Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Transportation MATA Picks Consultant
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 9:00 AM
MATA board members approved San Francisco's Nelson\Nygaard Consulting for a $350,000 short-range transit plan yesterday.
The five-year plan is expected to address visioning, routes, scheduling, capital assets, and finances.
"Both supported a simple, more direct routing system," said board member John Vergos. "One thing they were both definite on is that if buses come every 20 or 30 minutes, you will see increased ridership on those routes. ... It gets back to directness, simplicity, and clarity."
"I'm hoping that when we have the new routes, they'll be much easier to understand."
Staff and board members interviewed the two finalists, Nelson\Nygaard and Perteet, Inc. earlier this month. The format included a 30-minute presentation and an hour-long Q&A.
The board also talked about needing an answer line that is easy to understand.
Last week, the Flyer ran a letter to the editor that said it took 36 prompts to find out what time the Poplar bus would arrive at the downtown terminal under MATA's new call system:
"With the old system, you could get the same information by responding to six prompts. With the old line, the time actually spent on the phone to get the information was a third of what is required with the new system," John Manasco wrote.
"We're working as hard and as fast as we can to correct the problem," MATA head William Hudson told the board when questioned. "We're trying to correct it."
Comments (3)
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Will Hudson needs to retire.
I thought that MATA had route planners ... Of course I've always thought that they were clueless and maybe MATA is now recognizing that by hiring outside consultants to do what MATA should have done years ago.
Let me help you out a wee bit here MATA. When you do finally figure out how to design and run a transit system, help your customers by posting schedules at bus stops. Impossible you say? When I was in Berlin, Germany, I could go up to any bus stop and see which bus stopped there and what time it would be there. Further, any covered bus stop had a map of the system overlaid on a regular city map with a you-are-here dot. Then I could figure how to get to where I needed to go.
I never had to call anyone.
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OMG off topic but just read today's CA and saw where Mary is going over to the Dark Side... sooo sad... don't do it you will be slimed and lose your soul, just like Mulroy did when he crossed over!
How come the Flyer hasn't announced this? It sounds like an "attagirl" is deserved, and that the Flyer should be proud one of its own has been plucked to, hopefully, improve the quality of life for all of us. I must say, though, that being the city's "image czar" sounds like one of those "be careful what you ask for" jobs. Good luck, Mary.
P.S. Too bad about that cut in salary, though. :-)
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