Travis County Commissioners Court
April 17, 2007
Item 3
Number 3, review -- and 7 will be next. Three is to review and approve requests regarding grant proposals, applications, contracts and permissions to continue. A is grant application to the commute solutions coalition for the transportation and natural resources department to encourage people to use alternative transportation modes. Ms. Noel? I believe Commissioner eckhardt has questions.
>> good morning.
>> this is a 4,500-dollar grant?
>> it is.
>> and I understand from the backup that the $4,500 will go towards bus passes in a pilot program?
>> correct.
>> could you describe the pilot program a little more? I think it will be beneficial for us to know about it, particularly in light of number 8 on the agenda today regarding parking.
>> if we're granted the full amount, the $4,500 from commute solutions, Travis County will be given 450 what's called smart cards. They work similar to our passes to get in and out of the building. These will be electronic cards that allows a Travis County employee to ride a bus for free and will track the number be of routes and the distance as taken by each card every time it's swiped. And this information will be given to us at the end of the pilot program. And this project will help to reduce emissions, commute related, and hopefully improve air quality in Travis County. It's also will give us available information to know -- valuable information to know if whether or not offered bus passes will Travis County employees take advantage of this program.
>> how many smart cars will we get if we get the full 4500?
>> 450.
>> how many?
>> 450.
>> and how will they be distributed?
>> they will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis.
>> and I understand that comiewlt solutions also -- that commute solutions also offers -- is green ride part of commute solutions or is that a separate deal?
>> that is a separate program.
>> okay. And commute solutions does offer a website where you can calculate the cost of your commute by single occupancy vehicles versus taking public transportation?
>> yes, it does.
>> for anyone that's interested, that's commutesolutions.com. That's who is giving us the money.
>> correct.
>> who is commute solutions?
>> they are a group of businesses and organizations like Travis County, the city of Austin, for example, that try to come up with solutions to reduce commute-related emissions and improve air quality. These agencies include capital area metro man planning, the bus system. The city of Austin, tceq, clean air partners, Texas department of insurance, the clean air force, downtown Austin alliance, Travis County capital area rural transportation system and the lower colorado river authority.
>> I'm just trying to wrap my brain around this because I hadn't actually heard of commute solutions before it popped up on the agenda. And in searching around in the commute solutions website, we came upon the let's ride website. Is that part of -- is commute solutions involved in that or is that strictly cap cap?
>> that's capital metro, but commute solutions helps to promote it.
>> I see. And is the commute solutions that is promoting the idea of employee transportation coordinators and public and private employers?
>> yes. They get them all together to work together.
>> what is an employee transportation coordinator?
>> well, it's an individual who acts as a focus point to encourage people to van pool, car pool, ride the bus, bicycle, take some type of an alternative other than a single occupied vehicle.
>> does a employee transportation coordinator, I mean, in that model, does that individual also look at parking options and how to allocate parking as well? Or is that usually outside their bailiwick?
>> it's usually outside. It's usually a human resource issue.
>> I would see where the two would have some overlap.
>> yes.
>> okay. Thanks. I really appreciate it.
>> judge? How many bus riders does Travis County have -- Travis County employees, how many bus riders do we have presently?
>> I do not know that information. I plan on doing a survey soon to find it out. I do know last year during the commute solutions program that was run by commute solutions we had 106 employees participate in that program, however, that does not mean that all the bus riders participated. And some of the participants car pooled or rode their bike or walked to and from work. So it's not an accurate number, it just gives us a feel for it.
>> but you think that of the 106 that responded that that would have been most of the people that are involved in some way with commute solutions?
>> yes, I do.
>> so we're talking about out of 4400 employees, that's somewhere in the one to two percent range?
>> yes.
>> of these -- let's say that we get 450 people that will respond to this free bus pass. If you are now buying your bus pass, those people will get to participate in this as well. So in other words, they're going to -- right now it costs $17 for a monthly bus pass, I think. Isn't that pretty close?
>> it depends. The express bus ride passes are sebl. The regular bus passes are 10 per month.
>> and this would be equivalent to -- these are $10 a pass, but they're for three months, so in other words, these are going to be three dollars a month or $3.33 a month.
>> yes.
>> I think it would tell us an awful lot if you can't give people a free bus pass. I mean, I think the thing that we really need to make sure of here, even though commute solutions is really mostly funded through campo. They are the funding organization because all of these people that belong to this, the city of Austin, us, all of these other employers, they don't pay. That's not who is paying for this grant.
>> correct.
>> it really is coming out of campo funds, correct.
>> yes.
>> I would like to make sure that we have good enough data to -- at the end of this 90 days, between that and what we're doing with our parking situation over here, I think we'll have a pretty strong indicator as to if it's possible to get somebody to actually use -- to attract other people, not -- if you took the whole 106 -- and I'm glad to have 106, but this is really going to lead us to coming up with some sort of idea as to is it possible or isn't it possible? And I think the only way we'll know that is to make sure that -- for example, I'd like to know if somebody says, give me one of those free passes for the next 90 days, I don't know how often I'm going to use it, I may not use it at all, but if I want it, then I'd like to have it, but I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in you getting one of these passes and you using it.
>> correct.
>> and I think that you need to use it at least -- let's come up with -- you need to use it at least three times a week. I mean, I'm not doing to be very impress fire department you get this thing and you use it six times in three months. That would be insignificant. If we're talking about pollution and all of that, then let's really see if we can't get something out of this. But I look forward to seeing something in 90 days much let's make sure that we've got good empirical information so that we can really ascertain as to how this thing is doing.
>> employees should not request cards yet.
>> crefnlght.
>> this is a -- correct.
>> this is a request for funding to purchase cards.
>> yes.
>> we don't know whether our application will be granted or not. If it's not granted, we don't have the funds for cards. If it is granted, I guess they could grant part of it, but not all of it. We'll know exactly what. And I assume that we will try to come up with some -- I guess asking for some commitment to use the card if you get one.
>> yes.
>> so we can think about what we would put in place if the grant is approved.
>> yes.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, April 18, 2007, 8:34 AM