Clark County Commission on Aging

0:00 [MUSIC] Good afternoon. I will call to order this public meeting of the Clark County Commission on Aging. It is Monday, August 17th, 2026. My name is Ellen Rogers, and I am the chair of the Commission on Aging. Meetings of the Clark County Commission on Aging are held in a hybrid meeting room. This means that commission members, guests, and members of the public have the option to attend in-person or remotely. For members of the public attending remotely, other event participants cannot see or hear you unless you are acknowledged by the commission chair or staff and your audio is unmuted. I will be announcing the agenda items as we move through

0:59 the meeting topics in case you do not have the agenda in front of you. An opportunity for public comment will be at the beginning of the agenda following a few business items. We will start with a roll call of commission members who are present for this meeting. Commission members, please say here after I call your name. As a reminder to all of us, please don't forget to mute yourself when you are not speaking. Megan Anderson. Here. Mike Anderson. Here. Julie Donovan. Here. Cass Friedland. Here. Donna Mason is excused. Kenden Masterson is excused. David Moss. Here. Ellen Rogers is here. So we have a quorum given that we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven members here.

1:58 Okay. So we will now move on to business items. The first item is the approval of today's meeting agenda. I will take a motion for approval of the agenda. Second. Are there any discussion on the motion? Okay. I will now take a vote on the passing of the approving of the agenda. All those in favor of approving the agenda, please say aye. Aye. Anyone not in favor, please say nay. Okay. So the motion passes.

2:51 So the next -- are we -- I'm sorry, but are we approving minutes from the past meeting? No. Because we didn't have a July meeting. Is that correct? >> So we'll have the June minutes for you next time. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. So our next item is officer elections. Mike Anderson has expressed an interest in being chair for the 26-27 term. Do we have any other nominations? Okay. So I am going to request a motion to take a vote and a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Do we have any discussion on voting in Mike Anderson to be chair for the 26-27 term?

3:46 Okay. I'm going to take a vote. Do we need to vote by name or can we just take a yay and a nay? >> Voice vote is fine. >> Oh. Does everybody have to approve it individually or can we just say yay or nay? Okay. So all those in favor, please say yay. >> Yay. >> Okay. Anybody not in favor of Mike being president for next year? Okay. Hearing nothing not in favor, I announce that Mike will be the chair for the 26-27 term. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay. Now we will take nominations for vice chair. I have nominated Julie Donovan for consideration. Do we have any other nominations?

4:43 Okay. I will take a motion. With no other nominations, I will take a motion for a vote. And I request a second to the motion. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor of Julie Donovan as vice chair -- oh, did we have to have open -- does anybody have any discussion items they'd like to state? Okay. All those in favor of Julie as the vice chair for the 26-27 term? Everybody say -- please say yay. >> Yay. >> Yay. And all those not in favor of Julie Donovan as the vice chair for the 26-27 term, please say nay. Hearing no nays, Julie is also -- has been voted in to be the vice chair for the 26-27 term.

5:42 Congratulations, Julie and Mike. Okay. So we will now move to the next item on our agenda, the general public comment. We request that any comments made are completed within three minutes. To accommodate time for all speakers, we also request that before you make your comment, you state your name on the record. Are there any guests in the room that would like to make a comment? >> I will make a comment. >> Okay. >> Alright. I'm Fred Munnhoven, and I have handicapped people on my cul-de-sac. And really, I'm speaking for them and a few of my older friends.

6:35 I saw this in our messenger that comes to seniors, and I shared it with them. And what's coming and what's here is a bunch of seniors that are going to not be able to drive and don't know how to do it, how to access the same system. So I went online, tried to access the system. It's a mess. For older people to push all the right buttons, very difficult. So that would be my best offer forward to help the community is make accessibility easier online. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for your comment. Fred? >> What? >> Was it Fred? >> Yes.

