Nat Waggoner, Georgetown’s transportation analyst, presented the final plans for goGeo—the city’s new bus transit system—Tuesday at a City Council workshop and meeting. Council was slated to vote on whether to approve the plans so the bus system, which has already been approved by City Council, could move forward for launch this fall. Council Member Rachael Jonrowe, who said she supports the system, proposed to move approval to the council’s April 25 meeting. Her motion carried 5-2. Jonrowe said she wanted city staff to seek further community input on stop placement. “I want to say ‘Go, go, go,’ but I want to serve my constituents,” she said. “My residents have voiced concern about the placement of stops in front of their houses.” Jonrowe said that although she is encouraging her constituents to compromise with the city on stop placement, the city did not provide adequate time for residents with adjacent property to express their concerns. “If a stop moves from one property to another property, that then impacts that property owner and that doesn’t help anybody,” she said. “But I’m reaching out to my constituents and encouraging them to compromise.” Waggoner said postponing the project could affect funding and launch dates for the new program. GoGeo is set to soft-launch Aug. 18 and hard-launch Aug. 21. “The countdown clock is 93 business days from trying to deliver service,” Waggoner said. “Taking two weeks of public comment would mean taking two weeks to analyze it. Then we’d need to notify the new property owners of adjacent stops.” Waggoner said the entire process of seeking more input could add eight weeks to proposed launch dates, which were intended to provide service at the start of Southwestern University’s fall semester. “It would be one thing if we delay it until the end of April, but council has already identified to move forward with the fixed-route system,” City Manager David Morgan said. “There will be stops where people don’t want them, but they will not be permanent. We can move them as we continue to receive feedback. We can react to those.” Had the move to postpone the vote failed, city staff would have to wait 90 days before the system’s final plans could return to City Council’s agenda for a vote. Council Member Anna Eby, who moved to adopt the plan as presented, was visibly upset when her motion failed 3-4. Mayor Dale Ross was also less than thrilled with the results of the vote. “I don’t know what delaying two weeks is going to do. Just more people are going to complain,” Ross said. “I’m sorry that we’re delaying your project, Nat. We just took 14 days off your 93-day calendar.”

Resident concerns heard

Resident Jeff Shald said his car was recently in the shop with a blown gasket for more than a month. He said he hopes the system will succeed, stating that it is difficult to traverse Georgetown without a vehicle. “My idea is that in Phase 2, the system needs to get to the high school,” Shald said. “I want high school kids to get to Courageous Conversations and other after-school opportunities for kids that they’re missing out on.” Shald said the lack of service to Georgetown ISD schools also prevents parents from attending their children's sporting events or school board meetings. Mayoral candidate Sherwin Kahn told City Council he supports the bus system but had concerns about bus stop placement. “I received a letter that a bus stop was going to be within one car length of my driveway,” he said. “Residents have had little time to deal with where these stops are. Even though there have been numerous meetings, none of us have had a reason to go to them until we got that letter.” Kahn said his concern with the stop placement regards safety. He said he proposes the bus stop move across the street from its current placement. “My block has never had parking for the exact reason that parking there would be dangerous, "he said. "One car whipping around that corner would not only block my driveway, but could hit someone. People across the street would love to have the bus stop at the apartments right there. I think this would be a safer location.”

Mapping stops

Waggoner said city staff, when determining stop placement, used resident input to analyze people’s needed pickups and desired destinations. The city also looked at census data, including income, car availability and age. “We met with the county, the school district and made the rounds public and private,” he said. “Then we put lines on a map and placed origins and destinations.” To further narrow down desired routes, city staff analyzed public right of way at potential stops to ensure public property was available to add the stops. This step included examining construction feasibility, Waggoner said. A public works crew looked at utility lines that would conflict with construction to narrow down potential stops. The city also conducted a study to ensure the stops were compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. For the last three weeks, Georgetown staff ran the routes twice to ensure proper stop placement and route timing. The city of Austin's transit provider, Capital Metro—which has an interlocal agreement with Georgetown and is the area's designated recipient of federal funding—also spent at least 14 hours in Georgetown last week during morning, lunch and evening rush hours, running those routes with the actual buses that will be used, Waggoner said. Staff began notifying property owners with homes adjacent to bus stops in February. The last round of letters went out the first of March and should have reached property owners by March 15.

Concern over performance measures

GoGeo buses are owned and operated by the Capital Area Rural Transportation System, or CARTS, which operates the city’s existing on-demand and paratransit services. CARTS will also employ bus drivers and maintain the buses. Georgetown partly funded the system, David Morgan said. CARTS has hired two drivers from Georgetown for the system and will soon hire three more, Waggoner said. “CARTS and Capital Metro sees this as our service,” Waggoner said. “They see this very much as a city of Georgetown service and help us. We own it.” Waggoner said that if 50 percent of any in a series of measures are not met, then the city would provide monthly updates on the transit system’s performance. These performance measures are required by the Federal Transit Administration every six months. He said Capital Metro modifies their routes three times a year. The performance measures as proposed for fiscal year 2017-18 are: six passengers per revenue hour, 6 percent fare box recovery, $12 cost per passenger, $75 cost per revenue hour and 95 percent on-time performance. The performance numbers are for route pairings because it would take a passenger an hour to travel two routes. Ross said because the bus only operates 12 hours per day, the expectations for ridership seemed low. If the city only expects six riders every hour for every two routes then between the system’s four routes, the city would only expect 12 riders per hour—equating to only 144 riders per day. “Six riders per two routes, that’s nothing. Six is not a lot but it shows it’s got some traction,” said Council Member Steve Fought. “I intend to hold the system to the previous understanding. If we can’t get three riders per route per hour, we need to change something. Since we’re managing this by route, we need to evaluate it by route.”