WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.000 Good afternoon everyone, it is Friday the 18th of June at 3 o' 1 and we're here for 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.680 a special meeting of the committee on persons with disabilities. 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:25.400 Thank you committee members for taking your time for being here. 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:31.520 That's regularly an off day. My name is Val Behr, I'm the chair of the committee and we're 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:37.040 getting started. Ryan, do we have absences to report? 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:43.000 Mr. Chair, we have three absences, Joe Revis, Sam Alphonse and Sonya Redwine. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.080 Okay. Well, take that back, Joe Revis just joined 00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:51.440 us so just Sam Alphonse and Sonya Redwine and they've not been listed as excused at 00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:57.120 this point. Thank you. And as a special meeting we basically 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:07.480 only have two items for consideration. We'll go with item A, CPD 21-020, consider the 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:21.880 approval of the minutes for the May 20th, 2021 meeting. And we'll just go down the list, get everyone's approval. John? 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:24.760 Yes? Mr. Chair, you may have to call for a motion 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:25.760 to approve. I'm sorry. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:26.760 That's alright. All right. 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:38.120 It's at the meeting, the minutes. Okay. Great. Second. Second. Great. So now, Ali? 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:42.320 I approve. Samara? 00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:46.440 Yes. Okay. Beth? 00:01:46.440 --> 00:01:50.240 Approve. Okay. Sally? 00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:59.280 What was that? You're muted, Sally. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.960 Approve. Okay. Thank you. 00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:04.800 Thank you. Joe? 00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:17.520 We're also muted, Joe. Okay. Thank you. 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:28.920 And John and Val made the motion, so meeting minutes are approved for our May meeting. 00:02:28.920 --> 00:02:38.080 And our second item, CPD 21-021, is receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:47.680 direction regarding information provided by the DCTA proposed GoZone on-demand service. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:53.440 I believe we have a representative from DCTA to give us a presentation, so. 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:57.440 Yes, Mr. Chair, and I'll let Sarah introduce herself, and I would like the minutes to reflect 00:02:57.440 --> 00:03:00.800 that Sonja has joined us, so she is with us for the meeting. 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:01.800 Oh, great. 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:08.000 But we do have DCTA here to present on their GoZone, our proposed GoZone program. Sarah? 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.080 The floor is yours. Please take it away, and I'm going to drift into the background here. 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:20.080 Thank you very much, and thank you again for letting me be here today to speak with everybody. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:25.400 I'm going to give an overview of what the proposed service is, and then this is part 00:03:25.400 --> 00:03:30.240 of our public involvement process where we're trying to collect feedback. So if it's okay 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.320 with everybody, I'd like to go through the presentation first and then get into answering 00:03:34.320 --> 00:03:39.920 questions, have discussion. That way I can record your feedback because all of your feedback 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:45.640 today will go to DCTA staff and our board of directors who ultimately make a decision 00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:50.760 on this proposed service. So if that's okay with everybody, I'll go ahead and share my 00:03:50.760 --> 00:04:10.400 screen with the presentation. Can everybody see this okay? Okay, great. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:15.600 So what we're going to talk about today is DCTA's proposed GoZone on-demand ride share 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:21.560 service. We've been in a public involvement period since April 19th and will be until 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:29.640 June 25th where we've been going to numerous groups, public events, online, virtual events, 00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:33.680 all sorts of things over the last few months, and really glad to be here today as one of 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:40.520 those. So this is just a little introduction into what I'm going to talk about today. The 00:04:40.520 --> 00:04:47.840 proposed service is called GoZone, and what it is is a zone-based on-demand ride share 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:54.760 service. It brings in the ability to book by app, and it would be operated in partnership 00:04:54.760 --> 00:05:00.880 with a company called Via. This would replace the majority of connect fixed routes for the 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:06.160 bus service and replace it with on-demand zone service. It would extend our service 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:13.240 area beyond the existing service structure, and overall typically create an improved customer 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:21.200 experience. So all these topics I'll delve into in more detail. The reason why DCTA is 00:05:21.200 --> 00:05:26.600 looking at GoZone is that it offers several benefits. On-demand services typically have 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:32.440 an improved rider experience, enhanced service delivery, and they also build the agency's 00:05:32.440 --> 00:05:38.200 overall service efficiency. There is with on-demand typically shorter wait times for 00:05:38.200 --> 00:05:43.960 your ride. There's the ability, and we are going to, if the service goes through, have 00:05:43.960 --> 00:05:49.200 bike racks on every vehicle to accommodate our bike riders. It would expand our service 00:05:49.200 --> 00:05:57.520 to 365 days a year. Much of the fleet would be, about 30%, let me be a little specific 00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:03.680 right there, would be retrofitted for wheelchair accessibility. This would be in addition to 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:11.040 our existing access paratransit service we have today. So that would be about one-third 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:17.520 of the GoZone fleet plus the access service would still be there. It would extend the 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:22.320 service area, and I'll show you some maps of that. It brings in the ability to book 00:06:22.320 --> 00:06:31.080 by app if a customer wants to, and it has the ability to pre-book trips. The partner 00:06:31.080 --> 00:06:37.160 that was selected to have this proposed on-demand service is RiverNorth Transit. They do business 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:43.360 as VIA. VIA was founded in 2012. They are well known throughout the transit industry 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:48.640 as a visionary market leader, and they provide software and service delivery to over 200 00:06:48.640 --> 00:06:55.340 partners across the globe. Regionally, they have service in the city of Arlington. They 00:06:55.340 --> 00:07:00.760 service the entire city of Arlington. They also work with Tranny Metro over in the Fort 00:07:00.760 --> 00:07:05.480 Worth area where they have multiple what they call zip zones, which would be similar to 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:14.220 the on-demand zones we're proposing. So there would be two major changes when you switch 00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:20.560 over from fixed route to on-demand. One would be the fleet. Instead of seeing a lot of DCTA 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:28.120 buses moving around, you would see the renderings at the bottom of the screen. It would be Chrysler 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:34.280 Pacificas, and they would be branded with DCTA logos. There would be seating for up 00:07:34.280 --> 00:07:38.920 to six passengers. Now, many of these, like I said, will be retrofitted for wheelchair 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:45.080 access, so there wouldn't be six people plus the wheelchair in there once crowded up, but 00:07:45.080 --> 00:07:50.640 the ones not retrofitted could handle up to six passengers. And one really good thing 00:07:50.640 --> 00:07:56.140 about the fleet with VIA is that they're able to scale the quantity of vehicles up and down 00:07:56.140 --> 00:08:02.840 based on ridership. So if we saw that ridership increased rapidly, we'd be able to bring in 00:08:02.840 --> 00:08:10.040 more vehicles very quickly. Another big difference would be virtual stops. Right now we're all 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:14.160 used to seeing physical bus stops. This would be swapped out for what's called a virtual 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:20.920 stop. And since this is a software-based service, we would be able to put many, many virtual 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:27.040 stops across the city, far more than the physical bus stops we have now. And this would just 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:32.760 ultimately provide the passengers a lot more pick up and drop-off locations. They would 00:08:32.760 --> 00:08:38.880 be on most street corners, and then we're able to add them into different locations 00:08:38.880 --> 00:08:46.800 around the city that would be strategically placed for them with best efficiency. For 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:52.400 the fares, there will be a six-month promotion with a proposed service, and it would trade 00:08:52.400 --> 00:08:58.600 out the fixed route access for GoZone access. So fare structure you're used to today would 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:04.360 stay in place, but instead of getting on a bus, you would get on the GoZone instead. 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:09.360 Then the data used during that six-month would be used to determine the final fare structure, 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:16.140 which is slated for March of 2022. The existing DCTA local regional pass will still provide 00:09:16.140 --> 00:09:20.240 access to all services, but if you didn't want to buy a day pass, you just wanted to 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:30.000 go on a single GoZone ride, it could be purchased for 75 cents. So since this technology brings 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:35.400 them the ability to book by app, I always kind of wanted to touch on how that works. 