7:33 >> Thank you very much for your comment. We actually just had a presentation from Adam Fiss from, I can't remember the organization, from RTC talking about a survey that they have been doing with senior citizens and actually all people who use public transportation. And today, we actually have people from C-TRAN in the room. So maybe you'll gather some information or get a chance to speak with them. Thank you for coming. We appreciate it. Okay. So staff, Susan, for online guests, can you please provide instructions on how to make online public comments, please? >> We do not have any online guests today. >> We have nobody online? >> That's right. >> Okay. Thank you. So we can move on.

8:29 So this concludes the general public comment portion of this meeting. Next, we move on to our moderated discussion that is going to focus on mobility. I am going to hand this over. So we have a trio of guests from C-TRAN. Today, we have Veronica Marti, Taylor Eit, and Jay Hausgaard. And our discussion will be moderated by commission member Julie Donovan. So I'm going to hand the discussion over to Julie. >> Thank you all for being here. So this year, we have been talking about housing and transportation. And this month is talking about public transportation and what's available and how to access it and all the challenges and things we might not know about. So I would first like to read your bios, if you don't mind. All right.

9:28 Taylor Eit is the director of planning and service delivery with C-TRAN, leading service planning, long-range planning, and multimodal project development. Taylor works to get the people where they're going. At C-TRAN, Taylor focuses on promoting service accessibility and equitable mobility options through integrated transit service design all the way from the start to the end of a trip. His background combines data analytics and people-oriented transportation planning. Taylor holds a Master of Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and a professional certification in geographic information science. Thanks, Taylor. Veronica Marty is -- sorry, your last name is not on my sheet -- is the lead travel trainer. In that role, Veronica engages with community members and supports the use

10:27 of public transportation by providing education and training sessions that are designed to fit specific needs of individuals and groups as well as providing functional assessments for the paratransit eligibility application process. Veronica has over 25 years of experience in the field of disabilities and is a certified ADA coordinator. Thank you. My dad and I used the services, so. Jay Hausgaard currently leads community engagement efforts with C-TRAN as part of their communications and marketing team. He speaks Spanish and has over 15 years of professional experience in the -- immigration law, education, and community health. In his role at C-TRAN, he manages the Community Advisory Committee,

11:24 coordinates the agency's participation in fairs and festivals, supports communications, and builds relationships. Thank you all for being here. >> And Susan, you have the presentation. So are you -- I don't know which one of you is presenting first. >> I'll take it away. >> Okay. >> Thank you. It's our pleasure to be here today to -- oh, can you hear me all right? Lovely. Thank you. It's our pleasure to be here today to speak with you all about C-TRAN, the services we offer, and some of the work that we're doing. We do want to run through a little bit of our presentation and leave plenty of time to have a discussion with you all. So if we can go to the next slide, please.

12:22 We'd like to talk through some of the trends, challenges, and barriers that people using the C-TRAN system and people within our community are experiencing. We'd like to talk about some of the agency support that we provide and some of the projects that we're working on to continue to [audio cuts out] out in Clark County. We'd like to talk a little bit about our Community Advisory Committee, our engagement, and provide an overview of C-VAN and other accessible service offerings at C-TRAN. Next slide, please. I'll start with our long-range plan. This is a very exciting project that C-TRAN is currently undertaking. It's called C-TRAN 2045. It's our 20-year long-range plan for transit service

13:18 in Clark County in the southwest Washington region. It's a project that highlights how C-TRAN will improve service, develop capital projects, and really create a path for growth and mobility within Clark County over the next 20 years. This is a transit-focused plan, but it works to integrate transit service with a more holistic transportation picture working with all of our local transportation providers and agencies within the county. The plan looks at how we will improve and change service, how we will introduce new transit options in and throughout the county, and the projects that will support those transit options. It identifies how we will ensure transit equity and what we look at throughout the community

14:17 to ensure that we're providing services that work for all of our community members, and it helps C-TRAN maintain a position of financial sustainability, identifying funding mechanisms, streams, and opportunities to help support growth and expansion throughout the county. Next slide, please.

