The NightRide is a shared cab service with a basic fare of $5, which is available weekdays from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. and weekends from 7 p.m. to 6:45 a.m.

The service will still provide rides at its current $5 per rider for any trips that have their origin and destination within the city of Ann Arbor. And the current $5 per rider will continue to apply to any rides taken with an advance reservation – a system the AATA will be implementing, using vans. However, a $2 premium – for a total of $7 – will apply to rides with a destination or origin that’s not within the city of Ann Arbor, if no advance reservation is made. The move comes as a result of increased ridership on the service, after the AATA expanded the service to include the city of Ypsilanti.

The geographic coverage area of AATA’s NightRide was expanded eastward to Golfside Road in March 2011 and further to downtown Ypsilanti in January 2012 – as part of a broader effort to improve work transportation between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Many downtown Ann Arbor restaurant workers live in Ypsilanti. Ridership increased dramatically. [.jpg of NightRide chart through May 2012] And that resulted in higher costs – due to an adjustment in the contract between Blue Cab and AATA, which the board authorized on July 16, 2012.

Also as a result of board action on June 20, two express services – from Canton and Chelsea – will have their fares raised from $99 to $125 for a monthly pass; from $40 to $62.50 for a 10-ride ticket, and from $5 to $6.25 for a single trip. According to documentation on that fare increase provided to AATA board members, the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority have agreed to split the cost of subsidizing the fare increase. UM already subsidizes fares for its workers to ride the service.

At its March 6, 2013 board meeting, however, the DDA declined to include the requested $18,000 subsidy that AATA had requested for Canton and Chelsea express service support. That request had come in the context of AATA requests for other support – for the go!pass program for downtown commuters. The DDA board did agree to $610,662 of support for that program.

At the June 20 AATA board meeting, in reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson made clear the Canton service had been “on the chopping block” but the UM had provided the resources necessary to continue the service. In his remarks, Kerson stressed that financing the express services for out-of-town commuters did not rely on any Ann Arbor taxpayer dollars. The funding from UM is for only a year, and the AATA is hoping that the new southeast Michigan regional transit Authority (RTA) – which includes Washtenaw County – would provide funding in future years.

The fare increases will be effective in August 2013.

At its June 20 meeting, the AATA board also approved several non-fare-related service changes to different routes. All except for one was considered minor. The major change was to Route 12 in Ann Arbor, which changed its departure times from Blake Transit Center in downtown Ann Arbor.

This brief was filed from the downtown location of the Ann Arbor District Library at 343 S. Fifth Ave., where the AATA board holds its meetings. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

The new public input policy replaces an older policy that is described in the resolution as “out of date” and not consistent with the way that AATA currently uses public input for decisions on routes and fares, even though the older policy meets the minimum standards required in order to receive federal assistance.

The policy identifies “major” service changes as those affecting more than 25% of riders of a route, or more than 25% of the miles of a route. A “major” service change also include changes of multiple routes affecting more than 10% of riders or miles of the regular bus service system. The policy identifies “major” fare changes as any change to the base fare – that is, the full adult cash fare – or any change affecting the fare of more than 10% of fare-paying riders.

According to the new policy, notification of major service and fare changes is to be provided through email subscription, printed brochures, the AATA website, social media, posted notices at bus stops, press releases, specific notification of various organizations (housing, educational, civic, and social services, and senior, disabled and minority organizations), as well as other specific organizations that might have membership that would be affected (high schools and colleges, senior citizen housing, apartment complexes, libraries, government offices, recreation centers).

After notification, opportunity for public input will be provided through email, telephone, written letters, social media, and face to face. [.pdf of AATA public input policy on fare and route changes]

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the Ann Arbor District Library, where the AATA board holds its meetings. A detailed reported of the meeting will follow: [link]

Although the fare increase was one focus of the meeting, the upcoming public interviews (March 25) of the two final candidates for the AATA’s executive directorship also occupied board members’ attention. The upcoming hire had an impact on planned consideration of the organization’s vision statement, which the board had been scheduled to work through as a full group Wednesday evening. That item was tabled in the interest of receiving the input of the new executive director, when he is hired.

For the same reason, another agenda item was pulled, which would have entertained the possibility of the AATA reforming itself under Act 196.

