Time: 8:00 – 10:00 AM
Location: Union Memorial Finney Classroom (201 E. University Parkway)
Attendees: Robin Budish, Art Cohen, Candace Croston Peter Duvall, George Frazier, Ben Groff, Betty Hickey, Phil LaCombe, Kamau Marshall, Joe Nathanson, Eric Norton, Charles Penny, Kevin Quinn, Michael Romeo, Jimmy Rouse, Jim Smith, Sandy sparks, Yolanda Takesian, Raven Thompson
Transit Choices Ad-hoc Committee Meeting on BaltimoreLink
Kevin B. Quinn, Jr. Director, Office of Planning and Programming with the MTA, responded to the following questions and comments from the Ad-hoc Committee. As part of his introduction, Kevin also shared a PowerPoint presentation: BaltimoreLink – Transit Choices 1-12-16
Community Engagement Process
There was broad agreement that the 12/31/15 Community Input Deadline needs to be postponed 1 or 2 months. This will indicate to community leaders that the MTA is listening. Additional time should be used to meet with community groups and leaders. Listen to their concerns and sell what the changes will accomplish.
MTA has agreed that the community input deadline be extended to receive additional public feedback. The public comment period was extended from December 23, 2015 to January 11, 2016. Getting public feedback is an important part of the planning process.
Routes
Specifically, Greenmount Avenue, Harford Road, and Eastern Avenue through Highlandtown have been repeatedly mentioned as problem areas. It is difficult for Transit Choices to respond to these complaints given the available information about alternative routes, frequency of service, schedules, etc. What is important to us, is that the MTA engage directly with community leaders and respond to these concerns. We need to win community leaders as allies to as large an extent as possible.
MTA agrees that these three areas require special attention. As a result, additional meetings were held with these communities to get public feedback on specific concerns. These meetings included:
A. Greenmount Avenue: Special community meeting convened at the Waverly Library on January 6, 2016
B. Harford Road: Special community meeting convened at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah on Harford Road on January 11, 2016
C. Eastern Avenue: Public workshop held at the Southeast Library on January 6, 2016
Elements of Service & Operational Details
Transit Signal Prioritization:
It was suggested that TSP be tried on one corridor to measure its impact.
1) Who at Baltimore City is working on Transitways and TSP with MTA?
Frank Murphy, Desmond Cole , and Raj Sharma of the City DOT. In general, MTA staff are working with City DOT, Planning, and Parking Authority staff on the various infrastructure projects associated with BaltimoreLink.
2) What will it take to ensure that TSP will be more effective in reducing transit travel times than it has been on the Howard Street corridor?
While every effort will be made to implement a TSP solution benefitting BaltimoreLink, guaranteeing a specific level of performance is not feasible. The overall benefit of TSP can only be determined after the system is installed and fine-tuned over several months. It should be understood that every corridor presents a unique set of challenges. Although maximizing the benefits from TSP and signal retiming are essential objectives, overall improvement can only be assessed after a period of time fine-tuning the corridors.
Hubs
1) What is the Transit Hub concept and what are the main elements?
2) What does the $19M for transit hubs pay for?
3) What else is needed to make the transit hubs successful?
4) How many transit hubs does the MTA need to make Baltimore LINK work as designed?
5) What are the locations?
#1-5: Transit hubs are primarily being approached as transit facilities where MTA expects to have a high level of transfers and where we believe we can provide an improved transfer experience. MTA has identified approximately 75 locations under the current draft network design where improvements could be made. Elements and amenities include improved signage, bus shelters, canopies, ticket vending machines, benches, lighting, real-time signage, security features (cameras) and improved bus pull-in areas.
6) What does the MTA need from Baltimore City to implement the Transit Hubs?
The MTA is working with Baltimore City to ensure a smooth permitting process as construction approaches.
7) Do the Transit Hubs require an Environmental Impact Statement?
No. A single Categorical Exclusion (CE) will be used for all transit hubs/facilities.
8) Who is responsible for public involvement?
MTA is responsible for public involvement, in close coordination with Baltimore City and elected officials.
9) What will be the noise and air quality impacts of the transit hubs?
This is unknown until locations are finalized and designs further developed.
10) Is there anything comparable to the Transit Hubs in existence now? If so, where?
Mondawmin is comparable on a larger scale, but the majority of “hubs” will be more minor transfer facilities with site improvements and amenities.
Transitways
1. How will Transitways work?
2. Which streets will be designated as transit ways and be closed off to vehicular traffic?
3. How will this impact business and residents?
4. If closed to local traffic, why not surface rail? Streetcar? The Self Powered Transit option presented at the September Transit Choices meeting?
