I'd like to have distributed among the Committee some photographs of Mrs. Elodie Brengman of St. Cloud, shown being picked up in her back alley for a trip to the St. Cloud Clinic. Mrs. Brengman is 80 years old, and lives independently in her northside home. Once a user of our fixed route, prior to her disabling accident in 1983, Mrs. Brengman uses our Specialized Service to go to the doctor, buy groceries and other staples, and to visit her husband in the nursing home. As stated earlier, the great majority of our registered passengers are over the age of 65 and many share the same needs as Mrs. Brengman. As a transportation professional, I just hope that with all this discussion on accessibility and mobility that the Mrs. Brengman's of this country are not forgotten about and allowed to slip through the cracks; I do question if their mobility needs are being adequately represented? I must also express some very genuine concerns about the negative impacts mandated accessibility will have on small urban fixed route systems like St. Cloud's. As remarked earlier, St. Cloud has 8 timed-transfer, pulse routing system; picture for example, a vagon wheel with spokes and a hub. The current system has 30 minute and 1 hour routes, or "spokes" which meet every 30 minutes (15 and 45 after the hour) for a "timed transfer" at the downtown terminal, or "hub". There are three minutes in the schedule allotted for transferring, and believe me, transfer conditions can frequently be tight. If the fixed route system was made accessible, boarding-tiedown-deboarding time requirements would necessitate changes to the route and schedule system. The options are: 1. Extend all 30 minute routes into 35 or 40 minute routes to accommodate limited number of disabled riders. A. Lengthens transit travel time for all transit passengers, making transit even less convenient and resulting in patronage loss. 2. B. Current 30 minute system is easy to understand; changing it to 35 or 40 minutes would complicate schedule understanding. Cut off far ends of each route to be able to still make a 30 minute pulse. A. Reduces availability of public transit to all citizens, resulting A. Would result in bitterness from non-disabled passengers missing 敷 transfers with a 30 minute minimum and possible 1 hour layover, and would also result in decreased fixed route patronage. In either one of the above three options it turns out to be a lose, lose, lose situation for current fixed route ridership. If St. Cloud was in a southern or milder climatic location, we could realistically offer fixed route accessibility, and lessen the amount of Specialized Service with the "savings" to back into fixed route's added costs for accessibility. But we are not in a southern or mild area, and to see reduced fixed route mobility for what's been documented as low usage of accessible transit is totally counterproductive to transit's goal to get people out of thei. cars so to clean up the air, reduce traffic congestion and gridlock and provider ensible land use. be put The St. Cloud Metropolitan Transit Commission requests that this committee realize that what St. Cloud is currently practicing and committed to is superior to what most other transit systems are practicing, and that our disabled Transportation, be written into this historic legislation. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for your consideration. I would be happy to answer any questions whatsoever, however I ask that Ms. Kathleen Wingen from St. Cloud be allowed to give her testimony first. DAVID W. TRIPP 1317 South Broadway Avenue Home: (612) 255-1115; Business (612) 251-1499 EXPERIENCE: 1979-prosent 1977-1979 1975-1977 Executive Director, St. Cloud Metropolitan Transit Commission, *Chief Executive Officer of public transit political subdivision with 44 employees, $1.7 million operating budget and 25 transit buses. Transit Coordinator, City of Winona, MN *Developed, implemented and administered Minnesota's first paratransit system Administrative Intern, City of Winona, MN *Confidential researcher for the City Manager PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: 1989-present 1987-1988 1988 1987-1988 1985-1986 1977-present Board of Directors, Minnesota Public Transit Association Transit Professional of the Year, Minnesota Public Transit Founder and Co-Coordinator, Minnesota Quality Transit Coalition Vice President, Minnesota Public Transit Association Conference Panelist: -Numerous Minnesota Public Transit Conferences -Testimony at U.S. Houso, Transportation Subcommittee -Minnesota Metropolitan Planning Organization Annual -Minnesota Good Roads Annual Meeting, 1988 -American Public Transit Association; Detroit 1986, Son Francisco 1987 -Minnesota North Star Transportation Conference, 1987 -Washington State Transit Conference, 1987 -Illinois Public Transit Association Spring Conference, 1987 |