Source: City of Broken Arrow
The city of Broken Arrow and Planning and Design Engineering consultants Kimley-Horn recently held a community meeting on public transit and heard from residents and stakeholders about the public transportation needs of residents and visitors to the city.
The meeting was initially scheduled to be an in-person meeting but was changed to a Zoom meeting to accommodate the winter weather conditions.
The public meetings and the survey are part of a long-term strategy for enhancing public transportation in the city.
“First, we want to evaluate the existing transportation conditions in Broken Arrow to help inform our recommendations for the future,” said Jill Gibson, project manager for Kimley-Horn said.
Of the survey responses the city has received thus far, “Sixty percent of the respondents say the cost is reasonable,” Gibson said.
Tulsa Transit currently serves Broken Arrow with three different routes and three free parking rides at Battle Creek Church, 3025 N. Aspen Ave., Union Intermediate High School, 7616 S. Garnett Road, and Indian Springs Baptist Church, 7815 S. Elm Place.
The results from the survey indicate that 80% of the people know how to access public transportation. However, few think it is reliable, and even less say it is near where they live or work.
“This information is beneficial because it’s allowing us to understand where there might be areas that we can improve and where we can direct our efforts to help bring the transportation system up to where people need it to be,” Gibson said.
Most have said they want transportation options that are more convenient and closer to where they live and want to go.
“Seventy-five percent of the people said they were likely to ride public transportation if the city made some of these changes,” Gibson said.
As a part of the virtual public meeting, those in attendance broke into small groups to discuss current conditions and goals for the future.
They also considered the Embark system in Oklahoma City, CARTA in Chattanooga, Tennessee, DART in Des Moines, Iowa, and Metro Transit in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
“This public meeting, along with the transportation user survey, will help steer us toward defining future plans and creating a pathway to greater mobility access as we continue to look for ways to enhance the high quality of life here in Broken Arrow,” City Manager Michael Spurgeon said.
A second community public transit meeting will be held later this spring.
The goals of the transit study are as follows:
1. Define, identify, and establish a vision to address passenger transportation needs in and around the City of Broken Arrow.
2. Provide more reliable mobility options to move people where they need to go, support economic growth, and improve connections to key destinations and neighborhoods.
3. Develop prioritized improvements and service scenarios to improve mobility and support transit service, including the impact of future transportation technologies.
4. Develop planning level capital and operating costs for each scenario and identify funding strategies for implementation.
5. Define City of Broken Arrow’s role in supporting and providing transportation needs today and into the future.
6. Create mobility solutions in coordination with other local transportation studies and projects.
7. Leverage transportation technologies to provide innovative mobility solutions.
For more information, watch the entire meeting at https://youtu.be/5ovJzKYW1GI.
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