Sept. 24 METRO RTA Board meeting
Covered by Documenter Bruce Taylor (see his notes here)
At its September meeting, the METRO RTA board unanimously approved the purchase of 33 new compressed natural gas buses from GILLIG LLC. Grants from the Federal Transit Agency cover 80% of nearly $24 million cost. The new buses will replace existing buses that are nearing the end of their useful lives.
Measuring Akron METRO performance
METRO ridership has increased on Saturdays due to free weekend fares.
Across the service area, on-time performance for the previous month was 81% for fixed routes. The agency’s goal is 95% on-time performance, with a high point of 84% in January.
On-demand routes had a 92% on-time rate. This was the third increase in as many months. Eight accidents were reported in July; five were deemed preventable. METRO has 289 full-time employees (completing 3,746 hours of training in July).
New logo, signage and representation
The agency is phasing in a new METRO logo. A new “Community Driven Bus” will have multilingual signage incorporating the languages spoken by METRO employees. Transit Center banners would also be multilingual.
Also of note
The board voted unanimously in favor of a resolution supporting Issue 27, the Akron Public Schools’ levy proposal on the November ballot.
While 2024 sales tax revenues to support METRO operations are less than expected (partly due to lower sales of new cars in Summit County), this was more than offset by lower-than-expected operating expenses. .
METRO’s Vote Bus made an appearance at recent events, including the North Hill Community Development Corp.’s International Day of Peace at People’s Park and at the Women Supporting Women event at Hardesty Park.
The Vote Bus is available to appear at other events, though METRO staff do not themselves register voters.
METRO RTA CEO Dawn Distler will receive the American Public Transit Association Outstanding CEO Award for 2024 at the upcoming TRANSform conference in Anaheim, California.