00:09:35.400 --> 00:09:39.920 To your left, you can see what it would look like when you open up the app. You would select 00:09:39.920 --> 00:09:45.760 your location and destination. The Rider app would then give you a ride proposal with the 00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:51.920 pickup location, wait time and fare. And then you would receive your virtual bus stop location, 00:09:51.920 --> 00:09:55.960 and it would tell you exactly where to go. And like I said earlier, there's going to 00:09:55.960 --> 00:10:02.960 be a very high number of virtual bus stops around the city. You would then be able to 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:09.760 watch your vehicle approach in real time. And then after you get on, you were able to 00:10:09.760 --> 00:10:15.160 watch your vehicle move throughout your trip and see your estimated time of arrival. At 00:10:15.160 --> 00:10:21.320 the end of the ride, you're able to rate your driver and your experience. I do want to clarify 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:25.660 here because we do get this question a lot. What if I don't want to book by app? You don't 00:10:25.660 --> 00:10:31.720 have to if you don't want to. We will have our customer service department still in place 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:36.520 and there will actually be extended hours and people can call in and they can book your 00:10:36.520 --> 00:10:41.240 trip. They can do it in advance or they can do it in real time. And also people are able 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:46.060 to book by personal computer. So you're able to do it from your own computer, iPhone or 00:10:46.060 --> 00:10:55.920 the app. So the GoZone service is proposed to go in a phased approach. So begin with 00:10:55.920 --> 00:11:01.760 a base service. And then there are several add-ons to the base service. And this has 00:11:01.760 --> 00:11:06.280 to do with the flexibility of on-demand. There's a lot of things you can do with it. And I 00:11:06.280 --> 00:11:11.520 will go into more detail, but you can see we're going to have a phase one, phase two A and 00:11:11.520 --> 00:11:19.040 phase two B. So I'll talk about each one of those phases in greater detail. Phase one 00:11:19.040 --> 00:11:25.400 is the base service. This would launch on September 7th. The base service would replace 00:11:25.400 --> 00:11:31.920 the majority of connect fixed route service and it would have enlarged zones and didn't 00:11:31.920 --> 00:11:37.240 the Louisville and Highland village, which are DCTA's member cities. It would provide 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:42.520 service Monday through Saturday and it would extend the hours of service. So on the right 00:11:42.520 --> 00:11:49.480 hand, the screen, you can see what the base zones for this proposed service would be. 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:55.040 And then just to clarify and talk about those virtual stops a little more within those zones 00:11:55.040 --> 00:12:01.400 would be a lot of virtual stops you could travel to and from. 00:12:01.400 --> 00:12:06.280 So with on-demand, you're able to do a lot of different things. It's very flexible and 00:12:06.280 --> 00:12:11.120 these are the things that we identified in talking to the cities would be the best add-ons 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:16.600 for the service. These would also launch on September 7th and it would provide service 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:24.200 to new areas and the DCTA service area. It would also increase the hours of service and 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:31.600 that should say Saturday from 8pm to 11pm. It would also allow us to have service on 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:38.160 Sunday, which is not something we currently have. We would propose to start serving the 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:43.440 Denia neighborhood by doing extension. You can see that on the map on the left hand side 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:50.560 in yellow. There would be an addition of the Dart Frankfurt station to the Louisville Highland 00:12:50.560 --> 00:12:55.640 Village Go Zone. This is because workers are trying to get into those cities for their 00:12:55.640 --> 00:13:01.400 employment and that would be Monday through Friday during commuter hours. Another add-on 00:13:01.400 --> 00:13:08.880 as proposed is the Business 121 North expansion and then also a guaranteed ride home expansion, 00:13:08.880 --> 00:13:14.600 which would be provided Monday through Saturday and this would be a guaranteed ride home program 00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:19.760 for three additional hours after the base service ends. So as you can see by this list, 00:13:19.760 --> 00:13:24.080 there's a multitude of things that can be done with on-demand service and these are 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:34.880 the areas that we've identified to add into the service plan. Phase 2A would look to incorporating 00:13:34.880 --> 00:13:40.520 our current access service, which is our ADA paratransit program, plus the addition of 00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:48.640 adding a Castle Hill Zone. So this is pending launch around March of 2022. It's not definite 00:13:48.640 --> 00:13:53.800 yet and it would entail having an entirely separate public engagement process but I'd 00:13:53.800 --> 00:13:58.360 like to talk about it now today and get your feedback at the end of this presentation on 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:06.560 this phase as well. So this would be our paratransit service offered within all active Go Zones. 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:11.520 The days and hours of service may differ than the base service and the separate access fare 00:14:11.520 --> 00:14:16.520 structure would still apply. Now we'll say with on-demand technology for clarity with 00:14:16.520 --> 00:14:21.400 the bringing in access service is I talked about virtual bus stops earlier with access 00:14:21.400 --> 00:14:26.680 service with on-demand technology. It'll come, it'll do curb to curb service just like our 00:14:26.680 --> 00:14:33.160 access service does today. Phase 2 also looks at incorporating Castle Hills. This is because 00:14:33.160 --> 00:14:40.560 the city of Lewisville is in the process of annexing Castle Hills and this would be post-annexation 00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:46.480 and their service days and hours would also align with base service. And as I said before, 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:53.960 a secondary public involvement process would occur before any of these changes took place. 00:14:53.960 --> 00:15:00.600 Phase 2B is weekday late night service hours. This would be pending launch of summer 2022. 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:06.320 This is where we will look at how the service is doing and then we'll assess that data and 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:10.640 the ridership performance and decide if we want to add additional three hours of service 00:15:10.640 --> 00:15:18.880 each night Monday through Thursday. So I talked a lot about service hours and this just kind 00:15:18.880 --> 00:15:25.480 of shows that to you graphically. On the left is our current hours of operation and on the 00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:31.120 right with all those yellow dots around it would be the expanded days and hours. So you 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:36.640 can see some major differences there would be with we could run later at night, we would 00:15:36.640 --> 00:15:45.200 add in Sunday and we would operate 365 days a year. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:50.060 So for clarity I'm just going to go through this list and go through exactly what changes 00:15:50.060 --> 00:15:56.560 and what stays the same. The A-Train service would remain the same and the Phase 1 add-ons 00:15:56.560 --> 00:16:02.680 would just enhance the A-Train service delivery. The proposed GOZONE covers the entire fixed 00:16:02.680 --> 00:16:09.680 route territory of the Denton Connect bus and routes 1, 2, 4, and 6 would be removed. 00:16:09.680 --> 00:16:14.720 Routes 3 and 7 would still operate for at least the first six months of GOZONE service 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:21.160 and then they would be reassessed. For the Lewisville Connect bus the proposed Lewisville 00:16:21.160 --> 00:16:27.520 Highland Village GOZONE covers that entire territory and beyond and so routes 21 and 00:16:27.520 --> 00:16:34.480 22 would be removed. And then we have on-demand zones currently the Lewisville Lakeway Zone, 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:38.800 Highland Village Lift Zone, and Denton Evening On-Demand Zone all that would be replaced 00:16:38.800 --> 00:16:44.360 with GOZONE. We also have a Lewisville to Flower Mountain lift program with very low 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:51.360 ridership so at this time it is being proposed to be removed as well. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:58.200 So there has been an update since this last presentation. It says right there that MK101 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:04.360 would be replaced with GOZONE. That has been changed based on feedback so MK101 would stay 00:17:04.360 --> 00:17:09.960 in place. The North Texas Express would be proposed to be removed. That is because of 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:16.400 low ridership on that service. Access service as I said before would remain the same and 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:21.680 the vanpool program would remain the same. We do have different Cs that we contract service 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:27.920 with. Collin County, Capelle, Frisco, all of those would remain the same. Our UNT shuttle 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:33.600 services would remain the same and our UNT late night lift program would remain the same. 00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:38.040 Students, faculty, and staff would still require their appropriate fair media if they wanted 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:44.360 to choose to ride GOZONE. New areas of coverage just to recap we'd have extended Saturday 00:17:44.360 --> 00:17:50.520 hours, the addition of Sunday service, the Denian Neighborhood expansion, Business 121 00:17:50.520 --> 00:17:58.280 North expansion, and Castle Hillstone expansion. So as part of the public involvement process 00:17:58.280 --> 00:18:03.920 our team built a website solely dedicated to this proposed service and getting the community's 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.760 feedback. It's been open since April 19th. We've had a lot of feedback come through and 00:18:08.760 --> 00:18:14.560 we're very excited about that. It's a great site. It's dctafeedback.net as seen on the 00:18:14.560 --> 00:18:19.960 screen and I would really encourage everybody to go to it if you have a moment. You're able 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:25.960 to see the map and it's an interactive map. You can comment directly on that map. You 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:33.040 can even like, dislike different parts of it. It goes over the service in great detail. 