Okaloosa County BOCC — August 16, 2016 — Access EC Rider TDP - August Draft Report — reading text

Park, and Brooks on Okaloosa Island.  There should be a more multimodal approach (walking, biking, etc.) to transportation. ACCESS EC RIDER | Okaloosa County’s 10-Year Transit Development Plan 113  Section 5: Situation Appraisal  A water taxi might be useful in serving the locality and the region because the population centers are divided by water.  Transit service is needed to better connect the transit-dependent population from Crestview and the northern half of Okaloosa County to the new County Courthouse in Fort Walton Beach and to jobs in the beach/tourism areas. In the past, the need for a most robust transit service was especially apparent when temporary workers for the Emerald Grande construction project were housed in an off-site apartment facility, but had no means to commute to work.  Need for more community partnerships—Sunshine Shuttle & Limousine is a private company that provides transportation services in northwest Florida. Specifically, the company caters to convention centers, private schools, and weddings and provides taxi services in the Destin area. In the past, employers have hired the Sunshine Shuttle to transport their employees. The Emerald Grande at the HarborWalk Village, a vacation rental complex in Destin, is in need of a park-and-ride facility for its employees to park off-site and take transit to work in order to make available more on-site parking spaces for their customers.  Future demand—two new airlines will be coming to the regional airports and will bring more tourist traffic to this area, highlighting the need for a more robust transit system.  Service and infrastructure improvements—there is a need for bicycle facilities in the beach areas, more express bus services, improved transit technologies, weekend services for workers, service for Eglin Air Force Base workers and Special OPS personnel on Hurlburt Field, as well as additional services for the different types of riders in both northern and southern Okaloosa County. Implications – Several potential improvements were identified across all public involvement efforts, including more frequent service and adding weekend and more night service and regional connections. Important to Okaloosa County will be the need to balance the allocation of limited resources if and when these improvements are implemented. A major strategic planning consideration for Okaloosa County is whether to enhance public transportation by implementing new local and regional connections or maintain the existing deviated fixed‐route system with improvement to its service delivery in the existing service areas. Organizational Issues The EC Rider services operate as part of the Okaloosa County Growth Management Administration, which oversees a number of other services, including planning, inspections, and administration. The Growth Management Department manages the contracts and oversees transit operations in terms of services operated and grants. The Okaloosa County Commission serves as the EC Rider Board of Directors. Under the County Commission is the Growth Management Administration. Okaloosa County previously contracted its public transit services to a not-for-profit corporation. As of October 1, 2015, Maruti Fleet Management, LCC, a private- ACCESS EC RIDER | Okaloosa County’s 10-Year Transit Development Plan 114  Section 5: Situation Appraisal for-profit company, operates the County’s transit fixed-route and paratransit services, as well as emergency evacuation services for the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners. Implications – While continuing the current organizational structure as part of a County department, EC Rider should continue to explore opportunities in its effort to increase service and manage efficiencies. Periodic efforts such as a more detailed COA or an internal assessment will identify whether any operations or management efficiencies can be gained. Technology Okaloosa County has implemented some key technology components/improvements to its bus fleet, including the following:  FDOT has engaged the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and Trillium Solutions to produce General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data for selected transit agencies in Florida. The benefit of GTFS data is for online trip planners. Google Maps will enable transit riders to more easily understand transit options and plan their travel routes. Okaloosa County unanimously adopted a motion on July 7, 2015, regarding a request from Growth Management that the Board authorize the Transit Coordinator/Grants Manager to accept and execute the Google Online Agreement for GTFS data which would be incorporated into Google Maps. There is no cost to participate in this service.  All vehicles used for transit services in Okaloosa County are equipped with two-way radios, allowing immediate communication with bus operators, administrative staff, and emergency personnel. However, operators indicated there are ongoing issues with dispatch, which can be difficult to contact, and voice communications are often broken.  