OPT Presentation IPTA Legislative Workshop September 22, 2005

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OPT PresentationIPTA Legislative
WorkshopSeptember 22, 2005
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SAFETEA-LU

• Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient
  Transportation Equity Act
• A Legacy for Users

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SAFETEA-LU

• Signed by President on August 10th
• Completes Authorization for FFY2005
• Authorizes Highway and Transit programs through
  FFY2009

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SAFETEA-LU

• Increases transit funding nationally
• Creates new transit programs
• Increases federal participation ratios
• Continues TEA-21s guaranteed appropriations
• Locks in allocations thru formulas/earmarks

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SAFETEA-LUNew Programs

• New Freedom support services to persons with
  disabilities that exceed requirements of ADA
• Starts at 650K/year statewide
• Formula based on number of persons with
  disabilities
• Separate allocations for gt200Ks, Govs, Rural
• Projects must come from joint Human Services/
  
  
  Transportation Plan

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SAFETEA-LUNew Programs

• Medical Transportation Demonstration Grants
• Transport dialysis/renal treatment patients
• To be funded direct from FTA
• Rule-making required
• Senior Transportation Demonstration Grants
• To be funded thru new National Technical
  Assistance Center for Senior Transportation

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SAFETEA-LUNew Programs

• Small Transit Intensive Cities boost funding
  for small urbanized areas providing more service
  than average of larger areas
• Six Criteria
• Exceeding any one makes eligible
• Funding based on number exceeded
• Funding flows through 5307 program

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SAFETEA-LUNew Programs

• Growing States boosts urban and rural formula
  funding based on future population
• Uses census projections for 2015
• Funding flows thru 5307 5311 programs

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SAFETEA-LUNew Programs

• High Density States boosts urban transit
  funding in states with average population density
  over 370 persons per square mile
• Funding flows thru 5307 program
• No funding for Iowa or 42 other states

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SAFETEA-LUNew Programs

• Transit in Parks funds public transit services
  in National Parks and public lands
• Not clear on applicability to Iowa

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SAFETEA-LUFormula Changes

• Job Access / Reverse Commute changed from
  discretionary to formula program at national
  level
• Iowa funding cut in half (1 million statewide)
• Formula based on number of persons in poverty or
  on welfare
• Separate allocations for gt200Ks, Govs, Rural
• Projects must come from joint Human Services/
  
  
  Transportation Plan

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SAFETEA-LUFormula Changes

• Non-urbanized Formula Program new land area
  factor added to formula
• Previously 100 population
• Now 80 population/20 land area
• As a result, Iowas share of the total 5311
  funding dropped by 2.84

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SAFETEA-LUFederal Shares

• JARC program now allowing 80 federal share on
  capital
• JARC and new programs all now codified, which
  should allow 90 on ADA/CAA vehicle features and
  83 new vehicles incorporating ADA/CAA feature
• New ADA features for facilities also now 90

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SAFETEA-LUIowa Funding

• Statewide, for FFY06, 5307 funding is up 9.92
• Impact on different systems varies from 93.82
  for Ames to -0.22 for Cedar Rapids
• Future growth should be 4.03 in FFY07, 8.45
  in FFY08, and 6.37 in FFY09 (depending on stats)

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SAFETEA-LUIowa Funding

• For FFY06, statewide 5311 funding is up 68.38,
  but this will not impact systems operating
  budgets until SFY2007
• All regions and small urbans will be affected
  (depending on stats)
• Future growth will be 3.73 in FFY07, 8.15 in
  FFY08, and 5.69 in FFY09 (again depending on
  stats)

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SAFETEA-LUIowa Funding

• For FFY06, statewide 5310 funding is up 17.08,
  to 1.19 million
• In past years these funds have been distributed
  only within the rural program, but in the future
  a portion will go to large urban systems.
• Future growth will be 4.25 in FFY07, 8.16 in
  FFY08, and 4.90 in FFY09

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SAFETEA-LUIowa Funding

• Total JARC funding coming to Iowa drops from
  1.98 million for FFY05 to 1.04 million for
  FFY06
• Govs Apportionment gets a little over 400K
• Rural program gets a little under 400K
• TMAs split a little over 200K