5. Would a designated lane work or does it require that the entire street be converted to bus-only?
6. Does the MTA have a plan for outreach and making the case to the public for the Transitways?
#1-6: While the idea of transit-only streets have been considered, dedicated lanes have been received as a more easily-implemented solution to getting buses through congestion. In close coordination with Baltimore City, the MTA is studying 14 corridors that have been preliminarily identified as having the potential for dedicated lanes. As these corridors are still being identified, it is not yet know what impact dedicated lanes may have on businesses and residents. MTA intends to select 1-2 corridors for construction as a pilot to make the case to the public for dedicates lanes.
QuickBus 40
The current system has the beginning of a rapid system (Quickbus Lines) that run in addition to slower local service in the same high volume corridors. The new system appears to eliminate that type service except for the QB 40. We have the following questions:
– What is the rationale of eliminating “rapid” lines?
– What is the rationale for keeping the QB 40 designation?
There may be some confusion here. The new system that will go into effect in June 2017 will not include the QB 40 (which will be replaced with a new CityLink route).
– To what extent is the QB 40 a pilot for the new service and in what way is it monitored?
– What exactly happened since the change on QB 40 was announced/implemented
The QB40 is very much a pilot for how MTA will manage and monitor a high-frequency system. When service first began on the QB40, there were initial problems with bus bunching. However, the MTA deployed additional street supervision and directed the Operations Control Center to more closely monitor the route, which improved service. Since starting in October 2015, the QB40 service has been successful with a 1,000 rider/month increase from October over November.
CityLink, Express BusLink, LocalLink
Fundamentally, the concept of spreading the current highly downtown concentrated and redundant bus system out into a larger high frequency service grid appears to be valid and productive if this move results in:
– Shorter overall trip times along high volume routes
– Improves access to high demand destinations and jobs
– Makes use of transit easier and more convenient
– Maintains coverage
– At this point it is isn’t clear that the above criteria can be or will be met.
To answer if it does, the following questions about operations need to be answered:
– What are the operating metrics and outcomes that define the high frequency grid and can be used to assess progress and achievement of the goals?
– What are the operating metrics of local buses and how do they compare?
– What are the metrics under which current service would be eliminated?
MTA has identified 4 categories of evaluation for BaltimoreLink
- Design Adequacy: Will the new network be able to accommodate the projected ridership patterns?
- Access: Based on important origin concentrations, what is the comparison between walk access distance under both networks?
- Mobility: How much X can a person get to in M minutes (transit + walking)?
- Overall Network Performance: What is the projected performance of the network (including mode split)?
– MTA has engaged other partners in an effort to better quantify the benefits of BaltimoreLink
Ultimately, the new system will only find acceptance if the majority of riders will have a faster and more convenient trip. The assurance can be provided through pilots and/or through simulations. We have the following questions:
– What pilots will be run to test and demonstrate the performance of the anticipated service?
MTA intends on running several pilots prior to launch to test the new service. MTA’s goal is to attempt a minimum of 1 pilot run on all routes prior to the June 2017 start date.
– What models are employed to simulate the trips between all currently known major origins and destinations?
BMC is assisting in modeling the OD trips in the regional transportation demand model.
Signage, Maps & Apps
Transit Choices continues to advocate that MTA take the lead in developing maps at all stops, and on all light rail & metro cars that show the routes of the metro, light rail, circulator, & harbor connector and how the systems interlink. We also advocate that at each stop connections to nearby BaltimoreLink buses be shown.
Bus stop sign design is in development as part of the complete replacement of all MTA bus stop signs, in addition to new wayfinding signage.
In addition, we advocate that real time data be made available for all MTA vehicles, so that an app can be produced that will show at any location in the city what transit options are available and what next time arrivals will be.
The MTA recently held an App Developers Conference. MTA intends on releasing its GTFS feed in February 2016 for private developers to create an app.
Transfers and Smart Cards
Transit Choices advocates that free transfers be possible between all MTA systems and that fare collections be moved away from cash to a readily available smart card system.
The MTA is evaluating induced transfers as part of the modeling effort to better understand the potential impact that the new system design will have in increasing or decreasing transfers.
Funding
The administration states the $135 m dollars would be available to implement the new service. We have no way of knowing if this amount of money is based on need and if it is sufficient. In this context, we have the following questions (indicate how the money is currently allocated):
– What are the currently unmet / future needs for the vehicle fleet to run a reliable service with some reserve for emergencies and failures? Capital and operations
– What are the currently unmet / future needs for operators? Initial and ongoing?
– What are the needs for better wayfinding, communication, branding etc. Capital and operations
– What are the capital needs for “wayside” improvements such as stop amenities, lanes, TSP?
– What analysis is there to identify how the above needs prioritize?