The interviews will take place starting at 7:30 a.m. at AATA headquarters on Wednesday, March 25. (Read previous Chronicle coverage of the executive director search here and here.) There’s also a social gathering of AATA board members and the two finalists at Mediterrano restaurant, 2900 S. State, on March 24 at 5 p.m. The event has been noticed according to the Open Meetings Act, in case any AATA-related matters arise.

Wednesday’s board meeting also included approval of a contract for unarmed security guard services, a wording revision to the FY2010 application to the Michigan Dept. of Transportation, an announcement of a meeting related to WALLY (the proposed north-south commuter rail) taken by the board chair, a pitch from a company touting its fueling robots, some upcoming events sponsored by the Center for Independent Living, and news about the local advisory commission – past and present.

Fare Increases

Board chair David Nacht opened discussion on the fare increase by describing the full-cash fare of $1 as “what most people pay,” which led to clarifications from the manager of community relations, Mary Stasiak, seated at the back of the room next to the AATA’s controller, Phil Webb. The average fare that is paid per ride is 71 cents, she said.

Background

The issue of how much the individual user of AATA’s services is charged for a ride versus how much money is received by the AATA to fund that particular ride is a theme that has run through some of the public commentary at board meetings over the last few months, as well as during the forums on the fare increases held by the AATA. For example, the AATA receives money from the Downtown Development Authority through the getDowntown go!pass program, which sponsors the rides of downtown workers (with $5 per year from those workers’ employers). Go!passes allow them to ride AATA buses without paying a fare themselves. And the AATA receives money from the University of Michigan and grants from the state that support the rides of UM affiliates, whose M-Cards allow them to ride AATA buses without paying a fare themselves. [The UM blue buses are free to university affiliates as well as to members of the general public. In computing the fare box recovery ratio, the money received from the DDA and UM to pay for these rides counts as part of the fare box component.]

During public commentary at Wednesday’s board meeting, two members of the public addressed parts of the fare increases related to aspects other than the basic $1 fare.

Public Commentary

Susan Farley: Farley said she thought that the idea of making the fares free [for fixed route service, i.e., the regular bus] to Green and Gold Card holders was a “fabulous idea, and that’s all I wanted to say.” [The fare changes eliminate what is now a 25-cent fare for  seniors and those with disabilities for rides on the regular bus. The changes also eliminate the cost of the corresponding monthly Liberty Pass, which is currently $10.]

Thomas Partridge: Partridge addressed the situation with rides provided by the AATA to those who are not physically able to ride the regular bus. [The AATA calls this para-transit service the A-Ride.] Partridge introduced himself as a para-transit rider with an A-Ride Green Card, who was also a senior citizen and a grandfather. He pointed out that the para-transit service provided by the AATA is required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The act requires that equivalent para-transit service be provided wherever there is regular bus service. Partridge said that there was other service in the county located beyond the AATA service area, including the People’s Express in Northfield Township, as well as WAVE (Western-Washtenaw Area Value Express), headquartered in Chelsea.

[Reached by phone, Doug Anderson, director of People's Express, explained that it's a 15-year-old program formerly funded by Northfield Township's human services, but is now an independent 501(C)3 nonprofit agency. As a transportation agency, as opposed to an "authority," the service crosses county lines and provides services in the near corners of Oakland and Livingston counties, as well as Washtenaw County. Within Washenaw they serve the townships of Ypsilanti, Pittsfield, Superior, Salem, Northfield, Ann Arbor, Bridgewater, and York. It's a dial-a-ride service, which in many cases means door-to-door service. In the context of an expansion of AATA's service to include a greater geographic reach, Anderson said that People's Express would continued to play a similar role – that of a connector to other services and to fill in gaps where no services exist. They cannot duplicate service already provided. To reserve a ride with People's Express, the number is 877.214.6073]

Asked by board chair David Nacht which agenda item he was addressing, Partridge cited the vision statement and the fare increases. Partridge called for the immediate expansion of countywide service as a part of the vision statement, and said that the fare increases were unnecessary. If revenues needed to be increased, he said, that could be achieved with surcharges on other segments of the AATA community like the University of Michigan. Partridge said that the fare increases were discriminatory, because the increases asked the members of the community least able to afford it – disabled people and seniors using the para-transit program – to pay 200-300% more than riders of the fixed-route service. [With advanced reservation, senior taxi rides will rise from $2 currently to $3 in 2010; same-day rides will rise from $3 to $4.]

At the conclusion of the meeting during time allotted for public commentary, Partridge again addressed the board on the topic of the fare increases they’d already passed, asking them to take back the increases.