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SAFETEA-LUIowa Funding

• Iowas New Freedom should be about 650K
  statewide
• Govs Apportionment gets about 250K
• Rural program gets about 250K
• TMAs split about 150K

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SAFETEA-LUIowa Funding

• Statewide Bus funding provided through the
  reauthorization earmark is 2.72 million for
  FFY06 compared to a FFY05 figure of 4.86
  million
• Some funding is, however, still available for
  appropriation earmarks, so there is still a
  chance to get FFY05 level or even better

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SAFETEA-LU

• Emphasis on coordination
• JARC, New Freedom and 5310 all require that
  projects come from joint human services/
  transportation plan
• All three programs above and 5311 can be matched
  by non-DOT federal transportation dollars
• 5307 can be matched by contracted human services
  transportation dollars
• TIPs and Transportation Plans required to
  consider human services transportation as well as
  public transit

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OPT PresentationIPTA Legislative
WorkshopSeptember 22, 2005
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Topics to be Covered

• SAFETEA-LU Impacts
• Follow-up on Federal Reviews
• Statewide Facility Needs Study
• Urban ITS Deployment Plan
• Regional Coordination Workshops

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Topics (continued)

• Open to the Public Issues
• Survey of Transit Phone Information Lines
• Marketing and Training Issues
• DBE

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Follow-up on Federal Reviews

• Enforcement of contract deadlines to keep grants
  on schedule
• Review of transit agency subcontracts to verify
  proper federally-required clauses
• Oversight of facilities funded with state-managed
  federal grants
• Broadened access to 5310 funding

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Statewide Facility Needs Study

• Contract awarded to Snyder Associates, as the
  prime consultant, and including subcontracted
  work from
• Brooks, Borg, Skiles, Architectural Engineering,
• Parsons Brinkerhoff,
• Robinson Engineering, and
• MPS.

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Statewide Facility Needs Study

• Will start with survey questionnaire to determine
  transit managers perception of your own
  facilities, and those of contractors
• Followed by site visits to most facilities that
  have involved federal funding
• The consultants will also help in establishing
  standards for different types of facilities
• Finally there will be a listing of recommended
  improvements with planning-level cost estimates

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Urban ITS Deployment Plan

• Steering Committee
• Steve Spade
• Bill Hoekstra
• Ron Logsden
• Mark Munson
• Dennis Hart
• Primary staff support - John Hey

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Urban ITS Deployment Plan

• RFP currently under review
• Expect to publish October 4
• Proposals due November 18
• Proposals Reviewed December 5
• Interviews December 14/15
• Selection by December 23
• Negotiate/award by January 20
• Completion scheduled for October, 2006

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Regional Coordination Workshops

• Purpose To promote concept of coordinating
  public transit and human services transportation
• Sponsored by Iowa State-level Transportation
  Coordination Council
• Funded through United We Ride Grant from FTA
• Seven regional workshops February-June, 2006

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Regional Coordination Workshops
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Open to Public Issues

• Opening publicly-funded transportation services
  to all citizens has been a key motivation in
  Iowas coordination efforts.
• This is a requirement for all services funded
  under FTAs 5311 and 5307 programs.
• Originally, it was also a requirement under the
  State Transit Assistance program.

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Open to Public Issues

• The issue continues to be raised in various
  forums, such as Healthy Iowans 2010 and the Iowa
  Olmstead Taskforce.
• Currently policies allow incidental restricted
  client services to count toward the distribution
  of STA, though not for federal funding.

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Open to Public Issues

• Transit systems are required to separately report
  any restricted client services, both to confirm
  the incidental nature and to allow separate
  funding calculation.
• Recent declines in reporting of restricted client
  statistics have raised questions over whether
  this reflects that those services have been
  opened up or whether it reflects erroneous or
  fraudulent reporting.

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Phone Information Survey

• Over the summer OPT conducted a preliminary
  investigation get a feel for how open to the
  public various transit services are.
• An intern was assigned to go through Iowa phone
  books and compile a list of the transit
  information numbers which transit systems
  included in their required advertisements under
  Bus Lines in the yellow pages.

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Phone Information Survey

• In one case, in calling the single 800 number
  listed for a region, the caller was told that the
  service in the community inquired about was
  farmed out and that nobody at the region knew
  what was available there nor did they know any
  number to get such information.

