[tabi] Re: Nova 2010 Plan
- From: "Allison and Chip Orange" <acorange@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:54:58 -0400
thanks Lori! this helps enormously!
Chip
-----Original Message-----
From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Laurie Davis
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:31 PM
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tabi] Re: Nova 2010 Plan
Hi all,
As some of you may know, my husband, Kevin, is on the Transportation
Advisory Committee for the Mayor. This committee advises the City
Commission on transportation issues with Star Metro. Mr. Sheib is on the
Committee, as well as some other people in the community. I forwarded the
questions that Sila posted yesterday. He posted some of the questions to
the Committee. One had to do with making the street crossings at the
transfer points safer. The other had to do with making textual maps of the
routes, similar to those books that Taltran had. He thought they should
have carefully-worded descriptions of the routes and the stops, including
landmarks, such as office buildings and shopping centers.
From what he can find out so far, Dial-A-Ride will not be changed at all,
since they already do a lot more than the federal requirements for
paratransit service.
I hope this helps.
Laurie
----- Original Message -----
From: Sila Miller <mailto:silam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 8:35 PM
Subject: [tabi] Re: Nova 2010 Plan
Lynn, This is absolutely excellent and I truly appreciate your time,
effort and spokesmenship!
The below info came from a sighted but non-driving friend who takes
the bus DAILY to the R.A. Gray building, and for virtually all her errands.
She saw these weaknesses with the map as published on the website. Have a
look and use what you need. I too liked Robert's suggestion of feeder routes
(smaller buses.)
Thank you again!
Sila
1. No bus access on Ocala Road between Tharpe and Tennessee
2. No bus access to schools on Miccosukee Road (Leon High, Trinity
Catholic, Cobb Middle and Kate Sullivan)
3. No bus going into either Tallahassee Mall or Governor's Square
Mall
4. No bus to Griffin Middle School or Ruediger Elementary
5. No bus on South Bronough Street between Pensacola Street and
Gaines
- access to R.A. Gray Building
6. No bus on West College Avenue
7. No bus on Governor's Square Boulevard
8. No bus access to Lincoln High, Apalachee Elementary or Adult
Education
9. No bus to Trousdell Gymnastics Center and pool
----- Original Message -----
From: Lynn Evans <mailto:evans-lynn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 3:54 PM
Subject: [tabi] Re: Nova 2010 Plan
Ok how does this sound.
I will definitely begoing to one of the meetings at the
senior center and maybe more on the 21st and 28.
I have made a folder and I will funnel your concerns about
the Nova 2010 Plan into this folder and print the items out to take to the
meeting. I am starting with Robert's message. I will remove the names to
protect the innocent.
Now if someone thinks this is a bad idea or just wants to
sound off and not have it printed out then I want do it.
----- Original Message -----
From: Easy Talk <mailto:easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 9:15 AM
Subject: [tabi] Re: Nova 2010 Plan
This new system will pretty much make most of us
home bound since federal law says Pari Transit only has to go 3 quarters of
a mile out of the fixed route system and from what I can tell and is clearly
stated in the plan busses will no longer go in to neighbor hoods. You can
run buses up and down major roads in Tallahassee all you want but it looks
like they will be empty since people can't get to them.
If it rains, the city might as well shut down the
buses. Not many people are going to walk a mile or 2 to catch the bus and
dial a ride will no longer be required to pick you up.
Robert
----- Original Message -----
From: Chip Orange
<mailto:Corange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 5:53 PM
Subject: [tabi] Re: Nova 2010 Plan
Hi William and all,
thank you for the posting.
I'd like you to know I've been speaking with
another blind individual, who is neither associated with TABI or TCB, so
most of us are unlikely to know what he knows and vice versa.
He in turn has been speaking with Sam, and
has mentioned to him that the new routes as planned, do not go directly up
to the malls (such as Governor's Square), but only approach a near-by street
corner (I believe he said the Parkway and Park Avenue for instance).
This would mean quite a walk for someone
going to Gov Square, and even worse, part of it would have to be across the
parking lot without any landmarks.
He has also mentioned that several routes
would require transferring by walking across a difficult to cross street
such as ThomasVille Road or Capitol Circle, in order to achieve certain
routings.
In general, he believes Star Metro has made
these decisions without considering the difficulty a blind pedestrian would
face in following the plan.