– What is the source of funds for the $135M?
– What will the net difference be between funding for MTA projects in the FY15-20 CTP and the FY16-21 CTP?
– What will the net difference be between the MTA’s operating budget in FY15 versus FY16.
Miscellaneous
1) Does the entire BaltimoreLink proposal require an Environmental Impact Statement?
BaltimoreLink as a whole will not require an EIS. Only those systems that require ground disturbance, new shelters, etc require NEPA approval. Therefore, MTA is required to have an environmental document for the following:
Transit Hubs – Approximately 75 transfer facilities, layovers and stops – Categorical Exclusion (CE)
QB 40 – Coordination with MHT needed for shelters. This has been completed and document is an Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) since 100% state funds.
LocalLink, Light RailLink, Metro SubwayLink and MobilityLink – if no new ground disturbance and only route changes – only Title VI analysis is needed (not EPD).
2) Does is require a disparate impact analysis?
BaltimoreLink transit services changes will require a Service Equity Analysis that examines disparate impact and disproportionate burden.
3) If federal funding is used what is the role of the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board?
Pilots
The idea is to use improvements to run certain lines as pilots that mimic the intended operation (as a QuickBus or as a CityLink bus) and use those pilots to gain insights into the performance, build trust in the public by demonstrating that these lines, indeed, perform better and by initially just adding something better without taking something away.
A subset to this question is the definition of the operation model. To us, the definition of the “CityLink” as a high frequency service is insufficiently clear and not differentiated enough from the “LocalLink”. We suggest that “CityLink” be more a rapid bus overlay than a core network more like it is in DC and LA than in Houston and that additional metrics should define those priority lines including: Bus branding, TSP, bus lanes (all already included in CityLink), off board payment, multi-door boarding, special shelters, less frequent stop spacing, option to transfer to a local bus at key points to reach final destinations (not included as defining factors).
Metrics
We suggest that public meetings and comments should be measured against the metrics the MTA set out to fulfill and that the public should be invited to comment on the metrics themselves as well (to ensure the right metrics are picked). Those metrics fall into various categories.
a. One set comes from models and deals with the overall network performance: examples;
i. How many jobs within the service area can be accessed via transit within a 90 minute trip? The metric would be defined as an improvement over the current value. The Brookings Institute (Brookings) determined this value currently to be about 30% in Baltimore. That is the average for many cities. How much better can we do?
ii. Share of households within ¼ mile and ½ mile of a transit stop
iii. Median wait time (system-wide, by mode and by corridor)
iv. Median speed of transit vehicles
v. Mode split
vi. Equity (hard to measure, Seema Iyer has some good stuff on that)
vii. Service hours
viii. Ridership and passenger miles
b. Another set would be specific to a service or line:
i. Trip speed
ii. Ridership
iii. Wait time
iv. Customer satisfaction
MTA is well aware of these metrics. The point is more that the existing and the desired metrics need to be used in the public meetings to find a base for agreement and to gauge suggestions to modify the proposed system. LA for example had clear metrics when and under what circumstances a bus stop would be placed. Similarly the metrics when and where a local or CityLink bus service is established should be explicit and transparent and start with current ridership and boarding levels (up to a certain cut-off a service is warranted).
If the objectives and the metrics have consensus it is much easier to discuss options and suggestions. If they meet the metrics they are good, if not, no. In theory that allows a more rational discourse.
Analysis
Another topic is analysis. It is easy to say what the current issues are but for addressing problems exact data are needed to pinpoint where the problems come from. For example if trip times are excessive, it can have a number of causes including even transfers. LA did a good before after comparison on their first pilot Rapid lines as illustrated below:
WILSHIRE/WHITTIER BOULEVARD TRAVEL DELAY ANALYSIS
Length: 14 miles selected study area
Base running time: 76 minutes No priority local buses
Bus stop delay: 19 minutes 25% of base running time
Traffic signal delay: 15 minutes 20% of base running time
Actual travel time: 42 minutes 20 mph running speed
Savings: Due to project
Rapid bus: 16 minutes 21% of base running time
Signal priority: 5 minutes 7% of base running time
Total savings: 21 minutes 28% of base running time
New running time: 55 minutes Priority buses
New bus stop delay: 3 minutes 4% of base running time
New traffic signal delay: 10 minutes 13% of base running time
Bus stop delay reduction: 16 minutes 84% of base bus stop delay
Signal delay reduction: 5 minutes 33% of base signal delay
In the interest of using the $135 million wisely it is important to assign them where one gets the biggest performance improvement and not where it is politically expedient. The above example shows that bus stop time reduction could be way more effective than TSP not only by eliminating stops but also by reducing dwell time and placing bus stops on the far side of signals.