00:18:33.040 --> 00:18:38.200 It goes over the proposed fare structure and it allows people, you can ask questions, you 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:43.240 can just give your thoughts on the service. And there's also three very quick easy to 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:49.460 take surveys that we really hope people will participate in. All of this feedback goes 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:56.200 to DCTA's executive team, our board of directors, so just please if you have time our staff 00:18:56.200 --> 00:19:03.080 would really appreciate it if you could go on visit dctafeedback.net. We're also taking 00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:07.080 for requests for presentations like I did today. If you know of another organization 00:19:07.080 --> 00:19:11.120 that'd be interested, I can hear about that today. Today's the cutoff, but if you have 00:19:11.120 --> 00:19:16.980 any ideas, I'm happy to take it today. And then if you want to have a one-on-one question 00:19:16.980 --> 00:19:21.760 and answer session, you're welcome to sit down with staff and we can just answer questions 00:19:21.760 --> 00:19:35.680 directly as well. So I'm going to exit out of here. Okay. And then, if y'all will bear 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:43.040 with me a moment, I'm going to open up a note screen. And so today, because this is part 00:19:43.040 --> 00:19:46.920 of our feedback process, if you have feedback, questions, things like that, I'd like to go 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:50.840 ahead and get that information for you so that it can be presented to staff and our 00:19:50.840 --> 00:19:57.440 board members and then questions. I do work in operations and I work with on-demand technology, 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:01.720 so I'm a very good person to answer those questions. If there's anything I don't know, 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:07.600 I'm happy to find out the answer and get back with you on it. 00:20:07.600 --> 00:20:14.000 Thank you, Sarah. I think right now for the question and answer, we'll just go down the 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:20.560 line on my screen. If you don't have a question right now, we'll move on and then come back 00:20:20.560 --> 00:20:26.360 to you. I want to make sure everybody has an equal opportunity and time for the Q&A. 00:20:26.360 --> 00:20:34.280 So I'll start with John if you have any questions. Yeah, I have a couple of questions. One is, 00:20:34.280 --> 00:20:45.080 has the app been tested, the Apple voiceover? It's the one that we use where the phone talks 00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:51.640 and Android has something similar called TalkBack and Braille displays. Have you tested it all 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:57.960 with that because there are apps that aren't set up well, that aren't accessible for blind 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:06.600 people that use those technologies? I can check specifically on those, but I do know 00:21:06.600 --> 00:21:12.920 one of the reasons we chose Via is because their app has better accessibility than others 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:18.040 in the transit industry and since they work with public transit, they're highly focused 00:21:18.040 --> 00:21:24.600 on it. So they're highly focused on making sure that blind, like there are a lot, anything 00:21:24.600 --> 00:21:29.840 that can be done, I think they have done. But I can ask specifically about the Apple 00:21:29.840 --> 00:21:36.560 voiceover. And then they also, I'll put out there, there's multiple languages involved 00:21:36.560 --> 00:21:45.120 with it too. It's a very sophisticated app. I looked at many options. I work in on demand 00:21:45.120 --> 00:21:50.200 and I can say across the industry, I feel most confident in terms of accessibility with 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:53.200 this app. Okay. Well, that's true. They've been around 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:59.640 a while. I didn't know that the app was through that company, that it's their app. Okay. And 00:21:59.640 --> 00:22:05.840 then as far as payment goes, do you pay through the app? Do you use a debit card with the 00:22:05.840 --> 00:22:14.920 driver? What are those? How's that? So you can pay through the app if you want. 00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:19.740 You can also call customer service and use a credit card over the phone. But we have 00:22:19.740 --> 00:22:24.160 worked out with VIA, that's the main way they do it, but we have negotiated with VIA that 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:29.320 we would also like our passengers to use the same fare media they can use today. They can 00:22:29.320 --> 00:22:35.920 even use cash if they want to use it. So we don't want to take anything away. In terms 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:39.840 of payment, we're just looking to bring in additional options for it. 00:22:39.840 --> 00:22:48.000 Okay. I think that's all I had, actually. Thanks, John. Tamara? Do you have anything 00:22:48.000 --> 00:23:01.840 right now? You're still on mute, Tamara. There you go. 00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:18.140 We are talking to them right now. They have agreed to doing exact cash fare right now. 00:23:18.140 --> 00:23:25.120 And so I can confidently say exact fare. I don't know at this time if they'd be able 00:23:25.120 --> 00:23:32.000 to change because this is new for their drivers to accept cash. But they're very insistent 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.760 that they do. Thank you. 00:23:36.760 --> 00:23:49.720 Beth, do you have any questions right now? Yes, I have a couple of questions. Do you 00:23:49.720 --> 00:24:00.920 know the vehicle height and how people would be able to get in and out of the seats if 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:10.640 they had balance disorders or lower body challenges? 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:17.560 I don't know the exact height. I could find that out and return the information to me. 00:24:17.560 --> 00:24:25.480 I'm happy to do that. With the app and service and like the software, if a passenger has 00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:32.640 specific needs, then that can be added to your personal account. And when you go to 00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:37.040 book a trip, it'll be configured into the ride booking that there are special needs 00:24:37.040 --> 00:24:44.880 for that passenger. And it only has to be done once. So like if a person has a mobility 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:49.400 device, they put it in one time when they sign up for the account. And every time they 00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:54.000 go to book, the software will configure for that. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:00.200 So if you needed a spinning disk to get onto the seat, would you need to bring your own 00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.480 or is that something they would have in the car? 00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:07.440 They would not have that in the car. So you would need to bring your own. 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:10.840 Correct. Okay. 00:25:10.840 --> 00:25:20.040 I spent time on the website today and I wanted to give you some feedback. I have a mild head 00:25:20.040 --> 00:25:29.680 injury and watching the video, there was way too much information that came way too fast 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:38.800 and I was not able to process or understand a lot of the information about the route changes, 00:25:38.800 --> 00:25:47.200 the different phases and things like that. And I think that there are other people with 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:53.280 intellectual disabilities or brain injuries that may have trouble comprehending some of 00:25:53.280 --> 00:26:02.640 this information. Tamara is nodding. I'm also concerned about the app because there are 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:10.840 a lot of people like me that are not good with apps. Tamara is also shaking her head. 00:26:10.840 --> 00:26:16.120 Is there any way that there could be like a class for people to learn how to use the 00:26:16.120 --> 00:26:17.120 app? 00:26:17.120 --> 00:26:27.360 So I'm just typing this up. I just want to make, bear with me as I type your feedback 00:26:27.360 --> 00:26:33.040 and answer, I just want to make sure I capture everything. Yes, absolutely. There would be, 00:26:33.040 --> 00:26:38.760 if this is proposed service, so if it was adopted, DCTA staff would be out heavily in 00:26:38.760 --> 00:26:45.760 the neighborhood and educating customers on how to use the app. And like I said before, 00:26:45.760 --> 00:26:50.000 if you don't want to use the app, you're welcome to call our customer service and they would 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:57.000 book it on your behalf. You know, that said, a couple years ago when I came to this agency, 00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:01.840 one of the reasons they really liked me as a candidate was because I spent quite a bit 00:27:01.840 --> 00:27:08.920 of time in the public sector with all different types of the public and teaching them how 00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:14.160 to use technology. I have worked with people who have never touched a computer or tablet 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:20.440 or anything. And, you know, it takes a lot. And, you know, I've really explained this 00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:26.920 to my agency, the outreach that'll need to be done. Fortunately, VIA is also very experienced 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:33.120 in this area as well because they have launched in so many cities. So the outreach and education 00:27:33.120 --> 00:27:39.120 would actually be your DCTA team and VIA together getting out in the neighborhood and showing 00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:48.680 people how to use the technology. Okay. I have one more question. What is the driver 00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:56.560 training as far as, like, their safety record? Do they have to have a CDL license for this 00:27:56.560 --> 00:28:03.720 or is it just a regular license? They do not have to have a CDL. And that is actually a 00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:08.440 positive in the industry right now because there's a severe shortage of CDL drivers across 00:28:08.440 --> 00:28:14.080 the transit industry. And it would be a ban. So CDL would not be required. Now, like, today 00:28:14.080 --> 00:28:18.960 when you see the smaller DCTA vans, a CDL is not required for those either. It's required 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:25.840 for the, like, the big green buses you've probably seen going downtown. One of the reasons 00:28:25.840 --> 00:28:31.640 VIA was selected was because they have a very robust driver training program. I mean, they 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:37.240 definitely have to, you know, have a criminal background check and they have to pass alcohol 00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:44.920 and drug testing and meet all those requirements. But there is also a lot of training that VIA 00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:50.560 does and they require defensive driving. They require sensitivity training. And then even 00:28:50.560 --> 00:28:57.240 after all the training is done, they have very high standards for driver conduct. And 00:28:57.240 --> 00:29:04.080 they also have zero tolerance policies in place for drivers. So I personally, because 00:29:04.080 --> 00:29:09.560 I was very picky in this area, you know, looking at the different providers, I think that they 00:29:09.560 --> 00:29:14.080 do very well with the standards that they've set for their drivers. 