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Phone Information Survey

• Each number was then called and the person
  answering was asked about the availability of
  transit services for the public in a pre-selected
  local community.
• The good news is that, in most cases, no matter
  how limited the service available was, it was
  described as being open to everyone.

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Phone Information Survey

• In one case the caller was told that the transit
  service was only available for seniors.
• In another case the caller was told emphatically
  discouraged from trying to use services
  established for disabled or elderly persons and
  told that they should stick to taxi services.

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Phone Information Survey

• In several cases, the caller was told that the
  person who would be able to answer questions was
  on vacation and to call back some time in the
  future.. One said that the only knowledgeable
  person does come in until 4pm, so callers should
  always call after that time.

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Phone Information Survey

• Some numbers were never answered by live persons,
  only answering machines and no call-backs were
  ever received.
• One person answering referred the caller to
  another number, but warned that that person at
  that number might be problematic and advised the
  caller to call back if there was trouble.

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Marketing Opportunities

• Iowa Association of Area Agencies on Aging (i4A)
  presentation (Aug. 14, 2005), Des Moines
• Implementation of photograph campaign
• to build inventory of photos for marketing
  purposes.
• starting with Region 3 and Des Moines MTA
  (co-chairs of IPTAs Image Committee)
• buses, people boarding buses, transfer points,
  storage and admin facilities, etc. Other???

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Marketing Opportunities(Upcoming)

• Communities in Motion day, sponsored by APTA,
  set for Oct. 6, 2005
• http//www.apta.com/sim/index.html.
• How are you recognizing seniors and marketing
  this aspect of your ridership?
• Transit Exhibit Booth at ISAC Fall School of
  Instruction
• Monday, Nov. 14, Des Moines (Marriott Hotel)
• IPTA Partnership? (two volunteers to help staff
  booth)

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Training Opportunities

• Supervisory level Drug and Alcohol Reasonable
  Suspicion Training (2-hours)
• Sponsored by HIRTA, with training conducted by
  Employee and Family Services
• funding from the Iowa Dept. of Public Health
  DOT fellowships for travel lodging (if
  necessary)
• Next Tuesday, Sept. 27, 1000 a.m. Des Moines
  International Airport, Conf. Room 3.
• Contact Linda at 515/256-5680 (HIRTA) to register

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Training Opportunities

• TCRP Synthesis 57 Computer-Aided Scheduling and
  Dispatch in Demand-Responsive Transit Services.
• Free telephone conference, but must register
  through NTI to participate.
• October 6, 2005, 3-430 p.m. Eastern Time
• Participants will receive a PowerPoint
  presentation to follow along with the presenter.
• Free TCRP Report (Synthesis 57)
  www.tcrponline.org.

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New Manager Orientation

• Conducted in Region 14 (Creston)
• August 30 and 31
• Welcome Steve Bolie and Janet Glendenning
• Upcoming training sessions to be held in Atlantic
  and Waterloo
• Welcome Jeff Beckner, Region 13 and
• Mark Little, Waterloo MET

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Uniform Report of DBE Commitments/Awards and
Payments

• DBE Report due to OPT October 30, 2005 and should
  reflect FFY05 in its entirety (not just last six
  months)
• Large urbans (direct FTA recipients) still submit
  to FTA by December 1, 2005.
• Per June IPTA meeting, a draft form with comment
  boxes has been prepared and is currently under
  review. It should be available next week for you
  to start working with.

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FFY2006 DBE Goal

• DOT has established 0.2 percent as its annual DBE
  goal for the Transit Program.
• Split between race/gender neutral and
  race-conscious.
• Applies to professional services, construction,
  and other procurements beginning Oct. 1, 2005 and
  ending Sept. 30, 2006

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September is National Preparedness Month

• Good time to remind passengers to be aware of
  their surroundings and report any abandoned
  packages or other suspicious activity to transit
  system personnel or local law enforcement.
• Riders are the eyes and ears of public transit.
• Regular riders are probably best people to notice
  when something looks out-of-place or suspicious.
• Dept. of Homeland Security dropped the alert
  level for mass transit back to elevated-code
  yellow, from high alert code orange, Aug. 12.
• Do you have a security plan? Do you practice it?