Lack of shelters and proposed elimination of 15 percent of bus stops among key points in comprehensive operations analysis of SCAT
County Commission vexation over the lack of bus shelters — and the high cost to install them — surfaced again this week. The topic was part of the board review of a comprehensive operations analysis a consulting firm had undertaken of Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT).
Chair Al Maio asked County Administrator Tom Harmer to work with the SCAT staff and then report back to the board on a creative means of adding shelters more quickly.
Amid talk of improving and eliminating routes to increase efficiencies, and responding to public calls for more Sunday service and service on Thanksgiving and Christmas, Commissioner Christine Robinson was the first to broach the shelter issue.
In her review of the findings, Robinson told SCAT Director Rocky Burke on July 12, she noticed a lack of facilities at a number of transfer points. Yet, those locations serve the second-highest number of riders, behind the county’s SCAT stations, she said. “There are some [deficiencies] in North County, but there’s a slew of them in South County.” How can the board and staff make sure those locations are priorities for shelters, she asked.
“We’re doing that,” Burke replied, concurring with her about the lack of facilities in South County. “We are honestly putting together an aggressive plan to put up shelters.”
Unfortunately, some of the transfer points are on private property, he pointed out, and those situations lead to higher costs for the structures.
Commissioner Carolyn Mason pointed to the recommendation in the analysis to base shelter installation priorities on ridership levels at stops. “But I want us to keep in mind that this is Florida. It is hot all the time. When I see people at a bus stop with no bench, no shelter, that … is crazy.”
“I agree,” Burke responded. SCAT is trying “to put shelters where they truly are needed,” he said. The data in the study provides “a pretty good indication” about those locations, he added.
Maio related anecdote he previously had told Burke: In a public setting, a man “shoved in front of my face an 8 by 10 photo” showing people who appeared to be a mother and two children sitting in the grass at a bus stop. The man had asked Maio, “Would you like to sit in an ant pile?”
“We’ve got to approach the production and installation of shelters differently,” Maio continued. Harmer and county staff must be able to find firms that would be able to offer a reduced price if SCAT provided them with, for example, with 30 sites where shelters were needed, Maio pointed out.
“We just have to come up with a different way to do this,” Maio said. “I can’t deliver a satisfactory sound bite when people say to me, ‘What in the world is wrong with you fools that it takes $30,000 to $40,000 for one [shelter]?’”
Staff has explained the various aspects of design problems — from dealing with drainage situations to the necessity of complying with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. Yet, the public does not understand the situation, Maio pointed out. “I don’t have the solution.”
“We’ll find one,” Burke replied.
Key points in the findings
Burke reported on key findings of the analysis, which was handled by the firm Vanasse Hagen Brustlin, which has an office in Sarasota. At the end of the presentation, he won a unanimous vote of the board to accept the recommendations — with some changes in language proposed during the discussion. Among the points Burke focused on were the following:
- The consultants recommend eliminating up to 15 percent of the bus stops, based on the guideline that stops should be at least one-quarter of a mile from each other.
Data shows that only 10 of the county’s 27 routes are meeting the cost recovery threshold, Vice Chair Paul Caragiulo noted.
Even before the analysis began, Burke said, bus operators were telling him and his staff that stops are too close together. Still, he said, staff will evaluate each of those recommended for elimination “before we just willy-nilly move stops around.” Factors such as economic development or housing density in an area would be considered, he added.
“SCAT is a big hit to our budget,” Maio said, “and we just can’t have stops everywhere.”
Burke also pointed out that he and his staff would appear again before the board to discuss any route changes before implementing them. Commissioner Carolyn Mason directed him to let the commissioners know about any proposals prior to holding public meetings on them. Otherwise, she said, the board members “are going to get blindsided.”
However, Robinson told him, “You really want to have public input before you do anything, because then it looks like public input was worthless.”
- Although discussion ensued in 2014 about relocating the downtown Sarasota transfer station, the consultants said it “serves us well with a few minor issues,” Burke explained.
The facility was built with the expectation that buses 35 feet in length or shorter would use it, he added, but the typical transit bus today is 40 feet.
Still, he said, “It’s just not worth the capital outlay to move it and change our route system.”
- The county potentially could save $317,500 by reducing its hours of service on some routes, Burke pointed out. However, in the long term, adding routes for which demand exists and increasing frequency of stops could increase the annual SCAT expense by $1,869,000.
The consultants recommended realignment, elimination or reduction of service on six routes beginning in November, Burke said. The two targeted for elimination are express routes 80 and 90. The former serves North Port, Knight’s Trail and the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport; the latter, the airport, downtown Sarasota, Venice and North Port.
Based on the findings, staff is looking at a similar process involving seven routes in April 2017.
Burke pointed out that SCAT typically adjusts routes in November, before high season begins, and in April, after it ends.
Among those routes proposed for elimination next year are 10 — which travels to Siesta Key Village and the island’s beaches — and 13 — which operates in Venice. SCAT staff will work on incorporating some of the service areas of those routes into others, he added. For example, Route 33, which provides seasonal service that encompasses the Amish and Mennonite community of Pinecraft, could be modified to serve part of Route 10. For a second example, the Venice Island circulator could incorporate part of Route 13.
- Two new routes have been proposed. One would serve Swift Road/Tuttle Avenue from Gulf Gate to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport; the other, south Venice to the Laurel Road Industrial Park east of Interstate 75.
- SCAT should have two schedules — one for peak season and one for the off-peak time of year. That was a thought he had soon after starting work with the county in late 2014, Burke told the board. “Fortunately, the consultants agreed with me. … We really struggle to keep buses on time in peak season, with all the traffic.”
- Cattlemen Road is not the best location for the bus transfer station the county opened there in January 2012.
“I was really unnerved over [that] recommendation,” Robinson told Burke. “It was a $2.5-million project that’s only four years old.”
Fabricio Ponce, the transportation system manager for Vanasse Hagen Brustlin (VHB), explained that the firm learned that a potential location on Fruitville Road also was considered, but the Cattlemen site won out. “Our overall assessment was, ‘Well, this could probably work better on Fruitville.” The firm would not recommend closing the Cattlemen facility without a new, extensive analysis, he added. In the meantime, he said, VHB is recommending route changes to improve the Cattlemen station’s operations.
“You’re not supposed to be emotionally connected to any of this,” Caragiulo told Ponce.
“You pay me to tell you the truth,” Ponce replied.
When Robinson asked about the timeline for implementation of the recommendations in the comprehensive operations analysis (COA), Ponce said the proposals cover a 10-year period. Usually, he pointed out, a COA is undertaken every five years. County growth over the next five years should be taken into account before any outer-year recommendations of this COA are pursued, he said.
The last SCAT analysis was completed in 2008 and updated in 2011, he noted.
Even 10 years from now, the Cattlemen transfer station would be just 14 years old, Robinson said.
“I don’t think the commission would cut its own throat by agreeing with that particular point [in the recommendation],” Mason told her.