August 22, 2000

To; Board and Staff

From; Roy Nakadegawa

Re; Transit Access to Stations

I just came back from a Workshop on Intermodalism in Portland and used an interesting transit service which was almost too good to be operated as public transit. This supplementary service was intermodal but not part of the conference. I heard of it from good friends living in the area and they invited me to stay at their house and try it. This would also save the District $125 per night at the Hotel.

My friend even offered to pick me up at the airport, so I accepted my friends offer. Because I flew into Portland early evening, I suggested that he have his family accompany him so we can have a nice family visit over dinner and I would pick up the tab. So he agreed. That evening I inquired if he could arrange for this special shuttle where I could utilize it the next morning. He tried, but the shuttle phone service was not available over the weekend. My friend assured me he would deliver me to the nearby transit station to catch the LRT which would then take me to within one block of the meeting hotel. (My friend lives about 2.75 miles on hilly terrain from the LRT Station) But first, he would call first thing in the morning to see if they could pick me up that morning.

Monday morning around 7:30 AM my host called and to my surprise reported they would pick me up around 5 minutes of 8. The van arrived within the minute. Evidently they have a rough routing of the trips well planned and they were passing close by my host's home. All their scheduling is done individually via a cell phone while driving the van. Upon boarding, I told them I was a senior and paid my 55c fare, in turn gave me a transfer to use as evidence as a paid transit rider for their LRT ( the LRT is a honor fare system). As we continued towards the station the driver picked up 3 others who evidently were regular users with monthly or annual passes for there was no fare transaction. We made just the 3 stops over a 3 mile trip so it was an express transit trip. The van driver develops a sort of fixed route on which he sandwiches additional riders as myself as appropriate. Upon alighting at the station I inquired whether they could pick me up the next morning around 7. They said yes and they informed me that the pick up would be 5 minutes to 7.

The following morning they were there again within the minute. This time, I showed them a Transit Pass that TriMet issued to all the workshop attendees. The driver acknowledged the pass so I did not pay any fare for this trip as well as all subsequent van/transit trips including my trip to the airport.

I asked TriMet about providing fixed route feeder buses for such a low densely sprawled area and they said it would cost 3-4 times more than this demand individualized service. Furthermore, as a transit rider, this was far superior door to door service than fixed route and in one case I experienced driving up onto a long driveway for a pick up. This service is mostly for regular riders at set times, similar to car pools.

Two drivers have the contract with TriMet and operate two vans. The drivers were former truck and taxi drivers. To provide this service they alternate, one operating all day (12 hours) and the other during peak commute hours. I believe they provide 200-250 trips per day. About twice the number of trips are in the PM than the AM. Evidently most riders plan their AM trips via pooling, kiss and ride or van use to get to the station, but in the PM with varied return times the riders use the vans. In the PM, any riders living in this contracted area can get a ride home if there is space. Regular daily riders are given priority and others will fill in for up to 10 person per trip which takes about 30 minutes per round trip.

This service has been in operation for two years. TriMet contracted this service initially as a trial for one year and with its success they went out for a three years contract with a provision to extend it an additional two years. The contractor said he originally started with larger cars as cabs but with the loads especially in the PM he changed to vans.

The need for supplementary service to Station is similar to what BART is experiencing. Sunset Station is TriMets only station with structured parking. The structure is a three stories with around 400 spaces. They do not charge for parking and the lot is filled around 7 AM. To provide more access they considered more parking and feeder buses for this hilly area lacked fixed route service. They made studies of providing fixed route peak service as well as all day service but the ridership was so low that they decided to try this demand responsive service.

For our area, El Cerrito has greater dwelling density and is not as hilly but lacks feeder service. Orinda or Lafayette is similar to Portland in density and being hilly. If the overall cost for van service is $45-55 per hour, my rough calculation shows if BART charged $1 per trip this service could be provided at around 50-60% fare recovery. If adding the current subsidy we provide for free surface parking of $1 per day the recovery would be around 75%

If El Cerrito BART's capital cost were used for van service, the service could be free and would not require the $1.40 per day per space maintenance costs for structured parking around ten years. If the $1.40 were invested over ten years it could provide additional years of free feeder service. By this time BART would be charging for parking and perhaps feeder service. To increase access, the van could be converted to buses which would provide far greater access than parking. One parking space provides only a finite number of riders and once occupied access will not increase. Also parking is very poor use of land next to stations. Whereas, feeder service is capable of increasing access depending on size of vehicle used. BART definitely should consider feeder service in lieu more parking.

It would be good if someone from BART contact TriMet to see if they have a study or evaluation of alternatives for access to stations and what they pay for this van service. Then make a comprehensive study of providing access using various alternatives such as parking feeder buses and vans for Orinda, Lafayette, El Cerrito and Pleasant Hill. For a contact person with TriMet, I suggest Young Park, Manager of Capital Projects. 503/962-2138 Fax 503/962-2281, and

e-mail; parky@tri-met.org