I don't know if his understanding is
correct, and even if the current plan is still this way, but I thought I'd
point it out for those who are interested as an item I would judge to be of
importance.
hth,
Chip
------------------------------
Chip Orange
Database Administrator
Florida Public Service Commission
Chip.Orange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(850) 413-6314
(Any opinions expressed are solely those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public
Service Commission.)
________________________________
From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of blindwilly
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009
5:40 PM
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tabi] Nova 2010 Plan
Greetings,
The following is an on going
discussion I have been having with Sam Scheiv of Star Metro. In fact here
is his first message, back to me.
Dear Mr. Benjamin:
It was nice speaking to you
yesterday. Please find attached the document describing the Nova 2010
project. Below I have written descriptions of each route
as they are now. I have not
included every turn or small street, but enough to understand the general
direction. These routes are still in flux. In
fact I just made a change this
morning. So this is not final. We are taking suggestions from the public
and incorporating them into the plan. That means
we need to know what people DO like
as much as what people don't like. I hope you find this interesting and I
appreciate you calling.
Sincerely,
Samuel L. Scheib
Senior Planner
Nova 2010 Overview
For many years transit concentrated
in downtown Tallahassee where shoppers, moviegoers, employees, and diners
invariably traveled. Over the ensuing decades, the downtown share of the
city's employment decreased as shopping centers, restaurants, movie
theaters, and even government jobs relocated to the periphery (Tax World,
Koger Center, CCOC, etc.).
The practice of transit is changing,
and a growing number of agencies have found serving multiple destinations
has been tremendously successful, starting with West Coast transit
properties in Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, California and then spreading
to places like Colorado Springs and Madison, Wisconsin, a state capital with
a large university presence like our own. In Florida, Pinellas and Broward
Counties have similarly restructured their systems.
Concurrent with the 2005 StarMetro
Renaissance Plan, the 2005 Transit Development Plan, the November 2008 City
Commission Target Issue Meeting and the City Manager's 2009 Resolutions,
StarMetro has taken preliminary steps to create a decentralized route
structure plan for the City of Tallahassee. Once implemented, the plan,
known as Nova 2010, would distribute transit services mostly along major
roadways in Tallahassee; several routes will not serve downtown at all. By
not sending every route to C.K. Steele Plaza, passengers would experience
greater frequency of service and a system that more closely resembles
contemporary vehicular travel patterns.
In developing the draft plan, there
were several assumptions about conditions in Tallahassee. First, the system
would, like the present one, serve the city of Tallahassee with the few
exceptions currently in place, such as Bradfordville on the 80x. Second, we
would work to use, to the best extent possible, existing facilities. We
have Steele Plaza and approximately 105 bus shelters, and have adapted a
draft plan to use these resources as a starting point on implementation day.
Expanding with additional facilities would be added as the plan gains
popularity, as needed and as fiscally feasible. Lastly, we assumed two
lanes on Tennessee Street between Monroe and Ocala would be converted to
transit-only use, as is currently recommended in a study by Genesis Group.
Beyond that, our goal was to use similar existing resources-the number of
buses and drivers, the funding level-all would remain as close as possible
to current levels. The above is based on our cursory draft plan. This
draft plan is subject to changes based minimally on a full system analysis,
review of alternatives, considerable public involvement, a thorough origin
and destination study and Commission approval.
We focused our analysis on
employment density, as the planning literature consistently points to
employment density being better at generating transit trips than population
density; although having high densities of both is best. Since employment
densities are highest on major roadways, we assigned routes to these roads
while trying to approximate a grid network as seen on the attached map.
Nova 2010 is intended to accomplish
several things:
q Reduce Downtown Trips: The
most common customer complaint is that all the buses go downtown. At a
recent listening session, a customer lamented the only way to get from one
section of Orange Avenue to another was to first go to Steele Plaza at the
corner of Tennessee and Adams Streets. In order to mimic contemporary
travel patters (i.e. to go to jobs on the periphery) passengers often must
make the V-shaped trip of going downtown first and then back out again to
the customers final destination.
q Reduce Redundancy: The
current hub and spoke system requires all buses to meet at the same time at
the central hub. Since C.K. Steele Plaza is located along a major arterial
(W. Tennessee Street, near the intersection with Monroe Street), every bus
must travel along this corridor at the same time in order for passengers to
make their transfers. This results in two or more buses arriving and leaving
from the plaza in tandem to travel along the same corridor for a significant
distance, passing the same stops. With the concept Nova 2010 plan, the
importance of C.K. Steele Plaza is downplayed as buses operate independent
of each other. This allows for one bus to cover an entire corridor, instead
of five buses covering the same corridor, as is the case of W. Tennessee
Street.
q Increase On-Time
Performance: Another complaint staff receives is buses run behind schedule.
