Citizens’
Advisory Council General Meeting
Wednesday,
January 24, 2007
General
Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order at 6:29pm. Members in attendance: Roger Christensen
(Chairperson), Wesley McCarns (Vice-Chairperson), Kymberleigh Richards
(Secretary), Tony Banash, Neil Bjornsen, Russ Davies, Seymour Rosen, Howard
Sachar, Peter Schick, Wally Shidler.
Chair Christensen introduced guests Ralph Franklin (City Councilmember,
City of
Public comment received from Sean McCarthy congratulating Metro on the
opening of the Canoga Park-Ride Orange Line Station and suggesting Metro extend
the Orange Line via Canoga Ave. until the busway extension is built; from Ken
Ruben on the reopening of the Metro Customer Service Center at Wilshire/La Brea
and on the Westside/Central Sector Governance Council’s promotion of a Green
Line extension to LAX; and from Dana Gabbard on an incident of a Metro bus
operator attempting to surreptitiously use a wireless phone while in service
and the operator’s reaction the next time she saw him board her bus.
Chair Christensen noted the recent passing of former Metro Director and
CAC member Jim Cragin (noting that a sympathy card was circulated for CAC members
to sign), and the approval by the City of Los Angeles of the Blossom Plaza
transit-oriented development project near Chinatown Gold Line Station.
Richard Hunt, General Manager of the Metro San Fernando Valley Sector,
gave a report on the Metro Orange Line, and received comments and answered
questions regarding:
·
Cost-effectiveness: Evaluation methods will be improved for the FY08
budget; suggestion made that cost per passenger mile be used as basis
·
Orange Line revenue: Ticket vending machines taking in $6800/weekday;
approximately 30% of that is believed to be Orange Line-allocated
·
Cost per hour:
·
Short-lining at Sepulveda Station: 25% of park-ride lot usage is in
West Valley, expect new Canoga lot to increase ridership from western end; new
signage approved by the City of Los Angeles for Sepulveda Station expected to
improve ridership at that station; difficulty in short-lining creates logistics
problem in routing and scheduling
·
Express (skip-stop) service: Being evaluated but no decision to be made
until “slow order” can be lifted
·
Pavement issue on
·
“Slow Order”: Adding three to seven minutes per trip, 31 at-grade
crossings affected, photo enforcement at 12 intersections has resulted in 8100
citations and accidents have been reduced by 90%; better signage and restriping
also contributing to lowering accident rate and slow order expected to be
partially lifted and/or modified as a result; question if speed control
technology should be used for adherence; question if embedded lights, similar
to those used on some crosswalk striping, would improve visibility
·
Equipment reliability: High, except that “engine problem” light being
triggered by failure of oxygen sensor in engine; road call statistics show
lower on Orange Line than Local/Rapid service, adjusted for amount of service
delivered; mechanics have required retraining on CNG engine technology as Metro
fleet moves away from diesel; experiment with disc brakes shows success
·
Capacity issues: Three additional buses added in peak-hour, reducing
headways from five to four minutes, but no further headway reduction is
possible without creating logistics problems with traffic signals along busway;
20,000 passengers carried per weekday (on average) with full capacity usage at
peak-hour, and over 10,000 passengers per Saturday and Sunday; prototype 65’
bus has been approved by Caltrans for testing, pending Metro Board approval
(would provide 16% increase in capacity); 80’ hybrid-powered bus now being tested
by manufacturer; 15% of Metro bus purchases will need to be zero-emission
starting in 2012 (hydrogen fuel-cell, battery, or electric trolley), per
AQMD rules
·
Bike racks: Internal racks proved problematic, have been removed in
favor of external racks, now testing three-position external rack
·
North extension to Chatsworth: Planning process active, Metro property
adjacent to Sector office which was to have been sold now being retained for
development of additional maintenance facility
·
Future conversion to light rail: Difficult engineering would be where
alignment passes underneath 405 freeway; not feasible until daily boardings
exceed 50,000
·
Transit TV: Comment that volume is annoyingly high
·
Orange Line vs. driving: U.C. Berkeley study showed savings of 10% between
Valley and Downtown
·
Merger of NABI with Optima and Blue Bird
·
Better coordination of schedules and fare policy between
Metro/LADOT/Santa Monica Big Blue Bus
Minutes of the October 25, 2006 General
Meeting approved. (Motion: Shidler,
Second: McCarns)
Discussed draft version of letter urging
Metro Board of Directors to appoint Governance Council members to the CAC from
sectors not already represented. Councilmember Sachar indicated that the letter
did not reflect his intent in proposing the additional appointments. Item moved
to February meeting, with Sachar to redraft letter (Motion: Richards, Second:
Bjornsen).
Comment by Councilmember Davies on
deficiencies in Metro Trip Planner functionality.
Comment by Councilmember Shidler on CAC
members contacting their appointers regarding CAC direction and work plan. Referred by Chair Christensen to the
Executive Committee.
Comment by Councilmember Rosen on process for
receiving Access Services identification card.
Comment by Councilmember Sachar suggesting
memorial for Jim Cragin along Metro Green Line. Councilmember Bjornsen
requested CAC send a letter of condolences to the Cragin family. Referred by
Chair Christensen to the Executive Committee.
Meeting adjourned at 8:09pm in memory of Jim
Cragin.
Submitted by Kymberleigh Richards, CAC Secretary