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Collaboration Moves Cities Forward, Part 2
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The most successful public transit agency general managers are masters of collaboration who build  partnerships with transportation stakeholders as diverse as real estate developers, community activists, small business owners and engineers.
But perhaps their most important partnership is with their mayor. Every component of public transit, from infrastructure to fares and service hours to routes, has an impact on a city’s overall well-being.
Passenger Transport asked a few mayors and GMs to talk about their shared goals in a two-part article that concludes below. (See the April 15 issue for Part 1.)
Please share some strategies or practices that strengthen your collaboration to integrate community initiatives and public transportation priorities.
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Austin, TX: Collective Innovation
Mayor Steve Adler
 The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is no stranger to having to do more with less. Since its creation in 1985, the population of Austin has more than doubled in size, and in order to continually provide reliable transport, Capital Metro has had to not only expand, but dramatically evolve.
Capital Metro has continually enlarged its fleet of buses and vans since its inception, and in 2010 it successfully began offering a commuter rail service from Austin’s newly created Downtown MetroRail Station. This was a monumental step for Austin, as many experts believe that Austin must continue to use, as well as greatly expand, rail services if Austin is to successfully deal with future population growth.
That’s why developing Austin’s infrastructure and public transit network is so important and why we are collaborating with Capital Metro officials to outline a vision of the future for Austin in which transit is cost-effective, reliable and accessible for all of Austin.
Rail must be part of this vision. We need to talk about how we do a rapid rail system. In a city 20 years from now with four million people in it, if we don’t have a rail system, we are going to have significant problems. One primary way to begin to implement the starting foundations of a public transport rail system is to expand Austin’s current downtown rail station to create a “starter” rail system.
It is a testament to the appeal of Austin that the demand for new forms of transportation, which is being caused by our rapid population growth, is spurring our city’s spirit of innovation. We are all working together to deal with this head-on.
Collaboration among my office, Capital Metro and the people of Austin will need to continue and intensify if Austin is to continually expand our public transit options that this city needs, and there is little doubt collaboration and progress will continue. Once Austin has the new forms of transit it will require for future generations, it will result in an Austin with mobility that is safer, cheaper, cleaner and more effective for everyone.
Linda Watson
President/CEO
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority
 Coordination between public agencies is an absolute necessity when it comes to public transit planning. It’s a given.
But with the population of central Texas growing by 110 new residents a day and traffic congestion threatening to deteriorate the region’s quality of life, basic coordination just doesn’t cut it anymore. It takes collective innovation and a can-do spirit to make a real difference.
Capital Metro has been at the forefront of inspiring that kind of collaboration. Our expanded new downtown MetroRail Station, scheduled to break ground in 2017, is a great example of this. During the design process, it became clear that restricting vehicular traffic on the street parallel to the track was the best way to enhance public safety and maximize usability.
In the past, this concept might have elicited immediate pushback from the city’s transportation staff. After all, closing a street in a car-centric place like Texas is a pretty incendiary issue and one likely to draw barbs from the public. So Capital Metro undertook the expense of conducting a traffic study to make its case and provide the city with the data it would need to, in turn, make its case to the public. That effort was enough to convince city staff that we were in this together.
Not only did they buy into the concept, they initiated their own traffic study to ensure that the street closure would have even less of a negative impact downtown. They even participated in our public meetings to endorse the idea and to demonstrate a united front. By working together, we managed to change the familiar refrain of “Why?” into the more forward-thinking “Why not?” From there, other avenues began to open up.
Now we’re working with a number of city departments and civic organizations to extend the station plaza to incorporate a neighboring and long-neglected park, creating a first-of-its-kind, transit-oriented gathering place. That’s the kind of collective spirit of innovation that can transform a place like Austin from just a popular and “cool” city into a truly great one.
St. Petersburg, FL: Expanding Reach; Building Value
Mayor Rick Kriseman
 Our need to strengthen the collaboration with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) became readily apparent when the referendum to finance the Greenlight Pinellas Plan through a 1 percent sales tax failed in November 2014.
We sought to double the current level of bus service and implement a light rail service to connect Pinellas County’s major activity centers. While people disagreed about how to fund the plan, there was little debate that the plan was well thought out, and improved public transit service was a critical component of our redevelopment plans and a much-needed mobility option in our car-centric county.
In early 2015, my staff and the PSTA staff began meeting more frequently to develop creative and practical solutions that were mutually beneficial. As PSTA developed its Path Forward Plan with the goals of a sustainable capital program, customer-oriented service redesign and incremental expansion, I encouraged my staff to walk alongside PSTA to ensure that efforts to improve transit in St. Petersburg were strategically prioritized. The first phase of the System Redesign Work Plan involved adjustments to the lowest-performing routes. Two routes in St. Petersburg were streamlined and the results were acceptable.
Phase 2 had a significantly larger impact on St. Petersburg. It involved transforming our downtown service from a hub and spoke system centered on a beautiful park to an efficient grid system in which transfers occur at the intersection of transit routes.
The decades-long goal of removing public transit facilities from Williams Park was accomplished on Feb. 14. We look forward to future phases such as a new downtown circulator and the Central Avenue BRT project.
PSTA will serve on the city’s Complete Streets Committee to help identify corridors where transit should be prioritized. As the city develops other travel options such as bikeshare, ferry service, pedicabs, on-demand low-speed vehicles and transportation network companies, we will need PSTA as a continued partner for the integration of transportation options and development of a true multimodal network.