00:29:14.080 --> 00:29:18.400 All right. Thank you for answering my questions. Thank you. 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:24.160 Thank you, Beth. I'm going to jump in because Beth is reminding me of a couple of questions. 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:33.520 In reference to the 30 percent that would be retrofitted for a wheelchair access, A, 00:29:33.520 --> 00:29:42.360 how do those vans look as far as entering? Are there rear entry or side entry? B, would 00:29:42.360 --> 00:29:49.000 those vans also be available? I'm assuming they'll be available for the public in general. 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:56.400 So if those vans are out and about during service, a potential disabled person could 00:29:56.400 --> 00:30:04.000 potentially be a little more delayed because the vehicle is not available. Correct? 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:12.400 They would be open. Yes. All of them are open to general public. So there could potentially, 00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:16.320 but that's one of the nice things about the technology is that we're able to watch it 00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:22.600 in real time. And if we start seeing that if our passengers who need the accessible 00:30:22.600 --> 00:30:28.560 vans are getting longer wait times, then we can add more and we can do it far quicker 00:30:28.560 --> 00:30:35.360 than we could with the bus. I mean, it's like two to three weeks to add in another van. 00:30:35.360 --> 00:30:41.320 That is very important from an equity standpoint that we're watching that data closely and 00:30:41.320 --> 00:30:49.520 making sure that our persons with disability in the community are not having to wait longer. 00:30:49.520 --> 00:30:55.440 And then as far as the actual physical access to the vehicle, is that a rear entry ramp 00:30:55.440 --> 00:30:59.960 or a side entry? I haven't seen the final vehicle yet. I've 00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:03.820 seen all the renderings and everything, but I believe that the final vehicle retrofitted 00:31:03.820 --> 00:31:09.240 should be through the rear. Okay. And then so will the bus, I guess quote 00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:19.320 unquote bus stops, will obviously those would be accessible? So locations or virtual stops 00:31:19.320 --> 00:31:25.820 or whatever? With virtual stops, they're just like in 00:31:25.820 --> 00:31:31.680 the software, like I showed you that picture of the zone map. So in the software you have 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:36.480 little dots all over the place and those are your virtual stops. It tells the driver where 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:43.640 to go. And so when you're on the app or you book with customer service, you will be directed 00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:51.240 to your closest virtual stop. But like I said, there are numerous ones, far more than there 00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:57.640 are physical bus stops today. So we say to assume that every virtual stop 00:31:57.640 --> 00:32:02.560 will be accessible. They won't be, since they won't be physical. 00:32:02.560 --> 00:32:11.200 Oh, okay. You're making to make sure. Right. So I live on the corner of A and B street 00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:17.580 and that's a virtual stop. I'm assuming that stop would be accessible for me to get to 00:32:17.580 --> 00:32:26.960 and to safely get on the vehicle. Yes. Yes, I don't. Correct. I think that that's 00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:35.040 really good feedback and I'm, I feel like I can 99% sure say yes to you. But I, since 00:32:35.040 --> 00:32:42.920 VIA is designing the virtual stops, let me make 100% sure on that, if you don't mind 00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:47.360 and report back to, is it okay if I report back to Ryan with the information? 00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:56.720 Sure. Okay. Sure. I'm having a little difficulty in like understanding the virtual stop thing. 00:32:56.720 --> 00:33:03.360 Would it be at a parking lot in front of the Walgreens? Would it be in front of an apartment 00:33:03.360 --> 00:33:06.960 building? It can be. Yeah. I mean, strategically you want 00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:13.280 to put them at the different corners and then place like if there's an apartment complex 00:33:13.280 --> 00:33:18.080 makes complete sense to put it right in front of it. If there's a senior apartment complex 00:33:18.080 --> 00:33:24.680 makes sense to put it right in front of it, you know, to make it as convenient as possible. 00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:30.920 My hesitation with answering that question is if the city of Denton, like if they have 00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:37.920 parts of their sidewalk or anything like that that might hinder travel, that would be out 00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:46.280 of DCTA's control for me to guarantee you. But I think that your distance to traveling 00:33:46.280 --> 00:33:52.200 to a virtual stop is far less than a physical bus stop. So I think there would be less barriers 00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:58.000 overall. Now, if anybody needed it, if there's a need for it, like I said, we can do curb 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:02.560 to curb service. We would just probably look to do that through the access program. 00:34:02.560 --> 00:34:10.200 Right. In which you would have to do an application and qualify and those kind of things. I'm 00:34:10.200 --> 00:34:16.800 sorry, I have another question. So you mentioned that the city and the sidewalks and bus stops, 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:23.760 will the current, some of the current bus stops be used as a virtual stop? 00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:31.640 They can be. I think that it's, we noticed that there are kind of excessive amount of 00:34:31.640 --> 00:34:39.400 bus stops in some areas, right? Like along the road by TWA, there's like four on within 00:34:39.400 --> 00:34:44.120 a block, you know, so we would want to clean that up with this opportunity. But for the 00:34:44.120 --> 00:34:48.400 most part, you know, we would want to make sure that, you know, I've made several statements 00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:52.960 about this and I think it's gotten through. So the rest of the staff I work with, you 00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:57.160 know, I think a lot of people have chosen where they live based on there being a bus 00:34:57.160 --> 00:35:03.720 stop nearby. And we need to make sure that we have virtual stops by existing bus stops, 00:35:03.720 --> 00:35:09.000 because that's what, you know, we don't want to hinder somebody's life if they are dependent 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:12.680 on transit and they made the choice to live by a bus stop. We certainly don't want to 00:35:12.680 --> 00:35:16.240 take things away. We want to add to with the service. 00:35:16.240 --> 00:35:25.960 If those bus stops or some are being used, and it's a rear entry vehicle, how would a 00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:35.680 wheelchair user then enter the van? If it's basically, you know, come to the curb where 00:35:35.680 --> 00:35:45.120 this physical bus stop is, and the rear entry would basically go out into the street. I 00:35:45.120 --> 00:35:53.720 can see that being problematic if they're going to be using the actual bus stops that 00:35:53.720 --> 00:36:00.880 are up now. Because as you said, the city's, you know, that's been an issue with we have 00:36:00.880 --> 00:36:06.880 accessible bus, but not accessible bus stops. So the bus stops are going to be used and 00:36:06.880 --> 00:36:13.480 we still have that issue. Okay. I could be wrong. I could be side-entrusted. 00:36:13.480 --> 00:36:20.000 Let me clarify that first. I haven't seen the final design yet. A lot of that has to 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:23.920 do with this is proposed. So we don't have a vehicle yet, you know, until this is actually 00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:29.880 adopted. I think that's an excellent point. And I will look into that and give you some 00:36:29.880 --> 00:36:34.000 clear answers on it. My feedback, though, would be to ensure that 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:43.680 especially the 30% flee, you know, the virtual stops are not where access is an issue. It 00:36:43.680 --> 00:36:47.960 would defeat the purpose. We don't mind if I type some notes. 00:36:47.960 --> 00:36:53.360 Sure, please. So, yes, I think that's excellent. And I mean, 00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:56.880 that's one of the reasons I was excited to speak to this group today to get some really 00:36:56.880 --> 00:37:03.880 good feedback. And I think that's really good. Because again, the history of inaccessible 00:37:03.880 --> 00:37:10.560 bus stops, DCTA saying the sidewalk doesn't belong to them, the city saying the bus stop 00:37:10.560 --> 00:37:16.840 doesn't belong to them. So, meanwhile, disabled individuals are not able to use an accessible 00:37:16.840 --> 00:37:26.480 bus because said bus stop is, you know, belongs to no one, therefore, it's not accessible. 00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:35.480 I mean, and I think, you know, the vehicles are, the service is still proposed. 00:37:35.480 --> 00:37:39.200 Right. It sounds like. 00:37:39.200 --> 00:37:44.160 And the rear entry is actually nice. Because you have to do the rear and you sit between 00:37:44.160 --> 00:37:51.440 two seats. So, you can sit next to your caretaker partner, what have you. But that hasn't been 00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:57.640 done, like I said, and they say parking lot and somewhere where they would have to pull 00:37:57.640 --> 00:38:07.080 into a larger apartment community or hospital medical setting or or shopping center. But 00:38:07.080 --> 00:38:13.220 to use it at a bus stop that would not be there. There's no way that a wheelchair user 00:38:13.220 --> 00:38:19.760 could I cannot assume that sidewalk would let me out into the street to go to the back 00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:27.360 of the van to enter the van. Side entry. Okay, let me take that and clarify with them that 00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:35.840 side entry would be, it may be that their door to door service, like rear entry might 00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:42.400 be more helpful if they can pull into a driveway. You know, and get closer. But I think that's 00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:48.120 an excellent point. So I will find out the details on that and get back with this group. 