1. Board Report | August 22, 2017
ANYONE WISHING TO SPEAK BEFORE THE VOTE ON ANY AGENDA ITEM MUST FILL OUT A PURPLE FORM ON THE SIGN-IN TABLE. COMMENTS WILL BE LIMITED TO THREE MINUTES.
Audience Questions and Comments PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK MUST FILL OUT A WHITE FORM, LOCATED ON THE SIGN-IN TABLE, BEFORE THE MEETING. COMMENTS WILL BE LIMITED TO THREE MINUTES.

2. Board Report | August 22, 2017
CHAIR REPORT

3. Board Report | August 22, 2017
Executive Director

4. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT REPORT
August 22, 2017
Justin T. Augustine, III
FTA Site Visit- Thursday, August 24, 2017
Shelter Zoning (CZO) Process
Nominating Committee – APTA
Regional Fare Study Update – Adelee M. Le Grand
Late Night Service discussion with NOMTC
DBE Second Quarter Report – Genia Browder

5. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT REPORT
August 22, 2017
Justin T. Augustine, III
Regional Fare Study Update
Adelee M. Le Grand

6. Regional Fare Study Phase II Fare Policy Update
Board of Commissioners – August 22, 2017

7. Today’s Agenda Purpose Process Fare Analysis Peer Cities GENFARE
Next Steps  

8. Regional Fare Study Purpose
Promotion of regionalism
Potential to increase ridership for JeT and NORTA
Fare study allows NORTA to report to tax payers
Promotion of regionalism
Regional Day Pass is a tool
Potential to increase ridership for JeT and NORTA
Better accommodate transfers
Customer convenience
Fare study allows NORTA to report to tax payers
What is the potential financial/revenue impact?
What is potential impact on ridership?
Due diligence

9. Regional Fare Study Purpose:
What is the potential financial burden for each agency?
What is equitable and fair for all riders?
How will we share revenue from a regional pass?
What will be the fare structure?
What is the potential financial burden for each agency?
Past revenue sharing was based on transfer stubs
NORTA had a financial burden
What is equitable and fair for all riders?
Improve transit experience for all riders – easier payment experience and more convenient
How will we share revenue from a regional pass?
What will be the fare structure?

10. Regional Fare Study Process
Kick Off & Survey Preparation
Establish Project Goals
Develop Schedule
Review Survey Questions
June 2017
Peer Agency Review
Review peer transit agencies fares, policies, and payments
June - August 2017
Fare Price Responsiveness
Review existing fares structure, policies, ridership
Evaluate fare changes
July - August 2017
Conduct Survey
(CTG / Dikita)
Conduct ridership survey
July 10 - August 1, 2017
Present Current Findings
Peer review findings
Initial price responsiveness
NORTA Committee Meetings
August , 2017
Ridership Evaluation & New Fare Policy Structure
Review survey results
Evaluate new passes
Develop new fare structure
August - October 2017
Public Engagement
Develop community outreach and education materials
October - November 2017
In-Person Working Session
Discuss findings from survey and fare policy options
November 7 – 9, 2017
Final Report
Present findings and recommendations
Present Final Report
December 12 – 14, 2017

11. Regional Fare Study: Planning Objectives
Create short-term and long term regional transit strategies
Evaluate existing regional travel and transfer behavior
Build consensus among stakeholders
Support Strategic Mobility Plan
Each goal builds upon the other and aligns with the Strategic Mobility Plan

12. Fare Analysis

13. Fare Analysis Process Determine NORTA and JeT specific Elasticities
Price increases, ridership decreases
Transit dependent
Calibrate elasticity rates
Declining ridership
Survey
Boarding and alighting
Understand demographics and transfers
Fare Price Responsiveness
Existing fare structure, policies, ridership
Fare changes
Change in ridership and revenue
Lack of current data
Last survey data from 2012
Last fare change in 2012 and only for day pass
On-board and boarding/alighting intercept survey
Better understand demographics:
Household incomes
Car ownership rates
Proportion of transit dependent
Demand for transfers and patterns
Breakdown of adult, senior, youth, and monthly, 2-day pass, and cash
Number of transfers
Frequency of transfers
Location of transfers
Surveys are complete
Data cleaning, processing, and any additional sampling (for underrepresented groups)
Clean data beginning of October
Will be used for elasticity and Title VI analysis
Fare elasticity is a measure of how sensitive ridership is to a change in fare price
For Transit, as price increases, ridership decreases
An elasticity of -0.5 means that a 10 percent increase in fare would decrease ridership by 5 percent.
An elasticity rate closer to -1 means that customers are less willing to pay, if price increases
Transit dependent are a special case
An elasticity rate closer to 0 means that customers are willing to pay, even if the price increases
Because riders and sensitive
If a person is disabled, without a car, or dependent on transit for another reason, they are willing to pay more