Board Deliberations

After the clarification about the cost of rides, Nacht continued deliberations by the board by asking about the income requirements for reduced fares based on income-level.  Stasiak clarified that the AATA itself does not “qualify” them (i.e., does not perform a check on income levels to makes sure those who receive reduced fares qualify for them.) The qualification of riders for reduced fares is handled by various government and nonprofit agencies, explained Stasiak, including the Veterans Administration, SOS Community Services, Co-occurring Disorders Treatment Services (CSTS), and Ozone House, among others.

In describing the change now from $1 to $1.25, and next year to $1.50, Nacht said, “That’s a significant increase.” For a “not poor, but not comfortably middle-class family who relies on transit day-in-and-day out,” Nacht said, “we’re talking about placing a substantial burden on a lot of families by increasing the fares this much.” But Nacht continued, “We offset this with a large number of reduced fares.”

Still, he said, it was incumbent on the board to address the question of whether they were comfortable making such a significant increase over the course of two years.

Nacht invited board member Rich Robben – of the planning and development committee, which made the recommendation for the fare change proposal – to explain the basic rationale. Robben said that (i) comparison to peer organizations showed that AATA’s fares were low, (ii) there had not been any fare increase in a long time ,and (iii) without a fare increase, a structural deficit was projected.

Board member Charles Griffith said that he’d like to see rapid implementation of some  discounted fare passes for a limited number of days, without a need to purchase a pass for an entire month.

Nacht asked what the outcome of public feedback had been on the fare increase proposal. Stasiak said that the four public hearings had attracted a total of 25 individuals. She said that there were a very limited number of people who attended the forums in Ypsilanti. Asked about letters and emails that might have been received from the public that had not been included in the meeting packet already  available on the web, Stasiak said there was more material that could be provided to the press. Board member Sue McCormick suggested that the responses to specific issues raised should be included, and that those responses needed to go out to the people who raised the issues as well. Nacht compared it to the suggestion board at Whole Foods: “I like it.”

Nacht asked the board: “Would anybody like to offer an amendment and garner support?” No one offered an amendment.

Nacht began his own comments by saying that he was comfortable with the process. He expressed a certain lack of comfort with the increase from $1 to $1.50 over the course of two years. But the increase was justified, he felt, because of how long AATA had waited to raise the fares. Riders needed to pay more than a token percentage of the cost it took to provide the service, he said, which was now 15%.

[For The Chronicle, Stasiak broke down the current 15.7% overall fare box recovery ratio as 21% for fixed-route service and 12% para-transit door-to-door service. The fare increase is projected to add an additional $314,000 in revenue in the first year with $226,000 more in the second year (for a total in the second year of an additional $540,000). In the second year, this would bring the overall fare-box recovery ratio to 17.9%. That projection includes a 5-10% loss of ridership, because demand could be slightly elastic. ]

Outcome: the fare increases and adjustments were approved unanimously.

AATA Funding

Fare box revenue as compared to other funding of the AATA also came up during the meeting in the form of a wording change asked for by the Michigan Department of Transportation in the AATA’s application – a regular notification in which the AATA announces its intent to provide transportation services and to apply for state assistance.

MDOT had asked AATA to include the following clause, which the AATA has not included for the last five years without objection from MDOT:

Whereas, the AATA has reviewed and approved the proposed balanced budget and funding sources of estimated federal funds $2,383,200, estimated state funds, $6,681,400, estimated local funds $10,926,588, estimated fare box $4,517,000, estimated other funds $149,000, with total estimated expenses of $24,657,188.

Outcome: The revised application was approved unanimously.

Procurement Manual

At its last meeting, the adoption of the procurement manual had been postponed, pending further review with attention to clearer policies on potential conflicts of interest. Nacht asked that the performance monitoring and external relations committee continue to work on improvements to the manual with respect to various controls.

Outcome: The procurement manual was approved unanimously.

Unarmed Security Guard Services

Requests for proposals were sent by AATA to 29 different firms and they received responses from 11 of those. Advance Security was recommended for a contract anticipated to cost (based on hourly rates) around $137,000 annually. Queries by board chair Nacht indicated there seemed to be some unclarity about communications on whether Advance Security was the low bidder, and if there was a different low bidder, which firm that might have been.

Nacht cast a “no” vote on the contract, saying it was to express his desire in the future to have information about low bids included in the information provided to the board. Interim executive director Dawn Gabay assured him it would be.

