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2017: THE YEAR IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

APTA in 2017: Member Service, Support and Outreach

APTA had an eventful year in 2017 as it reinforced and built on its mission to address the challenges facing public transportation.

Through a steadfast commitment to the 2015-2019 APTA Strategic Plan, the association continued to strengthen its connection with members, expand member services and enhance advocacy and outreach efforts.

Here are some examples of APTA’s activities in 2017, as reported during the year in Passenger Transport:

More than 90 percent of APTA’s voting members approved changes to the association’s governing bylaws, the first such reforms in more than a decade. As recommended by the Governance & Bylaws Review Task Force, changes include redefined roles for the Executive Committee and Board of Directors, permanent seats on an expanded Executive Committee for increased representation from specific industry segments, and additional at-large seats on both the Executive Committee and the board to allow for greater participation from APTA’s diverse membership base.

Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., chief executive officer, Jacksonville (FL) Transportation Authority, was elected APTA chair for 2017-2018. David M. Stackrow Sr., chairman, Capital District Transportation Authority, Albany, NY, was elected vice chair and Kim R. Green, executive ­director of business development for Genfare, remained secretary-treasurer. Doran J. Barnes, executive director, ­Foothill Transit, West Covina, CA, is immediate past chair.

APTA updated and expanded its diversity and inclusion program, revising the structure and mandate for the APTA Diversity Council.

Then-APTA Chair Doran J. Barnes led a CEO Search Task Force to recruit a new president and CEO for APTA by December 2017. Paul P. Skoutelas, currently national director of WSP’s Transit and Rail Technical Excellence Center, will assume the position of APTA president and CEO Jan. 3.

More than 135 public transit agencies and organizations participated in APTA’s 12th annual “Dump the Pump Day” in June.

Citations in several major media outlets helped APTA raise its overall media profile. APTA created strategically placed radio and print ads that ran in Washington, DC, and three other regions with public transit projects at risk from federal funding cuts.

APTA created two complementary advocacy/education tools: one to compute the number of jobs and the amount of income generated in a community from a transit system’s operations and capital investments, and the other to help communicate this data to decision-makers, the media and other stakeholders.

The report Who Rides Public Trans­portation shows that a total of 87 percent of public transit trips have a direct impact on the nation’s economy by ­connecting people to where they earn and spend money.

APTA’s 2017 Annual Meeting & EXPO in Atlanta attracted more than 13,000 attendees (the largest in its history), featured more than 800 exhibitors, and included general sessions, seminars, panels and committee meetings led by government officials and industry experts.

APTA conducted a virtual #Rally4Transit in conjunction with the 2017 APTA Annual Meeting & EXPO, mobilizing EXPO attendees, APTA members and the Voices for Public Transit (VPT) advocacy community nationwide. The rally messages highlighted two calls to action: reject the administration’s proposed budget cuts while fully funding the FAST Act, and ensure that public transportation is included in any new infrastructure legislation. The rally resulted in 3,628 emails sent to Congress and 1,001 submitted letters to the editor to 531 local media outlets. Since September 2017, VPT has gained 1,718 new advocates for a total of 212,038.

More than 1,500 public transportation professionals and business leaders attended APTA’s 2017 Bus & Paratransit Conference in May in Reno, NV, which included an International Bus Roadeo with a record-breaking 38 maintenance teams and 80 operators. More than 1,800 industry professionals convened in Baltimore in June for the 2017 APTA Rail Conference and International Rail Rodeo, where competitors represented 16 agencies in the U.S. and Japan. APTA also presented safety and security awards at both the bus and rail conferences.

Other APTA meetings during the year included the Business Member Board of Governors Annual Business Meeting; Fare Collection/Revenue Management & TransITech Conference; High-Speed Rail Policy Forum; Legal Affairs Seminar; Marketing and Communications Workshop; Risk Management Seminar; Sustainability and Multimodal Planning Workshop; Transit Board Members and Board Support Seminar; and Transit CEOs Seminar.

The 20th class of Leadership APTA completed its year of roundtable discussions, tours and workshops led by seasoned executives and federal officials at the APTA Annual Meeting, preparing graduates for senior and executive-level positions within the industry.

Regional Organizational Development Summits in Washington, DC; Atlanta; Los Angeles and Chicago helped APTA members attract and serve the needs of special populations in the current and future workforce.

In partnership with the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, APTA’s Passenger Rail Engineering and Education Symposium (p-REES) in Los Angeles in July brought together college-level educators and industry professionals throughout North America to discover ways to integrate passenger rail-oriented content into engineering curricula and attract a new generation of public transit engineers.

APTA hosted 50 high school juniors and seniors from 19 states at the Fifth Biennial Youth Summit in Washington, DC, in June to ­promote careers in the industry.

Early in the year, 23 APTA members and officials participated in a 10-day study mission to Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, where they learned how some of the world’s foremost public transit operators integrate safety culture and asset management into their planning and operations, and how similar actions can be applied to U.S. systems. Mission participants reported on the lessons they learned at APTA’s Bus & Paratransit and Rail conferences and the Annual Meeting & EXPO.

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