14. Elasticity Analysis Process
Fare elasticity is a measure of how responsive ridership is to a change in fare price.
Fare elasticities are typically determined by:
Rider group
Service type
Fare product
Fare elasticities are typically determined by:
Rider group: adult, youth, senior, transit dependent
Service type: bus, ferries, streetcar
Fare product: single ride, day pass, monthly pass
Adult Rider Elasticity
Industry averages range: -0.5 to -0.2, while most studies use an elasticity of -0.3.
More than half of NORTA customers reported not having a drivers license.
Senior/Disabled/Medicare Rider Elasticity
Senior/disabled/Medicare customers are more likely to be transit dependent than adult customers.
Based on review of research: between and -0.21
Transit dependent: if a person is disabled, without a car, or dependent on transit for another reason, they are willing to pay more, because they don’t have other options
The auto ownership statistic was sourced from the RTA audience profile demographic report which was utilized in Phase 1 of this study.
More than half of NORTA customers reported not having a drivers license, meaning they are more likely transit dependent. NORTA riders are likely less responsive to price changes compared to industry averages.

15. Commonly Used Elasticity Rates
All types of agencies: -0.3
Agencies without subway service: -0.4
Urban areas with 500K to 1M residents: -0.3
Urban areas with less than 500K residents: -0.35
Adult Rider NORTA: -0.2 to -0.5
Transit Dependent NORTA: to -0.25
Fare elasticities are typically determined by:
Rider group: adult, youth, senior, transit dependent
Service type: bus, ferries, streetcar
Fare product: single ride, day pass, monthly pass
Adult Rider Elasticity
Industry averages range: -0.5 to -0.2, while most studies use an elasticity of -0.3.
More than half of NORTA customers reported not having a drivers license.
Senior/Disabled/Medicare Rider Elasticity
Senior/disabled/Medicare customers are more likely to be transit dependent than adult customers.
Based on review of research: between and -0.21
Transit dependent: if a person is disabled, without a car, or dependent on transit for another reason, they are willing to pay more, because they don’t have other options
The auto ownership statistic was sourced from the RTA audience profile demographic report which was utilized in Phase 1 of this study.
More than half of NORTA customers reported not having a drivers license, meaning they are more likely transit dependent. NORTA riders are likely less responsive to price changes compared to industry averages.

16. Price Sensitivity for Adult Rider
% Change in Ridership = Fare Elasticity x % Change in Price Ridership of 100,000 and fare increase of $0.10
Changes in Response to Different Elasticities ($1.25 Fare)
Elasticity Rate
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
Change in Fare
0.08
Change Ridership
-0.016
-0.024
-0.032
-0.04
Ridership Decrease
-1,600
-2,400
-3,200
-4,000
Resulting Ridership
98,400
97,600
96,800
96,000

17. Peer City Analysis

18. What will this analysis tell us?
What has their experience been with regional passes?
How can their experience help us understand how to structure a regional day pass?
How do they share revenue?
What are transfer policies?
Comparably sized cities/transit agencies
What lessons can we learn and how does this help us understand how to structure a regional day pass?
What is the regional agreement for a regional day pass? What is the agency composition?
How do they share revenue?
What are transfer policies?

19. Peer Review City Selection Criteria
Regional pass
Within 50% of the New Orleans urbanized area no vehicle households and poverty rates
Presence of tourism industry
Within 50% of the New Orleans service miles and service area population
Within 50% of the New Orleans annual passenger trips
Within $1.00 of NORTA and JeT base fare
Presence of fixed-guideway service
Ridership trends (declining)
If a city doesn’t have a regional pass, there isn’t much we can learn from them for the purposes of this study.