Outcome: Contract approved with dissent from Nacht.

CIL Events

In the public commentary time at the conclusion of the meeting, Carolyn Grawi of the Center for Independent Living followed up on the unarmed security guard contract item by stressing the importance that employees of Advance Security be trained to understand the range of individuals who ride the bus and their range of needs. Nacht agreed that it was important that security guards be appropriately trained so that respect and dignity was preserved, and ventured that one example of the kind of thing that Grawi might have in mind would be the mis-analysis of someone with a mental illness as causing a disturbance when they were, in fact, just trying to catch the bus.

Grawi also mentioned the Let’s Get Moving day in Lansing, which will take place on April 21. She encouraged people from the Ann Arbor community as well as throughout Washtenaw County to go to the event to show state legislators their support for continued funding of transportation services. One of the goals of future transportation was the seamless public transportation from county to county. Ann Arbor, she said, could be a leader in that. She encouraged the board to think about how the stimulus funds might be best spent to bring the area’s transit from “middle of the pack” to a point of leading.

Grawi also made the board aware of two CIL workshops. The first, to be held on April 9, is called “Disability Awareness and Sensitivity Training for Business Owners and Employers.” The second is on April 23 and called “Disability Accommodations and the Law: What You Need to Know about Responding to Employee Requests.” More information on both events at 734.971.0277. Responding to Grawi’s suggestion that AATA staff take advantage of the workshops, Nacht said that the second of these was being handled by two of the attorneys from his own office, and expressed some concern about a possible conflict of interest. Grawi said that the cost of the workshop paid only for the lunch and that there was not a conflict of interest.

Pitches:  WALLY and Robots

Board chair David Nacht, in his communications to the board, announced that he’d been contacted by a planner named Carlisle who’s a member of “a group with a numerical name, something like 301,” who was interested in expressing support for the WALLY project. [WALLY is a north-south commuter rail project connecting Howell with Ann Arbor. AATA has taken responsibility to be the authority for WALLY.]  Nacht said that he was communicating to everyone that he’d agreed to take the meeting, that he was conveying what he’d heard from some very strong proponents of the WALLY project.

What they’d laid out, he said, was the fact that to add a lane to US-23 would cost around a half billion dollars. And whatever WALLY cost, they said, it would not come near that amount – more likely closer to a tenth of that. The additional people that an extra lane could carry, they said, would be comparable to what WALLY could carry. [see comment left below:  http://208group.com/about/]

Making a pitch at the board meeting itself were two representatives of TransAmerican Robotic Fueling, a company based in Okemos, Mich., which is bringing technology already prevalent in Europe to the U.S. It’s currently capable of fueling diesel and bio-diesel vehicles, with liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas in development. The idea was not, they said, to eliminate jobs, but rather to make the fueling process more efficient.

Local Advisory Council

Nacht began the board’s meeting by noting the passing on March 15 of a former chair of the local advisory council, Sam Breck. Nacht had praise for Breck, who “said what he thought.” Funeral services would be sometime in April, he reported. Nacht concluded, “We will miss him.”

The local advisory council is described as follows on the AATA website:

The Local Advisory Council (LAC) provides scheduled monthly meetings for people with disabilities and senior citizens interested in AATA services. Meetings are open to anyone. Anyone who attends is welcome to participate.

All meetings are from 10:00 a.m. to noon on the second Tuesday of the month (except July) at the AATA main office, 2700 S. Industrial Hwy. in Ann Arbor. You can call to receive a meeting agenda or a meeting notice by calling 973-6500.

During public commentary time at the conclusion of the meeting, Rebecca Burke, who chairs the LAC, reported that little got done at its last meeting, and she had written a letter to the board asking that Thomas Partridge [who is a member of LAC] be asked to convey his thoughts in writing to the LAC, but no longer be welcome to attend meetings, as his presence could be disruptive. At this, Partridge interjected that Burke was making malicious comments about him, and raised the possibility of litigation. Nacht quickly restored order by declaring the two would not address each other. After the meeting Nacht briefly talked with Partridge and Burke, and the two also continued their conversation on their own. Outcome unknown.

