is above 313 that across the board. Staff wants the Hill -to -Hill route to be at 3.6 passengers per hour. It will take a couple of 314 years for the department to get to this goal. 315 6