14:48 Thank you. The long-range plan is an exciting plan because it looks at what transit in Clark County is like today, both where it exists and where it does not. Clark County has changed significantly over the last 10 years since C-TRAN previously updated our long-range plan, making it very important to take a comprehensive look at what our system looks like today, how it's performing for users and people that rely on C-TRAN today, but perhaps even more importantly, it's our opportunity to take a holistic look at how C-TRAN may not work for people throughout Clark County. The C-TRAN service area and the services that we provide are limited by the C-TRAN public transit benefit area, which is primarily the urban area of Clark County.

15:47 It's not countywide at this time, although it was when C-TRAN was formed as an agency in the '80s. That did change in the early 2000s, and that definitely leads to some of what we've seen as challenges and barriers through our outreach as a part of this plan. We've heard a lot from community members about C-TRAN's investment in services in the urban area and how, in many cases, people have been able to improve their mobility through those investments, services like the Vine, our fixed route, and our C-van paratransit service, but we heard perhaps even more about some of the challenges that folks face in the non-urbanized areas of Clark County and some of our smaller communities, and those challenges are primarily rooted

16:42 in making connections between services and people's home where they may not be located in the same community. They are accessing our services and information about our services where we may have infrastructure gaps, digital readiness gaps, or challenges with being close to a service at all. We've worked to engage as much of the county as we can through this planning process, through attendance at local city councils, open houses throughout the county, a number of both in-person and online engagement opportunities and surveys, as well as a presence with many of our community stakeholder groups, both governmental, non-governmental, and other related stakeholders.

17:41 Next slide, please. And throughout this process, we're working to develop a vision for what the C-TRAN network will look like, both in the near term, as well as in the next 20 years, looking out to 2045. There's a map on the screen that shows what we expect the C-TRAN network to look like in about five years, so 2030. This is a map that shows a lot of the exciting projects that we have underway today, and many of the projects that we've recently completed. These include projects like an extension of the Vine, our bus rapid transit service on Main Street and Highway 99 between Vancouver Waterfront and WSU Vancouver. It includes an extension of our fourth plane bus rapid transit, the Vine,

18:37 from Vancouver Mall on East Fourth Plane and on 162nd and 164th Avenues in Vancouver. It also includes the Current. The Current is what we call microtransit. It's a point-to-point mobility option, similar to Uber or Lyft, that folks can use to go anywhere within a defined service area. On this map, those are the areas represented in green. They include the city of Ridgefield, La Center, Battleground, Kamas, Washougal, as well as some smaller service zones in the WSU Vancouver Salmon Creek area, Rose Village, and the Port of Vancouver. That's a new service offering for us within the last few years. We've been fortunate to be able to expand that into Battleground last year.

19:35 And it's a service that we're seeing really high use from both younger folks who aren't able to drive, as well as older folks who may not have access to a vehicle, may not want to drive, or would like to be able to autonomously get about their business within one of these areas. Next slide, please. What we heard through this plan engagement is a desire for continuous improvement in safety and accessibility at our bus stops, the need to be able to use transit to make faster and more reliable trips, both within one's community, but also between different parts of the county. The need to make technology improvements that enhance the rider experience. This is both making information more available, but also more accessible

20:32 to help people plan trips, book services, and find out about C-TRAN in general. We also heard a lot about a desire to see more and enhanced facilities that help us support service expansion. These include new bus stops, new transit centers, and enhanced amenities at those transit centers and transit facilities. Next slide, please. Some of the barriers that we know exist within our system today are primarily a lack of accessible infrastructure. Much of the C-TRAN system is nearing 45 years old, and we work diligently to make improvements to the C-TRAN system. We are, like every other agency, constrained by funding, constrained by the right of way

21:32 that we work within and our ability to work with some of our partner jurisdictions. But nonetheless, we are working to make improvements to accessibility, comfort, safety, and compliance of stops throughout the C-TRAN system on a regular basis. We've been fortunate to improve anywhere between 20 and 50 of our bus stops per year over the last few years. And we're hoping, as a result of this long-range planning process, to take an even more aggressive approach to those accessibility improvements. Next slide, please. No. We touched on this a little bit, so we can go ahead and go to the next slide. And I will pass it to Jay to talk about our Community Advisory Committee. >> Thank you, Taylor.