Present: Charles Griffith, Jesse Bernstein, David Nacht, Paul Ajegba, Rich Robben, Sue McCormick

Absent: Ted Annis

Next regular meeting: Wednesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. at AATA headquarters, 2700 S. Industrial Ave. [confirm date]

Special meeting (Executive Director Interviews): Wednesday, March 25 7:30 a.m. at AATA headquarters, 2700 S. Industrial Ave. [confirm date]

AATA's manager of community relations, Mary Stasiak, talks with a frequent passenger on route No. 2.

On Tuesday afternoon, representatives of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority were on hand at the downtown branch of the Ann Arbor District Library to meet with members of the public to talk about a proposed fare increase. The AATA board will likely consider the proposal at its March 18 meeting. If passed by the AATA board, the first phase of the two-phase plan would take effect in May 2009, raising the basic fare from $1 to $1.25.  In May 2010, it would climb another 25 cents to $1.50 [details on the proposed fare increases].

The lower level multipurpose room at the library can accommodate more than a hundred people, but in the course of the two-hour meeting, only around ten members of the public stopped by – some arriving well after the meeting started, and some leaving somewhere in the middle. In that regard, the meeting was like a public bus: it left the station at its scheduled time with some passengers, took additional riders on board along the way, and let some of them off before the route was finished. But one could ask the same question about the meeting that is frequently asked about the bus system: Why does the AATA run some buses that appear to be mostly empty?

In the course of the mostly informal conversation that unfolded Tuesday afternoon, Phil Webb, who is the controller at AATA, provided part of the answer to the empty buses question: Passengers need to be able to rely on the bus showing up every day and every time it’s scheduled to be there, even if on some days at some times the ridership is reduced. As for the public meetings, they’ve been scheduled as well, and the public relies on the AATA keeping to that schedule.

A second  meeting will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 17 from 6-8 p.m., also in the multipurpose room of the downtown Ann Arbor library, 343 S. Fifth Ave. In Ypsilanti, hearings will be held at the City of Ypsilanti Council Chambers, One S. Huron St., Ypsilanti on Thursday, Feb. 19 from 4-7 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 26 from 1-3 p.m. [confirm dates].

Phil Webb, controller for AATA.

If the meeting was like a public bus, then it left the station with Mary Stasiak, manager of community relations for AATA, at the wheel.  She gave some background on the proposed fare increase. Simply put, without it the AATA would face a structural deficit. That is, expenses would begin to exceed revenues. So where does the AATA get its revenue?  Stasiak explained that  79% of AATA revenue comes from a combination of federal, state, and local taxes.  Fares account for the remaining 21%. But fares for door-to-door paratransit services, which the AATA is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide wherever it operates fixed-route service, cover only 12.8% of the cost of operating the service, said Stasiak.

Free Bus Rides for Seniors?

Part of the AATA paratransit service offerings includes the senior taxi program (Good as Gold), which currently offers $2 taxi rides with advance notice ($3 same day) to those 65 and older.  The current fare proposal is to make rides for seniors free on fixed-route service (the regular bus). But the idea that senior citizens could ride the bus for free was not met with support from one senior attending the meeting on Tuesday. From a woman who retired to Ann Arbor and does not own a car: “To me it seems completely outrageous that I could ride a bus all over the place and not pay anything for it! I think you’re too cheap!”

It emerged during the ensuing conversation that part of the strategy behind these free rides is an attempt to brake the demand for the senior taxi program, which has risen over the last three years, and could easily triple, said Stasiak, as the population ages. Webb said that the idea was to save money by offering free fares to seniors on the regular bus. It’s less expensive for the AATA to provide a free ride on the bus than to charge $2 for door-to-door taxi service.

For the car-free retiree, it was a question of being able to use the fares that seniors paid for their bus rides to help fund expanded service times to evenings and weekends. She said that the last bus out of downtown left at 10:18 p.m., which made it difficult to take the bus home from a typical performance at Hill Auditorium.

Fare Levels and Elasticity of Demand

Although the question of the effect of fare prices on ridership was raised at Tuesday’s meeting, it was not discussed at an economist’s level of detail. Taking his turn at the wheel of the “meeting bus,” the  gentleman who raised the question (a frequent No. 2 bus rider, along with his wife) said he recalled the notion from courses in economics he took 60 years ago. The basic idea of  elasticity of  demand is that given a certain number of people riding the bus, it’s possible to calculate a fare price that would fund the bus system operations with fares alone. And based on the current percentage of operations covered by fares (20%), that fare price for AATA would need to quintuple to $5 per ride. But at $5 it wouldn’t be reasonable to take the current level of demand for bus rides as indicative of demand when rides are priced at $5. Demand at that price could reasonably expected to drop.

