AATA Extends Consulting for County Transit

At a special meeting held on July 19, 2011, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board authorized a $193,317 extension of its contract with Steer Davies Gleave (SDG), a consultant hired last year to work on developing AATA’s transit master plan. The contract extension will provide for services from SDG through December 2012.

The original contract with SDG was for $399,805. It was previously extended and increased at the AATA board’s Nov. 18, 2010 meeting by an amount not to exceed $32,500.

The services that the additional contract award is expected to cover includes (1) providing support to an ad hoc countywide transit funding task force; (2) developing “District Recommendations” for services; (3) creating “service development plans” for specific services; (4) creating a fares and ticketing plan with two components: a near‐term component aimed at rationalizing the current AATA fare structure, and a longer‐term component designed to create a countywide fare policy and structure; and (5) doing other studies and planning activities to support ongoing countywide transit development efforts.

This brief was filed shortly after the AATA board met at its headquarters on 2700 South Industrial Highway. A more detailed report will follow: [link]