HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 8/18/2020 - Memorandum From Drew Brooks Re: Update Transfort Service
Transfort / Dial-A-Ride
6570 Portner Road
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6620
970.221.6285 - fax
fcgov.com
Memorandum
DATE: August 12, 2020
TO: Mayor Troxell and Councilmembers
THRU: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Kelly DiMartino, Deputy City Manager
Caryn Champine, Director – Planning, Development & Transportation
Dean Klingner, Deputy Director – Planning, Development & Transportation
FROM: Drew Brooks, Director – Transfort & Parking Services
SUBJECT: Update – Transfort Service
Introduction
The purpose of this memo is to provide information regarding planning and processes
for the eventual resumption of Transfort service, suspended earlier this year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Bottomline
Routes servicing CSU will resume the week of August 24th, however further resumption
of additional routes is still being analyzed and uncertain at this. A phased plan to
reinstate services has been prepared and staff stand ready to implement.
Background
On April 18th, 2020, the City Manager signed an Emergency Regulation to suspend
many Transfort routes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This order suspended routes
that specifically serviced the CSU campus and reduced the remaining fixed route
service to Saturday levels of service for each weekday, and suspended Sunday service.
At this time ridership had plummeted below the baseline on all routes by over 90%.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 80882EA9-2EFA-4BB5-94EA-902F12DD17B4
An extensive information campaign was implemented, including press releases, social
media postings, CSU system email, website notifications, and notices at all bus stops,
explaining:
What services were being reduced
How to schedule replacement taxi rides
And best practices, such as only traveling for essential trips, social distancing,
face coverings and back-door only boarding.
Since the transition from the Stay at Home order, Transfort has only seen slight
increases in ridership to date, as illustrated by the following graph:
The seven-day rolling average continues to show an unprecedented decline in ridership
of 76%. In addition, the replacement taxi service, put in place for areas where routes
were reduced, has not seen significant usage, with a typical day seeing less than 30
rides.
Staff are continuing to monitor a variety of possible factors and key indicators for
phasing a resumption of service and are planning accordingly. These factors include,
but are not limited to:
Continued case monitoring at the national, State and local level.
Expected new guidance from the State regarding social distancing limitations on
public transit. This guidance may create capacity constraints and limit the ability
to resume full service.
Increases in ridership on current routes or the replacement taxi service
Budgetary and funding projections.
Response to a transit rider survey, currently in the field to conclude mid-
September. Early results from this survey suggest that over 50% of respondents
do not yet feel safe riding public transit and only around 25% report being “very
affected” by the current service reductions.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 80882EA9-2EFA-4BB5-94EA-902F12DD17B4
The largest of these factors will be in-person classes at CSU and associated bus
ridership. Currently staff plan to reinstitute all routes that directly service CSU by the first
day of classes, August 24th. These include the increased service on the “Around the
Horn”, and routes 2 and 3, and resumption of routes 31, 32 & 33. It is unknown at this
time what ridership levels to expect. Enrollment is down and classes will be distributed
across additional days and hours which should diminish the number of rides per hour on
these routes. However, staff will be monitoring bus capacities in real time to quickly
deploy resources to minimize overcrowding.
Staff have prepared a phased approach for resumption of additional service and are
prepared to implement this plan as demand and key indicators necessitate reinstating to
more typical service levels. The currently level of service is approximately 73% of the
hours of a normal level of service. Once the CSU routes resume, the service level will
be near 90% of normal operations.
Communication of any future change in service will be extensive and include press
releases, social media postings, CSU system email, website notifications, and notices at
all buses and bus stops.
DocuSign Envelope ID: 80882EA9-2EFA-4BB5-94EA-902F12DD17B4