Transportation-themed art from Ann Arbor Public Schools students adorned one of the walls of the lower level multipurpose room at the Ann Arbor District Library's downtown location – where the fare increase proposal meeting was held.

But as Webb explained, it’s simply not expected that public transit like AATA’s bus system can be funded by fares alone. While reducing fares could increase ridership, possibly increasing revenues overall (more rides at a cheaper price could mean more revenue than fewer rides at a higher price), increased ridership can mean increased costs. If demand increases to a point where an additional bus needs to be added to a route, for example, the increased revenue from fares is balanced against the increased expense of adding an extra bus.

However,  the No. 2 bus rider noted that there was far more capacity in the system than was currently being used, and thus, what he wanted to know was this: What’s the capacity of the bus system, and at what relative capacity might the system be able to fund itself? Otherwise put, “If you filled every bus at every time, would you break even?” Webb clarified that in the transit industry, the notion of capacity isn’t what’s used so much as a statistic called the “passengers per service hour.”  System-wide, AATA operates at 31 passengers per service hour.

Aside: To get an idea of how the passengers per service hour relates to system capacity in layman’s terms, it’s useful to consider two scenarios that could reasonably be seen as “filling every bus at every time.”  Scenario A: A full bus departs Blake Transit Center, heads to its end destination at Ypsilanti Transit Center. Along the way, nobody gets off the bus. Nobody is standing at any of the stops along the way. At the final destination, everybody disembarks. Scenario B: A full bus departs Blake Transit Center, heads to its end destination at Ypsilanti Transit Center, and at the first stop everyone gets off the bus, and one busload of passengers who were waiting at that first bus stop board the bus. At each subsequent stop the same thing happens. In both cases, the whole time the bus is on the road, every seat is filled. Both have the system at “maximum capacity.” Yet in Scenario B, the passengers per service hour stat is much greater than in Scenario A – greater by a factor equal to the number of stops along the way.

Who Rides Free – Sponsored Fares

Tom Partridge, a name familiar to Chronicle readers as a frequent speaker at public meetings, boarded the “meeting bus” after it had left the main station. When he took his turn at the wheel, he steered it down a familiar road, focusing on the importance of  countywide transportation accessible to everyone. He also objected to the proposed fare increase for taxi rides for seniors and disabled people. (Under the proposal, both categories of taxi rides arranged with advance notice would rise from $2 to $3 by 2010; rides arranged the same day would rise from $3 to $4).  He called the fare increase for seniors and disabled people “inherently discriminatory.”

Partridge contrasted these fares for seniors and disabled people with the M-Card and go!pass programs, which allow University of Michigan staff and students, as well as employees of participating downtown businesses, to ride AATA buses at no cost to themselves. Stasiak and Webb pointed out that the fares for these people are not free but rather are “sponsored” – either by UM or by the Downtown Development Authority. In the case of the M-Card program, said Webb, the  2.1 million M-Card rides (drivers record each ride by pressing a button) are sponsored through a combination of a cash payment  of $700,000 per year made by UM to AATA, plus a federal grant to UM of $1.1 million. The $1.8 million works out to 87 cents paid per M-Card ride. System-wide, said Webb, the amount actually paid per ride averages 71 cents.

The arrangement between AATA and UM expires in August 2009. It’s currently being negotiated, with the first meeting between representatives of the organizations having already met, Webb said. Webb is helping to represent AATA in those negotiations.

The Expense Side of the Equation

The topic of negotiations was also a part of Tuesday’s meeting in connection with AATA’s expenses. While most of the conversation focused on fares and the revenue side of the structural deficit that Stasiak said AATA would face without increased fares, she also highlighted some ways that AATA had addressed the expense side. One major step was the recent successful negotiation of union contracts, which resulted in changing the health insurance carrier, and  higher co-pays for health insurance, with an overall savings of 14% on health insurance premiums.

The effective management of expenses, Stasiak said, was reflected in the 2009 budget, which kept the 2008 budget’s same level for operating expenses.

Waxing Poetic about AATA Buses

The handful of people who  came to the meeting and spoke were, by and large, quite enthusiastic about Ann Arbor’s buses. One woman, who was there with her walker at the start of the “meeting bus” ride and stayed to the finish, said, “I love Ann Arbor’s buses.” What’s that love based on?  She said she rode every route the AATA offers except for three of them (No. 14, No. 13, and No. 3). And even though she allowed that in the wintertime the bus sometimes runs behind, she said, “It does come. I know it’s going to come.”