00:38:48.120 --> 00:38:55.520 Thank you. Anything else has things like that? I'm so happy to hear them. You know, we want 00:38:55.520 --> 00:39:00.920 to get if this proposed service goes through, I can tell you working in operations department, 00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:07.040 we're going to want to know these things in advance so that we're putting out a good product 00:39:07.040 --> 00:39:12.760 for the community. I know the disability community has a lot of concerns and I think a lot of 00:39:12.760 --> 00:39:20.040 the details are what needs to be addressed because once it started, it's hard to go back. 00:39:20.040 --> 00:39:24.400 So you know, a lot of people don't consider that quote unquote little things that we have 00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:30.120 a rear entry bus or van that we're using this bus stop on McKinney. So you're gonna have 00:39:30.120 --> 00:39:36.800 to roll your chair onto McKinney Street, risk your life just to get a ride on the van because 00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:46.520 that bus stop will not be accessible. So those are the kind of things that need to be addressed 00:39:46.520 --> 00:39:53.920 beforehand. And again, the rear entry, I prefer it, but then they're the virtual stops that 00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:59.720 would have to be, it would have to make sense for a rear entry vehicle to be used at that 00:39:59.720 --> 00:40:08.520 place. So I mean, and these are, these are really good questions for via, I mean, they 00:40:08.520 --> 00:40:12.280 are very experienced in doing this in a lot of cities. So it's likely I'm going to come 00:40:12.280 --> 00:40:15.280 to them with this and they're gonna be like, we do this, we know what we're doing, you 00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:24.320 know, but let me, I want to be able to communicate it to you. So what do you have any questions? 00:40:24.320 --> 00:40:35.520 Hello? Yes. Yes. Are you talking to me? Sorry. Yes. Yeah. We're talking to Sally, Sam. Hold 00:40:35.520 --> 00:40:43.480 on. Okay. Thank you. One thing I wasn't clear about. So right now, I know if I have a doctor's 00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:50.440 appointment at Medical City at four o'clock, I can get the number four bus over here on 00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:58.680 university and, and I can see the time that my bus will arrive so I can judge what bus 00:40:58.680 --> 00:41:05.280 I'm going to take. How do you, how does a person work out the timeliness of appointments with 00:41:05.280 --> 00:41:11.520 the new schedule? There's an arrive by function. Okay. You can let it know and you can book 00:41:11.520 --> 00:41:17.200 in advance or you can book real time. I would recommend in advance if you have an appointment. 00:41:17.200 --> 00:41:21.080 Okay. Or have that. But you say, you know, if you have a four o'clock appointment, I 00:41:21.080 --> 00:41:26.400 want to arrive by three 55 and the software will take it from there and it'll let you 00:41:26.400 --> 00:41:32.000 know what time you need to be picked up by in order to do that. We do do that now in 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:37.280 our Lewisville Lakeway zone, which I've worked with over the last couple of years and it's 00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:42.840 a function I'm very fond of. I've used it myself. You know, sometimes I have to get 00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:48.840 on a little earlier, but it gets me, you know, it allows me to get there in time for is I 00:41:48.840 --> 00:41:53.880 I'm typically going to our admin office is in Lewisville and I office out of Denton and 00:41:53.880 --> 00:42:00.080 so I need to arrive by the meeting time and I use that function. Okay. And I have a couple 00:42:00.080 --> 00:42:06.080 other questions. Um, I was really sad to hear that we're losing the bus to Fort Worth and 00:42:06.080 --> 00:42:11.920 I understand what you're saying about ridership, but I know a lot of people, uh, that have 00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:17.040 disabilities that like to take the train. You can take the bus right to the train station 00:42:17.040 --> 00:42:24.320 in Fort Worth. You can also catch a bus there. Uh, you know, it just provides more than just 00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:31.360 transportation of Fort Worth. It can, it's like $24 to ride the train one way. You can't 00:42:31.360 --> 00:42:40.800 beat it. You know, so it's a very, uh, I think it's a really necessary, uh, service for persons 00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:51.040 that have disabilities. So bear with me as I, I want to make sure I type that one up 00:42:51.040 --> 00:42:58.640 for sure. Um, the, so route 64, the North Texas express, it, it has had lower ridership. 00:42:58.640 --> 00:43:03.480 It's, um, a very expensive service. And so that's why they put it out there as part of 00:43:03.480 --> 00:43:08.800 this public involvement process. A lot of that, I think it's good for route 64 to be 00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:13.320 included in this because otherwise it's public involvement process would be small. And so 00:43:13.320 --> 00:43:18.000 it's getting more attention with this one, because we're also talking about GoZone. Um, 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:22.640 I've seen other comments come through about it. And so I'm going to take yours and add 00:43:22.640 --> 00:43:27.280 it to that. And so, like I said before, it, this ultimately would be a decision by the 00:43:27.280 --> 00:43:34.760 DCTA board directors, but anybody who wants to keep 64, um, just highly encourage them 00:43:34.760 --> 00:43:40.280 to voice their opinion on it. Cause the more voices, you know, that the board, you know, 00:43:40.280 --> 00:43:45.140 I can't say what the board will decide. They'll have to look at all the different factors, 00:43:45.140 --> 00:43:51.000 but I do think that community voices do matter to our staff and board. So I will definitely 00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:58.640 include that in our feedback to them. Thank you. And I do have, um, one other question. 00:43:58.640 --> 00:44:06.360 So let's say I go in my electric wheelchair over here to Kroger's and when I get out, 00:44:06.360 --> 00:44:10.760 it's just hotter than I thought it was going to be. And I just can't even imagine just 00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:17.160 going home. Uh, so I decide to take the bus typically, uh, you know, there's a bus that 00:44:17.160 --> 00:44:26.000 I can catch at least once an hour, uh, to get back to my house unexpectedly. What's 00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:36.560 the time expectancy, uh, given this scenario, given what I just, uh, proposed to you, about 00:44:36.560 --> 00:44:44.320 10 minute wait for average. Um, I know it can be a little less than that if you're not 00:44:44.320 --> 00:44:49.680 in peak time. So if you're in peak time, like, you know, high commuter times, I think the 00:44:49.680 --> 00:44:56.040 maximum wait time we'd really, if we started crossing over 15 minutes, we would need to 00:44:56.040 --> 00:45:01.560 add more fleet. Um, but you know, if you, if you're not in a peak time, you could get 00:45:01.560 --> 00:45:06.720 a ride in like five minutes. So that's one good thing about if you're booking on the 00:45:06.720 --> 00:45:11.520 app is that it'll give you the proposed time. Cause this has happened to me before where 00:45:11.520 --> 00:45:16.000 it was like, uh, I'm getting to the train station and I go to book it. And it's like, 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:20.360 we'll be there in two minutes. I'm like, Oh no, I'm not going to book it yet. Cause I'm 00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:27.680 still 10 minutes away. You know, um, the guy, they tend to 11 minutes is the goal. And then, 00:45:27.680 --> 00:45:32.680 you know, if it started getting longer, you know, over 15 minutes consistently, that's 00:45:32.680 --> 00:45:40.880 when we could look to adding more fleet. And you can take all your shopping bags with you. 00:45:40.880 --> 00:45:46.080 We have not heard, we have not determined policy wise and we still need to get feedback 00:45:46.080 --> 00:45:51.840 from the public. So that was actually a question I was going to ask this group today because, 00:45:51.840 --> 00:45:58.040 um, you know, if you rely on transit to get to grocery stores and things like that, what 00:45:58.040 --> 00:46:03.360 is your, like right now our bus drivers can take supposed to take two or three bags, but 00:46:03.360 --> 00:46:11.000 I think that they take a lot more, you know. Um, so what would be your expectation for 00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:14.360 how many bags you could bring onto these rights? 00:46:14.360 --> 00:46:29.640 Four. Two for each hand. That's what I see people carrying. That's reasonable. So thank 00:46:29.640 --> 00:46:35.080 you for that. Okay. But yeah, I just, you know, the Fort Worth thing, like I said, there's 00:46:35.080 --> 00:46:41.320 a lot of people that do like to take the train and you can go to San Antonio, you know, you 00:46:41.320 --> 00:46:46.880 can get a lot of places without taking a plane for a much more affordable price. So I just 00:46:46.880 --> 00:46:52.000 really hate to see us completely lose that because I don't see any other way to get there 00:46:52.000 --> 00:47:04.800 really. You have to go through Dallas. Yeah. And nobody's gonna want to do that. Thank 00:47:04.800 --> 00:47:13.400 you so much. I'm here today to hear what you guys have to say. So this is great. Thank 00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:25.720 you very much. Um, Joe, do you have any questions? Joe? No? Okay. Um, Sonya? Do you have any 00:47:25.720 --> 00:47:32.080 questions? One question. And Val, I think you covered one of my questions already just 00:47:32.080 --> 00:47:37.560 about accessibility. I know that's something we've talked a lot about with DCTA and the 00:47:37.560 --> 00:47:43.520 current bus stops and not having adequate platforms and sidewalks and all of that. And 00:47:43.520 --> 00:47:52.280 so I'm glad you asked that question, Val. Um, my question is, um, the area in between. 00:47:52.280 --> 00:48:03.240 So I know NCTC is there and they're in Corinth. Um, any proposals on, um, getting, um, Go 00:48:03.240 --> 00:48:13.360 Zone into that area? Um, thinking about, uh, individuals in that, um, area of Denton County. 00:48:13.360 --> 00:48:23.600 So the reason we had NCTC, I got my associates there. Um, the reason we had service there 00:48:23.600 --> 00:48:31.380 before was because the school paid for it and then they elected to stop COVID hit. Um, 00:48:31.380 --> 00:48:36.260 so that's why that service ended. We don't service Corinth because Corinth has not elected 00:48:36.260 --> 00:48:44.480 to have public transit. Um, we would love to, but we need the city of Corinth to request 00:48:44.480 --> 00:48:54.560 it. Okay. Um, I know one of the things, um, that we've talked about in the past is just 00:48:54.560 --> 00:49:02.160 accessibility and into some of the rural, more rural areas of Denton County. Um, any 00:49:02.160 --> 00:49:09.000 discussions on, on Go Zones in those areas, you know, even Sanger getting into Denton 00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:14.880 for doctor's appointments and, um, some of those, especially in the Northern part of 00:49:14.880 --> 00:49:22.360 the County, the Northwest part of the County. It does the, um, proposed zone. It does extend 00:49:22.360 --> 00:49:27.400 far beyond where our current routes go. Um, Sanger would be out just like Corinth unless 00:49:27.400 --> 00:49:32.680 they would elect to have us. And like I said, we're more that we would love to service the 00:49:32.680 --> 00:49:38.120 whole County, but it is, it is up to the cities themselves if they want to dedicate, you know, 00:49:38.120 --> 00:49:42.520 our Denton Highland village in Louisville for clarity, if anybody's unfamiliar how we're 00:49:42.520 --> 00:49:50.400 funded, um, half a cent of the sales tax goes towards DCTA and that's 51% of our funding. 