This is primarily due to two reasons - buses traveling at lower speeds in
neighborhoods, and routes being dependent on each other for transfers (i.e.
if one arrives late, the other buses are held for transferring patrons).
Under Nova 2010, buses will remain on the major roads allowing for higher
travel speeds as applicable. In addition, the routes operate independent of
each other. This means if one arrives late, it does not affect the operation
of the other routes. Patrons are would be accommodated better with Nova 2010
with higher service frequency leading to shorter wait times (10 to 30
minutes during peak hours verses up to an hour with the current system).
q Increased
Ridership/Decreased Carbon Footprint: StarMetro expects Nova 2010 to make
transit significantly more attractive to a much broader part of the
community, and each single-occupancy-vehicle driver that shifts to transit
represents reduced carbon emissions, cleaner air, reduced congestion, less
road maintenance, etc.
q Reduce travel time for
patrons using transit: Instead of going in and out of neighborhoods, the
Nova 2010 plan would have more direct service to major employment and
shopping/recreation centers.
q Increase frequency: Buses
will arrive more often giving our customers more options for using transit
service with greater convenience.
q Increased Opportunities for
Regional Travel: With few exceptions (80X, Route 17, and Route 21), there
are no opportunities for regional travel in the current system. By
decentralizing the system, independent cross-town routes along major
corridors create the opportunities for regional expansion.
While there are many distinct
advantages in addition to the aforementioned ones of the Nova 2010 concept
plan, there are a few perceived disadvantages, which have proven to be
advantages across the country:
q Routes would no longer
circulate within neighborhoods. This will, however, allow StarMetro to serve
a larger population by providing higher frequency and better service to the
most popular destinations.
q Related to the above,
walking distances to StarStops are anticipated to increase. On the other
hand, this will lead to fewer stops, increased mobility, a more pleasurable
riding experience and a healthier community.
The benefits, however, would far
outweigh the few discrete disadvantages, which are better communicated in a
longer visual presentation. StarMetro would have a more dependable system
going where our patrons want to go doing so in a timely, efficient fashion.
After I got this message, as per
Sila requested, I asked for a discription of the routes for the eleven bus
routes, and they are as follows..
US 90 (1), 20 minutes: Fallschase, W
US 90, S Appleyard, W Pensacola, N Blountstown, E US 90
US 90 (2), 20 minutes: Fallschase, W
US 90, N Capital Circle, loop through Commonwealth, S Capital Circle, E US
90
Orange, 15 minutes: Loop through
Paul Dirac, W Roberts, S Eisenhower, E Lake Jackson/Orange Ave, S Capital
Circle, loop through Capital Circle Office Center
East, 15 minutes. Village Square,
Capital Circle, Southwood/Capital Circle Office Center
Southside, 15 minutes: Ross Road, N
Shelfer, N Crawfordville, Gaile Ave, N Monroe Street, Steele Plaza
Frenchtown/Bond, 15 minutes: Orange,
Saxon, Wahnish/Macomb/Old Bainbridge, Volusia, Alabama to Preston Loop, and
back.
Pensalachee, 20 minutes: Pensacola,
Gaines, Lafayette, Apalachee Parkway
Hospitals, 30 minutes: Woodland,
Tuscan, Sunnyside, N. Ridge, E Springsax, E Bragg, E Paul Dirac, N Jim Lee,
N Magnolia, E Miccosukee, Capital Medical,
Bufford, NE Centerville, SE
Fleischmann, W Misscosukee
West Loop, 30 minutes (both
directions): N Monroe, SW Fred George, S Mission, S Appleyard, E Jackson
Bluff, N Woodward, E St. Augustine, through downtown
to Monroe
NE to Innovation: N Pottsdamer, E
Iamonia, N Lake Jackson, E Gaines, Gadsden, Thomasville
North Mover, 30 minutes:
Commonwealth, Hartsfield, Pullen, Allen, Henderson, Meridian,
Bradford/Betton
CommonWalmart, 30 minutes:
Commonwealth, Tharpe, MLK/Duval/Bronough, Park, Gov. Square Blvd, Park
Conner Blvd, Walmart.
It has been that discriptions brings
up more questions than answere, so here it is to work with.\
William benjamin
William Benjamin, Piano Tuner
Extraordinaire.
The tuner alone preserves the tone.
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