On Board The Rapid: Developing “the people’s plan”

[IMAGE '352' /]The Following was pulled from a section of the Summer-Fall 2010 Rapid Reporter. Rapid Reporters are located on the right side of [INLINK '491']The Rapid's News page[/INLINK]

Most of this edition of Rapid Reporter focuses on the adoption of our Transit Master Plan and the services contained in it. I want to thank everyone who had a hand in developing this document. The public workshops and open houses were some of the best-attended public meetings we’ve ever held. It is clear that many people in our community have strong opinions about what kind of transit system we need. And while we heard a variety of opinions, most agreed that more services, and new types of transportation, are critical for our community to move forward.

[IMAGE '353' /]We’ve been referring to the document as “the people’s plan” and it is an appropriate description. We started this process by going out to the public with a blank slate and asked folks what they would like to see. No preconceived ideas, no pre-set list of services. We were very pleased with the response to this request for involvement. That current riders wanted more service was not surprising. But we heard from many people who would choose to ride if service were more convenient and they were quite specific about what types of services would meet their needs. We also heard from people who aren’t thinking about riding themselves, but who recognize the benefits of a strong transit system for our community. Once the initial list of improvements was developed from this public input, we then asked the public to prioritize the improvements so that we were focusing on those things that had the most support and were most critical to meeting local needs.

All of the public input we received—via workshops and other public meetings, telephone, e-mail, surveys, even social media posts—was then coupled with technical analysis of the current route structure, population and employment projections, peer system comparisons, and a review of funding alternatives.

This information was funneled through our Mobile Metro 2030 Task Force, a group of various community stakeholders that included businesses, educational institutions, health care providers, nonprofit organizations, local governments, and those representing seniors and people with disabilities. This group too, was a mix of riders and non-riders. There was a great deal of discussion among this group throughout the process, but perhaps none so much as the final meeting during which the preferred scenario was discussed. Each member of the task force deserves credit for their commitment and engagement throughout the 10-month process. I’d like to give special thanks to the Chair, Bob Roth of RoMan Manufacturing and Casey Dutmer, representing our Consumers Advisory Council, who
served as Vice Chair.

While this edition of the Rapid Reporter provides a good summary, I encourage you to review the full plan at www.rapidtmp.org. We couldn’t have done it without you.

By Peter Varga, CEO