00:49:50.400 --> 00:49:55.520 So if we service to any other cities, it would be taking money from Denton, Louisville and 00:49:55.520 --> 00:50:01.040 Highland village and basically giving it to another city. So, um, but there really needs 00:50:01.040 --> 00:50:07.120 buy in from those communities, um, for their residents. We do. And it's somewhat, you know, 00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:14.240 if they want, um, we do contract with cities. Like that's what I work with primarily with 00:50:14.240 --> 00:50:18.520 my job. And that's why I work with on demand quite a bit. It's because those cities like 00:50:18.520 --> 00:50:23.200 to use on demand. Um, but like I work with the city of McKinney and the city of Frisco, 00:50:23.200 --> 00:50:28.640 they just have a smaller scale transit system than what the mail, uh, member cities have. 00:50:28.640 --> 00:50:35.280 And then they pay, um, for it with their own funds. We can't do stuff like that. You know, 00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:40.200 we understand that some rural communities can't necessarily afford a robust transit 00:50:40.200 --> 00:50:44.160 system, but they might want something smaller. So we're willing to talk with and work with 00:50:44.160 --> 00:50:46.940 any community on that. 00:50:46.940 --> 00:50:52.440 Thank you, Val Morgan. Do you have any questions? 00:50:52.440 --> 00:51:00.320 I think I just need to piggyback. Thank you, Val, uh, on one of your questions about the 00:51:00.320 --> 00:51:09.320 virtual stops and pickups. Um, what if multiple people have requested a service that, and 00:51:09.320 --> 00:51:16.200 it's had a particular virtual pickup get there and the vehicle is already full. Is there 00:51:16.200 --> 00:51:21.160 an instance where that could happen? 00:51:21.160 --> 00:51:27.680 Not with the way the software is written. So, um, worst case scenario, someone might 00:51:27.680 --> 00:51:32.960 be there ahead of you. And you know, the, if the van was full, there might be one seat 00:51:32.960 --> 00:51:37.640 left, but you're the app or if you call customer service, they would let you know you have 00:51:37.640 --> 00:51:43.800 a 10 minute wait and maybe you walked up behind somebody who was already waiting. Um, but 00:51:43.800 --> 00:51:49.080 the software will not allow more than six passengers at a time to be booked on one day. 00:51:49.080 --> 00:51:52.920 It would send another van to pick up. 00:51:52.920 --> 00:52:01.860 And during your presentation, there was a question about, uh, drivers and that they 00:52:01.860 --> 00:52:07.360 are vetted through via, are they hired through that organization and you all contract with 00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:09.880 via, is that how that works? 00:52:09.880 --> 00:52:11.380 Correct. 00:52:11.380 --> 00:52:18.200 And with the Arlington service, how long has that been in place? 00:52:18.200 --> 00:52:24.040 At least two years. Um, I believe it's more like three and they, they started off smaller 00:52:24.040 --> 00:52:29.600 and then they just recently this year expanded city wide. They've also, uh, with via are 00:52:29.600 --> 00:52:37.560 doing some, um, autonomous vehicle projects with, uh, University of Texas at Arlington. 00:52:37.560 --> 00:52:42.160 So, uh, they, at least three and maybe longer than that. 00:52:42.160 --> 00:52:48.000 Okay. And so what is the, I'm sure that their fare has kind of leveled out. So what is the 00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:55.740 average cost of their fare? I'll say, do you get it by mile or is it just a flat rate wherever 00:52:55.740 --> 00:52:58.840 you're going within the zones? 00:52:58.840 --> 00:53:04.400 So the city of Arlington, they just changed their fare. They increased some of it for 00:53:04.400 --> 00:53:08.600 longer travel. And I think that really has to do with, they opened up the entire city 00:53:08.600 --> 00:53:14.720 to it. So the highest fare, I believe is $5 and then $3 was their standard fare. And that's 00:53:14.720 --> 00:53:21.200 how they started their program. It doesn't, we aren't limited to that fare structure with 00:53:21.200 --> 00:53:28.020 via though. Via can work around any fare structure we want. Um, so for instance, Trinity Metro 00:53:28.020 --> 00:53:33.120 and Fort Worth uses them, they use them in a completely different way than Arlington. 00:53:33.120 --> 00:53:40.320 They take their zip zones with via and incorporate them into the bus and train passes. So it's 00:53:40.320 --> 00:53:48.440 not, um, it's definitely not limited to paying X amount each time you get on it. There's, 00:53:48.440 --> 00:53:52.840 and when we kick off the program, um, it'll be based on our current fare structure with 00:53:52.840 --> 00:53:54.600 day passes. 00:53:54.600 --> 00:54:00.600 Okay. Oh, I think that's it. Thank you. I enjoyed your presentation. 00:54:00.600 --> 00:54:05.280 Thank you very much, Allison or Abby. Do you have any questions? 00:54:05.280 --> 00:54:10.520 I do. I have a couple and thank you so much, Sarah, for being here. And yeah, thanks for 00:54:10.520 --> 00:54:15.960 all of your questions. Uh, committee. Um, one of the questions that I do have is about 00:54:15.960 --> 00:54:21.160 the drivers because via is going to be the ones employing all of these drivers. Uh, what 00:54:21.160 --> 00:54:25.880 kind of protocols are they going to have, for example, for emergencies or let's say someone 00:54:25.880 --> 00:54:29.440 that has a disability, like maybe someone with epilepsy has an episode or an issue that 00:54:29.440 --> 00:54:33.960 they have to deal with. Uh, what kind of training and protocols will be, will the drivers have 00:54:33.960 --> 00:54:36.080 for any sort of situation like that? 00:54:36.080 --> 00:54:43.760 When we talk about sensitivity training, that is diving into, you know, a lot, um, a lot 00:54:43.760 --> 00:54:48.840 of issues, you know, in such, it goes into all different areas. It sounds kind of, to 00:54:48.840 --> 00:54:55.840 me, it sounds very broad. Um, but that kind of training typically goes into medical conditions. 00:54:55.840 --> 00:55:01.800 Um, you know, anything from disruptive passengers, not, you know, there's a lot of different 00:55:01.800 --> 00:55:09.640 areas. Um, for a specific, like a seizure, I imagine that they would call 9-1-1 because 00:55:09.640 --> 00:55:12.880 that's what our bus drivers would do today. 00:55:12.880 --> 00:55:19.280 Okay. But I mean, there, there is like specific training that they get in emergencies and 00:55:19.280 --> 00:55:23.880 I just wonder what, if there was like, I guess sensitivity training, they would have like 00:55:23.880 --> 00:55:29.140 understanding of intellectual disabilities, et cetera. Okay. And then the other question 00:55:29.140 --> 00:55:33.200 that I have on that too is, um, Beth kind of touched on this a little bit with some 00:55:33.200 --> 00:55:37.720 of our older generations having issues with the apps, et cetera. Uh, but what about passengers 00:55:37.720 --> 00:55:44.240 that, for example, are very routine based? Um, what kind of assistance will be provided? 00:55:44.240 --> 00:55:50.720 For like standing order type trips, like where they're going same time every day. 00:55:50.720 --> 00:55:55.560 Right. Right. Or, or even just like, for example, like, let's say that I'm someone that I'm 00:55:55.560 --> 00:55:58.720 very, you know, on my routine and I get up and I get on the bus at eight o'clock in the 00:55:58.720 --> 00:56:01.480 morning or whatever. And if that bus route is suddenly gone, like, is there going to 00:56:01.480 --> 00:56:05.200 be any sort of like education or outreach to those people will be there? Will there 00:56:05.200 --> 00:56:08.520 be someone at the bus stop? Does the bus stop just disappear and the bus never shows up 00:56:08.520 --> 00:56:14.960 again? Uh, cause yeah, that's kind of a, I guess an issue that I would, I could see happening 00:56:14.960 --> 00:56:15.960 for some people. 00:56:15.960 --> 00:56:20.400 I, and I had the same thought, like, cause there is going to be a very, there's been 00:56:20.400 --> 00:56:24.320 a huge public involvement and then there's going to be a huge community engagement if 00:56:24.320 --> 00:56:31.200 this plane gets adopted. Um, but I, we have discussed that with via on what about if there 00:56:31.200 --> 00:56:36.760 are a few people out there who didn't hear about it and they go to their bus stop and 00:56:36.760 --> 00:56:41.920 they've actually talked about, um, some different solutions they've done in different cities. 00:56:41.920 --> 00:56:46.880 And so we are talking to via and trying to figure that out. Um, cause I think that that, 00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:52.160 I agree is you can try to reach every single person in the community, but it's difficult, 00:56:52.160 --> 00:56:58.200 you know, like even in this public involvement, um, you know, we, we have put it in ads, we've 00:56:58.200 --> 00:57:03.480 put it in the news newsletter. We have done tons of meetings and stuff, but you still 00:57:03.480 --> 00:57:10.480 wonder who doesn't know yet. Um, so there via did give us some different options, but 00:57:10.480 --> 00:57:14.680 we'll have to talk about it more internally and what the best one would be. But that is 00:57:14.680 --> 00:57:20.520 something I could follow up with you guys on that determinations made, but they did. 00:57:20.520 --> 00:57:26.120 Um, and I will say that that was one of the reasons we wanted to use them was their level 00:57:26.120 --> 00:57:31.680 of experience with launching programs and that they would have ideas about those kinds 00:57:31.680 --> 00:57:38.480 of things. As, as far as like time straight, um, like if they're used to the bus being 00:57:38.480 --> 00:57:43.200 at eight o'clock every day, this would be a difference because you would get a pickup 00:57:43.200 --> 00:57:48.360 time or, you know, you could say you want to ride by such and such time, but since it's 00:57:48.360 --> 00:57:53.400 shared ride, you're going to get, you're not going to get an eight o'clock on the button 00:57:53.400 --> 00:58:00.640 pickup time. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for that. Do you have any 00:58:00.640 --> 00:58:05.600 additional comments you want to make? I mean, I'm happy to take any thoughts, opinions at 00:58:05.600 --> 00:58:12.260 all today. I just think that, I mean, I don't have an issue or even like necessarily an 00:58:12.260 --> 00:58:18.560 idea of what would fix it. Um, I just think that it's important that the people that, 00:58:18.560 --> 00:58:21.520 you know, that are routine based, maybe, you know, they live on their own and everything 00:58:21.520 --> 00:58:26.000 like that, but maybe they have an intellectual disability and they get up and they get on 00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:29.560 the bus and they go to their job and they get off of work and they go to the bus and 00:58:29.560 --> 00:58:35.400 they go home. And with that bus changing or anything like that, just some way to make 00:58:35.400 --> 00:58:39.760 sure that they know and understand, right? Like, I mean, I understand even reaching out 00:58:39.760 --> 00:58:44.360 to maybe some of our older community as well and teaching them how to use the app, et cetera. 