Another passenger who boarded the “meeting bus” as it was nearing its final destination was Erica Dunham, who asked if the possibility of monetary assistance for AATA had been solicited from private corporations – energy companies and financial institutions. The only instance that Stasiak and Webb could recall was many years ago when someone had donated money to subsidize service in Scio Township to a housing development off Jackson Road. Dunham expressed her support by waxing literally poetic, reading aloud some stanzas she’d crafted, which concluded: “It all adds up to bringing our community/ Success, respect, equality and unity.”

In Ann Arbor, it would seem, there’s a poetry-bus connection.

Passenger view of the new AATA fare boxes that are scheduled to be deployed on Feb 6.

On Thursday morning, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority’s Lois Crawford was at Blake Transit Center spreading the word about the new fare boxes, which are scheduled to appear on AATA buses starting Feb. 6.

In addition to introducing riders to the new fare boxes, Crawford was distributing written information about the fare increase proposal and alerting bus riders who were waiting inside Blake to the ways they could give their feedback on the proposed rate hike, which would see the base fare climbing from $1 to $1.50 over the next two years.

Crawford had  one of the Odyssey model boxes manufactured by GFI Genfare on hand,  and powered up for inspection. The green-backlit message screen on the box read: “THANKS 4 RIDING AATA. WELCOME.”

Most riders will notice little immediate difference in their ride experience. One notable exception: M-Card holders. Currently, M-Cards, which are distributed to University of Michigan affiliates at no cost to them, need only be shown to the driver, who manually records the ride as an M-Ride. With the new fare boxes, M-Cards will need to be swiped in the slot that cuts diagonally across the upper right hand corner of the boxes from right to left. But drivers will continue to log every rider who enters the bus with a button press as they do now.

The new fare boxes are compatible with card printers, which can dispense fare cards as change for fares paid with bills as large as $10: Pay a $1 fare with a $10 bill and you get a card worth $9 in future bus fare as your change. This functionality will be up and running immediately on deployment of the new fare boxes. Reached by phone, Mary Stasiak, manager of community relations for AATA, stressed that the change cards are sturdy but not indestructible – care should be taken not to fold or otherwise mutilate them. AATA won’t be issuing refunds for damaged change cards.

Day passes (riders could take unlimited rides in the system for a single fare) can also be set up with the new boxes. The fare boxes can also read credit cards. When they’re deployed initially, the boxes will not be equipped with that functionality, however. AATA is still developing the pass packages and payment options that will be deployed on the fare boxes.

One of the bus riders Crawford interacted with on Thursday morning, Al Skinner, was enthusiast about the possibility of day passes. When you have a lot of trips to make over the course of a day, he said, the individual fares can add up quickly. Such day passes are available in Tulsa, Oklahoma for $3, he reported, a city where he visits a friend from time to time. Skinner is the former holder of a go!pass through the getDowntown program, but he no longer works for a downtown business, thus does not qualify for the yearly pass, which downtown employers can purchase for their employees at a cost of $5 per employee.

Skinner said he been to a lot of different cities, and that on the whole AATA provides on-time service that’s convenient. One suggestion he’d make, though, would be to run Route 20 more frequently and longer into the evening.

Public feedback on the proposed fare increases, as well as payment and pass options people would like to see with the new fare boxes, can be provided to the AATA at a series of public meetings: At the Ann Arbor District Library, Multipurpose Room, 343 S. Fifth, Ann Arbor: Tues., Feb. 10, 1-3 p.m. and Tues., Feb. 17, 6-8 p.m. In Ypsilanti, hearings will be held at the city of Ypsilanti Council Chambers, One S. Huron St., Ypsilanti: Thurs., Feb. 19, 4-7 p.m. and Thurs., Feb. 26, 1-3 p.m. [confirm dates] Details on the proposed fare increases.

Feedback can also be given to AATA on fares by:

• Calling the AATA Service Change Hotline at 734.677.3934.
• E-mailing the AATA at aatainfo@theride.org; put “Fare Changes” in the subject line.
• Faxing AATA at 734.973.6338; address the fax to “Fare Changes.”
• Writing to “Fare Changes,” AATA, 2700 S. Industrial Hwy., Ann Arbor, MI 48104.