Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes (Sept. 24, 2003)

Attendees

Advisory Board:

• Keven Anderson, Minnesota Department of Transportation
• Julia Bommelman, Metro Area Transit - Fargo
• Rich Douglas, Wyoming Department of Transportation
• Bruce Fuchs, North Dakota Department of Transportation
• Gene Griffin, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
• Lyn Hellegaard, Montana Transit Association
• Tony Kouneski, American Public Transportation Association
• Bruce Lindholm, South Dakota Department of Transportation
• Barbara Sisson, Federal Transit Administration
• Peggy Morris, Dakota Transit Association
• Rick Thoms, Souris Basin Transportation
• Lori Van Beek, City of Moorhead, Transit
• Chris Zeilinger, Community Transportation Association of America

Absent members:

• Jim Miller, Faculty Affiliate
• Wyoming Public Transit Association
• Montana Department of Transportation

SURTC Staff:

• Gary Hegland, Associate Research Fellow
• Jill Hough, Director
• Del Peterson, Associate Research Fellow

Agenda

• Tour/Demo/Overview of UGPTI, ATAC, DOTSC, TEL8, Hastings Hall (8:00 a.m.)
• Welcome & Introductions, Alumni Center (9:00 a.m.)
  • Dave Sprynczynatyk, Director, North Dakota Department of Transportation
  • Gene Griffin, Director, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
  • Jill Hough, Director, Small Urban & Rural Transit Center
• Washington Report
  • Barbara Sisson, FTA Associate Administrator
  • Tony Kouneski, APTA
  • Chris Zeilinger, CTAA
• SURTC Progress to Date
  • Completed Projects
  • New Projects Underway
• State & Local Perspectives
• Lunch
• Suggestions & Further Discussion
• Tour Metropolitan Area Transit Facilities (2:30)
• Dinner (optional)

Meeting Theme

The purpose of this committee meeting was to bring the committee members together to provide an update on SURTC over the past year and to discuss relevant public transportation issues that each state is facing. The issues discussed will help guide the projects SURTC will address over the next year.

Welcome

Mr. Dave Sprynczynatyk, Director, North Dakota Department of Transportation
Mr. Gene Griffin, Director, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
Ms. Jill Hough, Director, Small Urban & Rural Transit Center

National Perspective

Ms. Barbara Sisson, Associate Administrator, Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Ms. Sisson commented on President Bush's proposed re-authorization legislation referred to as SAFETEA. She indicated that it offers transit systems opportunity to enhance coordination among local, state, federal and other agencies working with transportation issues, increase rural transit, start new transit systems, increase planning, and encourage private sector participation in public transportation through funding incentives and opportunities.

Mr. Tony Kouneski, Vice-President Member Services, American Public Transportation Association (APTA)
Mr. Kouneski pointed out that APTA is an advocacy organization representing transportation interests in Washington. APTA has an active program for small urban and rural transit operators. Its strategic plan for small operators is to provide more resources and technical support to small operators, develop programs to grow ridership, and help small operators build capabilities.

Mr. Chris Zeilinger, Assistant Director, Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA)
Mr. Zeilinger listed some of the issues facing small transit systems: jurisdictional boundaries, security and safety issues, vehicle design, and appropriate training and professional development. Training is very important in light of the growing number of young people using transit in small communities today.

SURTC Update

Jill Hough, Director of SURTC, provided an overview of the vision, mission and goals of SURTC. She provided a brief overview of completed or nearly completed projects including transportation of the disadvantaged, campus transit, and state census data. She also described projects under way, including work on the North Dakota statewide mobility plan, demographic analysis, non-profit organizations in public transportation, a transit best practices manual, coordinated transportation, the James River Transit study, and an information technology tool kit for transit providers. Jill also reported on education and training efforts.

Potential Projects

A number of potential research and training projects for SURTC were identified at the meeting through discussion of issues facing each state. Potential projects include:

1. Insurance Issues - Insurance premiums have increased substantially for public transit entities in each of the five SURTC states. Further, some insurance providers have left the five-state area limiting the options of providers. What can SURTC do to help public transit entities achieve proper insurance coverage, and reduce the increasing costs of the coverage?
2. Coordination - Several advisory members concurred there is a need to better coordinate transportation services in each of the states. Members identified several different transportation entities that are pulling up to schools to drop children off such as, Head Start, public transit, school district owned buses, etc. There is a growing need to coordinate these services to share the scarce resources.
3. Job Access Reverse Commute - The reporting requirements for JARC are burdensome and have limited the number of agencies applying for these funds. The group brought this to the FTA's attention. Can SURTC work with FTA to reduce reporting requirements for rural areas?
4. Revenue Sources - There is a need to identify revenue sources for the non-profit transit operations.
5. Match Requirements - It was mentioned the 50-50 match requirements are too difficult for rural/small transit systems to acquire. There is a need to reduce the match requirements to 80-20 or 90-10 in order for rural/small public transit systems to find the match funding.
6. Volunteer Drivers - Some locations are making use of volunteer drivers. Is there an opportunity for SURTC to work to develop a consortium of volunteer drivers that can assist public transit entities to provide rides? SURTC will look into work being conducted in the state of Maine regarding volunteer drivers.
7. Multi-state Procurement - There is a need for states to work together to take advantage of large purchase cost discounts. Is there a possibility for SURTC to assist in setting up this process?
8. Training - There is a great need for driver's training. In some locations there is a higher level of turnover and a need to train drivers immediately, so they are qualified to provide knowledgeable and quality service.
9. Excel Scheduling - The transit system in Missoula worked with a developer to develop an excel based scheduling program to assist them with community wide scheduling of rides and connecting/communicating via the internet with other carriers. This program may be beneficial to transit entities. SURTC may be able to assist in getting this information out to other systems in other states.
10. Transit Economics - Discussion took place about the need for a study to investigate a connection between transit and economic development. Studies have been conducted in the past, but it was questioned whether a new study was needed focusing on the rural areas.
11. ITS integration - There is a need for ITS technologies that are affordable to small rural transit systems. There is also a need for integration among any ITS technologies that are used.
12. Protecting 5309 - There was a strong desire to protect 5309 by the DOT's. It was stated that this program allows North Dakota rural providers to stay in business; without it the system would not be able to replace aging buses.
13. Private Sector Providers - How can we get more private sector providers involved with transit?
14. Rural Transit Salary Survey - It was briefly discussed to identify whether there was a need to identify transit salaries across the U.S. in rural areas. The group felt the transit systems pay as much as they can and not much would be gained by this information.
15. Jurisdictional Boundaries - There are problems with agencies providing services to clients crossing county boundaries. How can SURTC address the jurisdictional boundaries issue for public transit entities?

Tour

A tour was taken of the Metropolitan Area Transit Ground Transportation Terminal in downtown Fargo and the new West Acres Terminal.

Closing

The advisory board meeting concluded with dinner at the Holiday Inn and adjourned at 7:30 p.m. The next SURTC advisory board meeting will be held next year (2004). The date and location of the next meeting is yet to be determined.