00:58:44.360 --> 00:58:49.360 Um, but I just feel like outreach to those kinds of communities might be a little bit 00:58:49.360 --> 00:59:02.640 tricky. Um, sorry. I'm bear with me going back and forth typing up your feedback. Um, 00:59:02.640 --> 00:59:09.000 I agree. I, I've done a lot of public outreach over the years and I agree. I am, I think, 00:59:09.000 --> 00:59:14.560 you know, we live in a virtual world right now and that's great and it's effective and 00:59:14.560 --> 00:59:18.320 cost efficient, but I think that there's real value in getting like a boots on the ground 00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:24.380 approach. Um, I would definitely, if this, if this service was proposed, I don't work 00:59:24.380 --> 00:59:30.200 in marketing and communications. I'm an operations person, but I would be heavily involved with 00:59:30.200 --> 00:59:36.320 the outreach and want to be, um, one of the things I would want to do is actually connect 00:59:36.320 --> 00:59:44.280 with this group. So if anybody here, um, if it does, if this plan is adopted, um, if anybody 00:59:44.280 --> 00:59:52.200 here would be interested in working with us on identifying, um, you know, different groups 00:59:52.200 --> 00:59:57.520 or helping us coordinate to get people together to educate them, we'd be all ears. Um, another 00:59:57.520 --> 01:00:04.240 big plus is that Denton has a lot of social service, a surf social service agencies and 01:00:04.240 --> 01:00:08.720 they're very willing to work with us. They've been working with us for a long time now. 01:00:08.720 --> 01:00:14.640 Um, we meet regularly with them and they are a great resource for reaching out to the community 01:00:14.640 --> 01:00:22.720 for education as well. But, um, yeah, I, I think we should do a huge push for public education. 01:00:22.720 --> 01:00:27.000 I know a lot of staff agrees with me, so that would be top priority and we would be very 01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:34.600 open to any assistance from the community. We could get an identifying people who need 01:00:34.600 --> 01:00:44.880 it. Yes, Beth. We have, um, Sam next time. Sam, do you have any questions? Yeah, I have 01:00:44.880 --> 01:00:54.800 a few actually. Um, the first thing is the, the 64 bus that I know that's a, um, expensive 01:00:54.800 --> 01:00:59.920 route, which you said before, but is it a way where they could, uh, instead of using 01:00:59.920 --> 01:01:06.400 like a big bus, use like a little, a smaller bus to still be able to have that service 01:01:06.400 --> 01:01:14.800 there and then that way it won't be as expensive using the big bus. I can definitely put that 01:01:14.800 --> 01:01:27.880 in the recommendations, Sam. Let me make sure I capture that really quick. Okay. And the 01:01:27.880 --> 01:01:36.000 other thing, um, a lot of us have ADA certified passes. How would that, with the new VITA system, 01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:44.040 will we have to get new passes or, you know? So for the, the first six months of that transition 01:01:44.040 --> 01:01:54.320 phase, we plan on all, um, existing fare structure to stay in place. Okay. Another thing too, 01:01:54.320 --> 01:02:04.480 um, what Val was saying, it's, I know they have a, a bus stop by Mesa, but they have 01:02:04.480 --> 01:02:10.920 another one that, that's, I think when you, by that bridge, it's a few places and then 01:02:10.920 --> 01:02:16.400 it's very dangerous to cross whether you have a wheelchair or, or you have a king or whatever, 01:02:16.400 --> 01:02:23.120 you know, because, um, they don't have the right, you know, proper bus stops, you know. 01:02:23.120 --> 01:02:29.200 And the one is, one is by the, I think the vibe apartments, because it's not really like 01:02:29.200 --> 01:02:33.720 a bus stop. You're getting let out in the street basically and you have to cross over 01:02:33.720 --> 01:02:39.800 and you have traffic coming from both sides of the street. Do you know what street corners 01:02:39.800 --> 01:02:46.440 those might be at? It's, it's a, it's on McKinney, but it's after you pass the, uh, 7-Eleven 01:02:46.440 --> 01:02:49.680 and it's, the name of the apartment is called the vibe apartment, but it's a designated 01:02:49.680 --> 01:02:55.920 stop that, you know, that has to, uh, uh, take them before you go to the, um, I'm trying 01:02:55.920 --> 01:03:00.240 to think after that, you go to, uh, the veranda. But like I said, that stop is in the street 01:03:00.240 --> 01:03:03.840 and it's kind of dangerous because like I said, it's not really, this is like a little 01:03:03.840 --> 01:03:08.080 sign that they have there, you know, on both sides and it's traffic coming to both sides 01:03:08.080 --> 01:03:17.120 that is very dangerous. Oh, like I said, it's, it's. 01:03:17.120 --> 01:03:23.280 I think that's good information. Um, specifically cause I've asked via, they will be designing 01:03:23.280 --> 01:03:31.440 zone and stops, but, um, in speaking with them, I've asked to make sure to have DCTA 01:03:31.440 --> 01:03:37.760 staff, um, have their input about the stops because we do feel some need to be put in 01:03:37.760 --> 01:03:43.040 different places. And just like you're saying, um, so if anybody has any stops they want 01:03:43.040 --> 01:03:49.820 to call out, I'd be happy to, you know, be your voice for that in terms of planning out 01:03:49.820 --> 01:03:55.440 the virtual stops. We might, we might be here all day during that. 01:03:55.440 --> 01:04:02.720 Okay. Um, anyway, if we want to figure out a way, um, I can, I can leave all my contact 01:04:02.720 --> 01:04:08.480 information with you guys. If anybody's interested in giving, um, like putting a list together, 01:04:08.480 --> 01:04:13.840 giving input on that, I'm happy to take it. Yeah, that work that we have like a, like 01:04:13.840 --> 01:04:19.320 a, like a sheet and to make it better to, you know, for the, for the riders, is it not 01:04:19.320 --> 01:04:24.080 just this, not just a disabled people, but the riders in general, but you know, like 01:04:24.080 --> 01:04:28.280 I said, it needs to be addressed because we don't want to buy to get hit by a car or bus, 01:04:28.280 --> 01:04:34.680 you know, because they trying to cross the street to get a bus. Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, 01:04:34.680 --> 01:04:39.200 I agree. Like I've, I've had this conversation. I don't work on fixed route. I basically work 01:04:39.200 --> 01:04:44.800 on the on demand technology. Um, but I know that in talking with the director of operations 01:04:44.800 --> 01:04:51.800 who does work heavily with us, uh, with the fixed route portions, um, he feels very strongly 01:04:51.800 --> 01:05:00.160 that if this goes through, this is an opportunity to get rid of any dangerous bus stops. So 01:05:00.160 --> 01:05:06.680 maybe Sarah, you can be happy to hear what you have to say about if there's stops that 01:05:06.680 --> 01:05:11.120 you are not comfortable with, um, don't want to see any more, something better. We're happy 01:05:11.120 --> 01:05:17.880 to hear that. It's the same Sarah. Maybe you can share your information with Ryan and Ryan 01:05:17.880 --> 01:05:24.720 can send the committee your contact information and we can funnel it that way. Yeah. I'd be 01:05:24.720 --> 01:05:33.600 happy to do that. Is that okay, Ryan? Okay. Okay. Great. Sam, did you have the last question 01:05:33.600 --> 01:05:42.440 or? Um, I'm trying to think. I think we covered just about everything. I mean, we talked about 01:05:42.440 --> 01:05:50.760 the drivers and drivers and, um, the thing, another thing too, uh, is the hours. Would 01:05:50.760 --> 01:05:55.440 the hours be extended or would it be, you know, like the same? Cause we've been running 01:05:55.440 --> 01:06:02.440 like on Saturday schedule since last year, DCTA. They'd be extended and they'd be consistent. 01:06:02.440 --> 01:06:07.000 So right now you'll see the hours change a lot, um, because of the university, because 01:06:07.000 --> 01:06:13.040 our ridership drops dramatically in like summertime. And then we have an influx in the fall and 01:06:13.040 --> 01:06:18.800 spring. Um, I can pull that screen back up really quick, but yeah, it would be, there 01:06:18.800 --> 01:06:26.360 be a good increase. Um, I, I feel that's one of the benefits of this service is the, um, 01:06:26.360 --> 01:06:35.680 increase in service area and increase in service hours. So, and I'll check on that. This would 01:06:35.680 --> 01:06:40.780 be with the yellow box around it would be your new service hours. Okay. Another thing 01:06:40.780 --> 01:06:47.600 too with the trains, why don't the train have more extended hours? I mean, cause it'd be 01:06:47.600 --> 01:06:53.640 better because people would actually use the train more. It's a south is the hours is longer 01:06:53.640 --> 01:06:57.200 because currently you only have like two days that that's like late. You have the Thursday 01:06:57.200 --> 01:07:03.600 and Friday and Saturday. I think no, no Friday and Friday and Saturday. Cause I know like 01:07:03.600 --> 01:07:08.480 a lot of times, I think recently when they had the thing for the fair, the people had 01:07:08.480 --> 01:07:13.560 a rush to the train because the train has stopped running at a certain time, right? 01:07:13.560 --> 01:07:24.120 I'm typing up a bunch of messy notes. Um, okay. So the, uh, the, the service hours extension. 01:07:24.120 --> 01:07:28.640 So the one, the train doesn't run on Sunday. Yeah, I know that. I know it's Sunday. Don't 01:07:28.640 --> 01:07:37.520 run on Monday. Yeah. This would replace it on Sundays and it would also, um, take it 01:07:37.520 --> 01:07:43.640 later on. Sorry. But I did just jot down, uh, longer train hours. Let me stop the share 01:07:43.640 --> 01:07:52.080 on this one real quick. Um, I can, I can share that feedback. I think, you know, probably 01:07:52.080 --> 01:07:57.800 one of the main reasons is extremely expensive to run trains. And so that's why it wouldn't 01:07:57.800 --> 01:08:04.800 have extended hours. Um, it's much more cost efficient to bring in more on demand service. 01:08:04.800 --> 01:08:13.240 Um, and so those like kind of late nine hours, Dart does run later than us. Yeah. We're looking 01:08:13.240 --> 01:08:18.640 to extend those hours to where if you do use Dart later in the night, we can pick you up 01:08:18.640 --> 01:08:24.760 with the goes on service at trendy mills and be your, you know, to take you home the rest 01:08:24.760 --> 01:08:28.880 of the way. Yeah. Cause that's, that's been a problem with that, you know, at a certain 01:08:28.880 --> 01:08:33.160 time you don't get it. You pretty much have to get an Uber to get back to your house. 01:08:33.160 --> 01:08:38.380 And that's part of this proposed plan is to fix that, you know, and we've used the example, 01:08:38.380 --> 01:08:42.160 a lot of people want to go down to American airlines. If you live all the way up here 01:08:42.160 --> 01:08:46.600 and you want to go to a Mavericks game, but then after you get out, you can't get back 01:08:46.600 --> 01:08:54.120 up here. So, um, part of this plan is to propose to fix that. Yeah, that would, that would increase 01:08:54.120 --> 01:08:58.120 ridership, uh, you know, cause people want to, you know, go to the fair and those games 01:08:58.120 --> 01:09:01.000 with it. And like I say, when you get back to training mills, if you're not there at 01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:08.360 a certain time, you know, you S O L, you gotta take a Uber back or live. Yeah. I think that, 01:09:08.360 --> 01:09:12.600 and that will be, and that is part of this proposal. So, um, um, still range on your 01:09:12.600 --> 01:09:21.400 feedback, but just kind of writing it in favor of that part of the proposal. Thank you, Sam. 01:09:21.400 --> 01:09:27.480 Um, okay. We've gone around once. I see Tamera has a hand up. Go ahead, Tamera. 