Other technology upgrades include a GPS Intelligent Transportation upgrade, an Import Tool update that allows trips from LogistiCare to be auto-loaded into Trapeze, and an auto-generated Trapeze funding source, which can increase detail and enable the County to allocate transit expense across grants to maximize “match” and use funds available from other grants.  Technology upgrades also include EC Rider installing Trapeze and GPS on buses to track data and send information to cities and counties. This includes applications that allow people to physically track bus locations and the agency to track client calls. It also identifies sequences, routes, and where clients reside. EC Ride currently uses Logisticare, but data have been found to be inaccurate. Implications – As EC Rider service grows incrementally, it should implement technologies such as Automatic Passenger Counters (APCs), voice announcement systems, and other technology upgrades to enhance its quality of service. Such technologies generally are funded by federal capital grants and their deployment can contribute to ridership data collection/performance monitoring efforts, thus improving system efficiency and revenues. ACCESS EC RIDER | Okaloosa County’s 10-Year Transit Development Plan 115  SECTION 6: GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Goals and objectives are an integral part of any transportation plan because they provide the policy direction to achieve the community’s vision. The goals and objectives presented in this section were prepared based on the review and assessment of existing conditions, feedback received during the public involvement process, and the review of local transportation planning documents. This section presents the draft goals and objectives to support the community’s vision for transit services over the next 10 years as documented in the Access EC Rider TDP. EC Rider Vision Okaloosa County and EC Rider will be recognized as the best small transit system in Florida by delivering a well-balanced multimodal transportation system that promotes community embrace, economic development, accessibility to alternative modes, and environmental sensitivity and supports customer demand. EC Rider Mission Okaloosa County and Okaloosa County Transit will operate and coordinate a safe and reliable public transportation system that effectively and efficiently meets the community’s existing and future mobility needs as identified through on-going outreach to Okaloosa County’s residents, visitors, and businesses. Goals and Objectives Based on the situation appraisal, the draft goals and objectives recommended for the 10-year planning horizon are presented in Table 6-1. Underlined text indicates an addition to and strikethrough text indicates deletion of the goals and objectives included in the previous TDP major update. ACCESS EC RIDER | Okaloosa County’s 10-Year Transit Development Plan 116  Section 6: Goals and Objectives Table 6-1: EC Rider Draft Goals and Objectives Goal 1: Maintain service delivery for existing and potential customers to meet demand for transit services in Okaloosa County. Objective 1.1 Maintain existing levels of fixed-route service. Continue maximization of federal and State grants to maintain adequate funding for the Strategy 1.1.1 existing system Strategy 1.1.2 Apply for additional federal grant funding as new transportation authorization bill allows. Pursue improvements that are the most efficient in terms of garnering ridership and cost- Objective 1.2 effective to implement. Annually monitor ridership on individual routes and identify route modifications that could Strategy 1.2.1 increase ridership. Strategy 1.2.2 Focus service within or connecting to the Urban Development Area Boundary. Proactively develop partnerships with municipalities and large public/private entities within Strategy 1.2.3 service areas. Objective 1.3 Enhance connectivity and transfer opportunities. Ensure that schedules are prepared to maximize timed-transfers at major and minor transfer Strategy 1.3.1 locations. Strategy 1.3.2 Pursue timed transfers at on-street locations where routes intersect. Objective 1.4 Enhance service reliability and on-time performance to secure customer loyalty. Compile customer complaints to determine if specific routes have chronic on-time performance Strategy 1.4.1 problems. Strategy 1.4.2 Conduct running time checks on routes with on-time performance problems. Strategy 1.4.3 Conduct periodic field checks to ensure if routes are running within their allocated running times. Establish guidelines for increasing frequency on high-demand routes to improve service Objective 1.5 capacity. Strategy 1.5.1 Establish standards for weekday frequencies. Strategy 1.5.2 Consider future frequency improvements only as demand warrants. Objective 1.6 Design all fixed-routes to optimize direct routing and minimize customer travel time. Coordinate and partner with Destin to develop stops and amenities and adjust service from U.S. Strategy 1.6.1 98 to parallel corridors with stop improvements. Establish guidelines and a prioritization process for extending hours of service based on Objective 1.7 customer demand and community support. Strategy 1.7.1 Prioritize expansion of evening hours of service only on higher demand