Brad Miller
Chief Executive Officer
Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority
 PSTA is led by a regional board of 15 appointed elected officials, including two St. Petersburg City Council members. But with PSTA’s new Path Forward strategic plan, which calls on the agency to emphasize public transportation’s value in our St. Petersburg community, it was very important to improve communication and coordination with Mayor Kriseman and his administrative team.
Regular meetings between myself and the mayor and frequent updates to the full city council, all with consistent communication between city and PSTA staff, have led to historic success in truly integrating public transportation into the transportation network of the city.
This true partnership between the city and its public transit provider has led to major improvements that not only have benefitted riding customers but have also restored a strong confidence that public transportation is a needed catalyst for St. Petersburg’s vibrant culture.
After more than 60 years of using a St. Petersburg park as a transit transfer hub that encouraged fast travel away from the city center, now a modern transit grid network has expanded public transit’s reach to everywhere in the city and opened the park up to be a true community asset once again.
City-led transportation initiatives are now fully coordinated with public transportation. New bikeshare and regional ferryboat services will both be implemented later this year specifically with public transit access a key component to their implementation.
Following more than a decade of ineffective studies, the first BRT line in the county will soon be a reality through coordinated advocacy by PSTA, the city and the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce to secure the necessary state DOT funding.
The significantly improved communication and coordination between the mayor’s office and PSTA recently allowed a new employer to relocate to the city with PSTA rerouting significant transit services to serve hundreds of new employees at this major job center.
As PSTA expands its first-in-the-nation first-mile/last-mile partnership with Uber and Lyft transportation network services, the city and PSTA are coordinating how this innovative leadership can further integrate all transportation modes to benefit the city.
This new focus on collaboration between Mayor Kriseman and PSTA has paid off through improved value to our transit riders, businesses and other taxpayers, the city and our region as a whole.
Portland, OR: Creativity Is in Our DNA
Mayor Charlie Hales
 Portland is a creative community, from our microbrews to our public transportation.
Our infrastructure is a collection of tools that move people, but it’s also an embodiment of our city’s creativity: the multicolored streetcars that circle our inner city whose five colors represent different sectors of Portland, the stunning Tilikum Crossing and the tram that floats through the sky and connects Oregon Health and Science University with the South Waterfront.
Portland’s creativity extends to our partnerships, too. Decades of collaboration between the city of Portland and our local public transit agency, TriMet, has built Portland’s reputation for stellar public transportation.
When I was a city commissioner in the 1990s, I developed the first modern streetcar line in the country. Here are a few facts:
Since then, $4.5 billion market value of new property has developed along the Portland Streetcar corridor and 7,400 residential units have been constructed, 38 percent of streetcar riders don’t have cars and nearly one-third of Portland jobs are along the streetcar route.
It’s sustainable infrastructure that brings tremendous economic benefit. And it demonstrates the strong history of collaboration among partners that engage community to provide public transportation, the Portland way.
We saw that collaboration again with TriMet’s MAX Orange Line and Tilikum Crossing—the most amazing new bridge in America. Engagement and support from our community began years before the first train even crossed the bridge.
This connection to place is exemplified with the public’s input of the official naming through a one-of-its-kind public naming contest: “Tilikum” is a Chinook word for “people.” Portlanders came out to celebrate the opening in the thousands. I was honored to help cut the orange ribbon, and now I take the Orange Line almost daily!
Collaboration with TriMet has kept Portland a leader in creative connectivity—the Portland way.
Neil McFarlane
General Manager
Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet)
 Every public transit project first starts with the idea of improving our community and helping connect people to jobs, school and other community activities.
From there, we approach a transit project as a regional priority and collaborate with all of our government partners and members of the public along the future alignment. This collaborative approach with our partners and stakeholders is part of our DNA—all of us working together makes for a better outcome.
Since making the decision to build the MAX light rail system some 35 years ago, we’ve used this collaborative model successfully with our partners and the public throughout the 10- to 15-year development cycle of each project. With a dedication to continuous improvement, each line builds on the success of the previous, ensuring that we’re always on the cutting edge of creating a better light rail system for the community.
The majority of our 60-mile MAX light rail system is located within the city of Portland, making the city the longest and strongest partner. We don’t expect a linear path during the design and construction of a complex MAX extension. We expect that partners and the public may want to make changes to an alignment or a station location to better work in a neighborhood. Being flexible and open-minded to new ideas has resulted in better projects.
As Mayor Hales mentions, our new MAX Orange Line and the unique Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, were improved by extensive public engagement and project partners open to listening to the feedback. Together we look to go beyond just connecting one place to another. We look at how best to leverage this major capital investment to be more than just a rail line.
The results include the new Orange Line, the most environmentally sustainable light rail project we’ve ever built. With the city of Portland and our other partners, we invested some $65 million in new and improved bike and pedestrian infrastructure, the largest funding for active transportation facilities as part of a light rail project. And the Tilikum Crossing is the first of its kind in the U.S., serving MAX light rail and Portland Streetcar trains, buses, bikes and pedestrians, but no private vehicles. It’s a stunning symbol of our commitment to collaboration and creativity.
This road map of collaboration charts our path forward, with the openness to make it better each time.
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