01:09:27.480 --> 01:09:44.040 Nadia. Baby, DQTA could have the disability community, members of our committee, 01:09:46.360 --> 01:09:53.640 our friends, I don't like to France because I'm a hands on person. 01:09:53.640 --> 01:10:03.480 I learned best. I don't need experience in it. 01:10:03.480 --> 01:10:12.600 I, I think a lot of people are hands on. And so, um, yeah, in terms of educating, um, yeah, 01:10:12.600 --> 01:10:16.840 I think one of the most successful, like it's great to have online classes and meetings and stuff, 01:10:16.840 --> 01:10:22.200 but as more of us are getting vaccinated and feel comfortable coming together in person, um, 01:10:22.200 --> 01:10:26.920 I know I'm vaccinated and I'm happy to get out in person and teach people how to use technology. 01:10:32.680 --> 01:10:43.640 Is for us, for us, for us, for us bands of country. But Tamera said the idea 01:10:43.640 --> 01:10:51.320 for individuals to actually go to the band and use them to practice boarding. 01:10:51.320 --> 01:10:55.960 Yes. Okay. 01:11:00.840 --> 01:11:08.040 Some more notes. I actually was going to go to that. Will there be an opportunity for 01:11:08.040 --> 01:11:11.240 especially people with mobility devices to 01:11:11.240 --> 01:11:20.280 practice boarding one of these vehicles and I'm assuming the driver will be strapped in 01:11:20.280 --> 01:11:27.720 wheelchairs and get on the buses. So will there be that kind of opportunity for individuals? 01:11:29.320 --> 01:11:36.120 Where I've missed the first part for the tech to have technology or for individual mobility devices 01:11:36.120 --> 01:11:42.840 at wheelchairs to actually practice boarding one of the bands, getting out one of the bands 01:11:42.840 --> 01:11:53.000 for, for the phase one goes on. It's designed for the bus routes and, um, being able to independently 01:11:53.000 --> 01:12:01.000 navigate the system now. But that's why we're kind of leaving access secondary so that there 01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:07.800 can be a whole other separate outreach and education for that. But if anybody, I would 01:12:07.800 --> 01:12:16.120 recommend, if you need any assistance, then access would be the best for boarding and onboarding. If 01:12:16.120 --> 01:12:21.080 you need assistance getting on and off. Let me rephrase that. Okay. Yeah, sorry. 01:12:22.280 --> 01:12:28.360 So with the GoZone bands that are going to be retrofitted, so I, as a wheelchair user, 01:12:28.360 --> 01:12:34.200 I've never used one. So maybe I don't want to wait to my first trip. I would like to try it out and 01:12:34.200 --> 01:12:42.120 make sure that I understand how to get on or that my wheelchair fits properly, things like that. So 01:12:42.120 --> 01:12:48.200 will there be opportunities like that? But I guess the second part of the question, will the GoZone 01:12:48.200 --> 01:12:58.520 drivers of those vehicles be required to put straps on your wheelchair? Or do you just roll 01:12:58.520 --> 01:13:08.040 the end and then that's it? Because I know that's being discussed, like finalizing the details 01:13:08.040 --> 01:13:13.800 between access and GoZone. Right. Because with a fixed route, even a regular fixed route, I believe 01:13:13.800 --> 01:13:22.840 the driver would get out of his seat and strap the restraint on a wheelchair. So it's a hard kind of 01:13:22.840 --> 01:13:30.040 ply down. Ply down is what they're called. Yeah. And that's how I would perceive it to be in these 01:13:30.040 --> 01:13:36.680 bands. Like you would need to have some safety calls in place. But obviously a wheelchair user 01:13:36.680 --> 01:13:41.160 cannot, most of us will not be able to do that, reach down and do it on our own. 01:13:42.920 --> 01:13:48.760 So. And that makes sense and your bus drivers do that now. Right. So I was asking, will there be, 01:13:48.760 --> 01:13:56.680 you know, before services start or even during, will there be an opportunity to physically go 01:13:56.680 --> 01:14:03.800 somewhere to get on a GoZone van to be comfortable and say, "Okay, I can do this. Thank you." 01:14:03.800 --> 01:14:12.680 Yes. Okay. Not only will there, we will be looking for people to come out and try the service. 01:14:13.640 --> 01:14:21.000 Basically like a soft run, dry runs is what they are. Yes, we would welcome people in the community 01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:25.560 who are interested to come out and try it and tell us what they think before we actually open it up 01:14:25.560 --> 01:14:35.080 to the public. And I think that, you know, using, I would say it would be more of a test run to 01:14:35.080 --> 01:14:41.480 involve individuals who have mobility devices, service animals, you know, different types of 01:14:41.480 --> 01:14:47.480 disabilities where a non-disabled person could just get in and out of a van with no problem. 01:14:47.480 --> 01:14:57.640 So. If the service is adopted, the proposed service, after all this public involvement, 01:14:57.640 --> 01:15:04.920 I would be happy to reach back out to Ryan and let him know when we're doing those dry runs and 01:15:04.920 --> 01:15:12.200 looking for volunteers to ride the service. Perfect. That's great. Okay. Beth, do you have a question? 01:15:12.200 --> 01:15:26.040 Would passengers be allowed to ride in the front seat? Because I know I can't get in the back of 01:15:26.040 --> 01:15:34.760 a van. I would have to sit in the front passenger seat. I don't know that for sure. And I, but I 01:15:34.760 --> 01:15:40.920 can ask Bia if they make exceptions and allow people to sit in the front. I can find that out 01:15:40.920 --> 01:15:46.760 and relay anything. Ryan, if you're okay, anything I don't know for certain today and want to get 01:15:46.760 --> 01:15:57.000 back with you guys, is it okay if I put it all together and give it to you? I can't quite hear 01:15:57.000 --> 01:16:05.000 you, Ryan. You're off mute though. You're off mute. I think your mic might be disconnected. 01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:13.160 Okay. Technical difficulties. Let me type that one down while he's doing that. 01:16:13.160 --> 01:16:23.720 And just to piggyback off of Beth's question, I think it would make sense to allow that and 01:16:23.720 --> 01:16:30.280 especially the retrofitted vehicles, because since they will not be allowed to fit six, 01:16:30.280 --> 01:16:37.560 the retrofitted vehicles will probably fit three or two. Yeah, it'd be much less. 01:16:37.560 --> 01:16:45.080 Six is for the one, yeah, up to six. That's the max capacity for one that is not 01:16:45.080 --> 01:16:50.200 and that you're really only going to see during those peak commuter times. 01:16:54.680 --> 01:17:00.040 Ryan's still having, just give us a thumbs up, Ryan, if it's okay for her to talk. 01:17:00.040 --> 01:17:10.120 Thank you, Ryan. Beth, did you have a final question? Yes, going back to what Ali had been 01:17:10.120 --> 01:17:16.920 talking about for people that are used to a routine and how to educate people more, 01:17:18.760 --> 01:17:24.600 and I tried to tell you that some of the things on the website were, the graphics were just very 01:17:24.600 --> 01:17:33.400 confusing. If there could be a poster made that simplified everything and that it could be put 01:17:33.400 --> 01:17:41.000 at the bus stops and at every social service agency and at every police station and every 01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:47.160 firehouse and every place you could think of that would teach people how to use the system, 01:17:47.880 --> 01:17:52.120 but in a very simple, simple graphic design. 01:17:52.120 --> 01:18:03.640 Just typing all this up. So if the service is adopted, part of our outreach would definitely 01:18:03.640 --> 01:18:09.320 be to get those materials out at all those places you mentioned. Those are all great ideas and 01:18:09.320 --> 01:18:14.920 definitely the bus stops, social service agencies. I think firehouse is a great idea. I think all city 01:18:14.920 --> 01:18:21.800 facilities and I know from having worked on the city side for a long time, cities are very gracious 01:18:21.800 --> 01:18:28.440 about helping public transit and working with partners. So I think that's a good idea and I 01:18:28.440 --> 01:18:35.160 really appreciate you pointing out the difficulty with some of the material out there. 01:18:35.160 --> 01:18:40.360 So I will get back with our marketing team with those thoughts and kind of pointed out 01:18:41.000 --> 01:18:45.240 that we need to have a more simplified graphics going with those. 01:18:45.240 --> 01:18:57.080 Thank you Beth. Okay Joe, you have a question that I see your hand on. Go ahead Joe. 01:18:57.080 --> 01:19:17.160 Call from wireless caller. Call from wireless caller. Okay thank you. We are at the airport. 01:19:19.320 --> 01:19:37.960 Or the DINN airport where I missed. DFW. Okay all right. You would still have to connect to 01:19:37.960 --> 01:19:46.120 DART because Dallas's DART system, we can connect you to DART through the Trendy Mill Station, 01:19:46.120 --> 01:19:49.560 but then you would need to get on DART to make it the rest of the way. 01:19:49.560 --> 01:20:00.200 Okay. Valerie, you have a question. Not a question this time, but just a recommendation 01:20:00.200 --> 01:20:10.360 as you go more into informing and educating is to try and connect with the ARC of Denton County. 01:20:10.360 --> 01:20:19.000 It's an organization that supports individuals with disabilities and they work with individuals 01:20:19.000 --> 01:20:24.040 who are out into the communities. So I think this would be a nice organization for you to 01:20:24.040 --> 01:20:30.360 coordinate with. Thank you so much. There's a chance that our community relations manager 01:20:30.360 --> 01:20:35.720 might already be connected to him. She is very good at reaching out to the social service agencies, 01:20:35.720 --> 01:20:41.800 but I will absolutely bring that back. And if anybody else has recommendations, I'm very happy 01:20:41.800 --> 01:20:51.720 to take them. Does anyone have any last questions or recommendations, suggestions, ideas? 01:20:51.720 --> 01:21:01.000 No? All right. Thank you Sarah for all the information and for taking your Friday to 01:21:01.000 --> 01:21:04.920 present to us. We really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much. This is 01:21:05.720 --> 01:21:13.960 the best presentation I've done so far with this involvement. You guys are very engaged and gave me 01:21:13.960 --> 01:21:20.280 a lot to go back with on feedback and consider and think about. So thank you very much for your time. 01:21:20.280 --> 01:21:26.120 It's very helpful on my end and for the agency. Awesome. Thank you. We look forward to getting 01:21:26.120 --> 01:21:34.520 those questions answered and that information back. Absolutely. Great. Thank you. Okay. 01:21:35.720 --> 01:21:46.760 We will move on, I think that is it. We have our concluding items. Anyone have any special announcements 01:21:46.760 --> 01:21:51.000 at all? No? 01:21:51.000 --> 01:21:59.880 Just remember, we're still in Pride Month, so Outreach Denton, I know, is doing 01:21:59.880 --> 01:22:06.120 and last events. Juneteenth is this weekend. So if you're feeling like getting out about, 01:22:06.120 --> 01:22:14.280 that's happening. And again, July is Disability Pride Month. So there's also events going on with 01:22:14.280 --> 01:22:25.160 that. Just FYI. So unless anyone has anything, we can move to adjourn. 01:22:27.880 --> 01:22:30.920 I'll make a motion to adjourn. All right. Anyone second? 01:22:30.920 --> 01:22:39.080 I second. All right. Great. All right, ladies and gentlemen, 423 again. I appreciate everyone 01:22:39.080 --> 01:22:48.600 coming to this special meeting. Enjoy your weekend and we'll see you in July. Thanks, guys.