20. Cities Considered Capital Area Transit System, Baton Rouge, LA
Capital Metro, Austin, TX
Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority, Charleston, SC
Charlotte Area Transit System, Charlotte, NC
Long Beach Transit, Long Beach, CA
Memphis Area Transit Authority, Memphis, TN
Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, Buffalo, NY
Sacramento Regional Transit District, Sacramento, CA
Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, Cincinnati, OH
Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA
Via Metropolitan Transit, San Antonio, TX .
Other cities in the south were considered, but dismissed because they have no regional pass

21. Peer Cities/Agencies Peer City/Agency Characteristics
Selection Criteria
Peer City/Agency Characteristics
 Peer City
NORTA (New Orleans)
JeT (Jefferson Parrish)
Cincinnati, OH (SORTA)
Long Beach, CA (Long Beach Transit)
Sacramento, CA (SRTD)
Charlotte, NC (CATS)
Regional Pass No
Yes
No Vehicle Households
18.9%
21.5%
10.7%
7.8%
Median Household Income
$39,077
$37,448
$37,575
$42,235
$56,799
Poverty Rates
27%
30.5%
20.6%
22.0%
15.5%
Percent Non White
64.5%
46.4%
42.1%
45.0%
46.2%
Threshold Criteria of whether an agency has a regional pass was the most limiting

22. Peer Cities/Agencies Peer City/Agency Characteristics
Selection Criteria
Peer City/Agency Characteristics
 Peer City
NORTA (New Orleans)
JeT (Jefferson Parrish Transit)
Cincinnati, OH (SORTA)
Long Beach, CA (Long Beach Transit)
Sacramento, CA (SRTD)
Charlotte, NC (CATS)
Base Fare
$1.25
$1.50
$1.75
$2.75
$2.20
Service Area Miles 75 94
262 98
231
688
Service Area Pop (approx.)
370K
431K
845K
800k
1.04M
1.1M
Annual Passenger Trips (approx.)
19.6M
2.2M
16.2M
28.1M
25.8M
27.2M
Threshold Criteria of whether an agency has a regional pass was the most limiting

23. GENFARE Software Modification Update

24. GENFARE Software Modification Update
Will create a bidirectional (regional pass)
Software update to fareboxes and TVMs
Need business rules/fare structure
Timeline: 3 months
Received quotes from GENFARE (for NORTA $4k, for JeT $2,800)

25. Regional Fare Study: Next Steps
Ridership Survey
Review changes in ridership behavior
Develop a set of conceptual fare policy/structure options and fare media approaches.
Quantitative and qualitative assessment of conceptual options - estimate the revenue and ridership changes from a regional day pass and a stored value.
Support public engagement efforts - create presentation materials for public engagement for the regional day pass and the stored value pass.

26. Thank You.

27. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT REPORT Late Night Service discussion with NOMTC
August 22, 2017
Justin T. Augustine, III
Late Night Service discussion with NOMTC

28. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT REPORT DBE Second Quarter Report
August 22, 2017
Justin T. Augustine, III
DBE Second Quarter Report
Genia Browder

29. DBE Program Performance Report
2nd Quarter 2017

30. Current Contracts FEDERAL Total $ 26,456,418 Million
Total $ 8,995,182 Million for DBEs
34% DBE Participation
NON-FEDERAL
Total $ 49,688,571
Million
Total $15,403,457 Million for DBEs
31% DBE Participation

31. 2nd Quarter Performance
Total spending $3,940, (federal and non-federal not including fuel and vehicles)
DBE Spending $ 1,410,907.00
2nd Quarter DBE Attainment 36%

32. Site Visit Report 1.) Transportation & Logistics, LLC
2521 St. Andrew Street
New Orleans, LA 70152
Owner – Mr. Kevin Thomas
NAICS: Freight Transportation
NAICS: Special Needs Transportation

33. Site Visit Report 2.) United Services, LLC 3617 Joliet Street
New Orleans, LA 70118
Owner-Mr. Edgar Young
NAICS: Construction Management/ General Contractors
NAICS: Electrical, And Low Voltage
NAICS: Heating, Ventilation, and Air
Conditioning, (HVAC)

34. RTA DBE Outreach at City of New Orleans Economic Development Business Information Sessions

35. Next RTA DBE Outreach Event
Congressman Cedric Richmond’s
Small Business Expo
Delgado Community College
Thursday, August 24th
11:00 a.m. -3:00 p.m.

36. JULY 2017
FINANCIALS
August 22, 2017
Ronald G. Baptiste, Jr.

41. Cleaner, Smarter Transit.
THE END
@NewOrleansRTA