22:30 Can everyone hear me okay? So, I'm Jay Hausgaard. I wanted to talk about some of the different ways that we engage with older adults in Clark County. There's many ways that we do that, and that's a big part of my role is finding out all the places that we can go and both share information about our services, but also listen and find out what people are saying and what their feedback is about areas for improvement. So, one of the ways we do that is with our Community Advisory Committee. This is a committee with members who have a variety of different perspectives and lived experiences that they share to our executive leadership and then also to the board from there.

23:26 So, there's members who are deaf and hard of hearing, blind or low vision, older adults, low income representatives, social service representatives, et cetera. There's 15 members in total. I bring this to your attention because we have new positions that open every October. So, if you're ever interested in a different civic engagement opportunity, please keep us in mind. It's a two-year term and you get a free bus pass for those two years. Next slide please. So, these are some other examples with engagement and I know one of the questions we heard is what do we say to someone who's feeling overwhelmed by the transit options in the region. And so, one of the things that we often do when we're out and about is take

24:22 out our writer's digest, if you haven't heard of that already, that's a comprehensive guide. It's a hands-on, it's a booklet with all of our maps and schedules. It talks about the fares, what does it cost to ride C-TRAN and how to pay that fare. And it really can just take you through the whole process. I know Veronica will talk about some of her services that relate to that in a minute as well. But the list here is just some other examples of engagement that we conduct. One thing we do that's different from some other systems is our shopping shuttle. That's for different residential developments in downtown Vancouver that don't otherwise have access to grocery stores. There is a New Seasons now but historically in downtown Vancouver,

25:19 that's kind of been a lack of access there. So, for six different housing developments, we provide access to WinCo and Fred Meyer with our shopping shuttle. We also go out and share information about our reduced fare programs, making sure people know about our heroes pass that veterans or active duty service members ride free on our local bus routes. We have an honored citizen pass for those who are age 65 and above. That's half the fare of other adults, so it's 75 cents per ride on our local routes. We do events throughout the year and this is ever evolving. I put some examples up there of where you can find us. But, if you have ideas tonight during the fireside chat, please do share

26:19 because we're always looking into other places we can attend other events. We do presentations throughout the year, so we are available. I would say the three of us are most often out in community giving presentations like tonight. We were at Cojure Living, Senior Living recently, Smith Tower, Felida Senior Park, and Fairway Village all within the past year. But, again, that's not a comprehensive list and we're open to your ideas if there's interest from other locations. And, we've also been to the Clark County Accessible Community Advisory Committee. Next slide, please. From here, I'm going to pass it on to Veronica Marti.

27:15 >> Hi, I'm Veronica. Can you hear me? Okay, great. I'm going to talk a little bit about CVAN Paratransit, which is the curb-to-curb service that we provide for people who, due to a disability, are unable to use our regular fixed route. We do provide that service up here, like it says, in the Vancouver, Battleground, Camas, Washougal area, Ridgefield List Center, and portions of Camas. We do have the on-demand ride share service of the current that can provide service as well. Difference being with CVAN, that requires an eligibility process where the current does not, that's available to anybody. To be able to ride CVAN, you can apply in two different ways.

28:13 You can do that online, or you can also call us to start that process. Next slide. So, like I said, the process is about who's eligible. And, it's really, it's not based on any specific disability. It's not based on age. It's not based on income. It's really based on a very individual need and how your disability impacts you and your ability to use fixed route services. So, it starts off with a simple three-question pre-application. And, based on that, you go to a full application. And, it just steps you through some more questions to try and give us a better picture of how your disability impacts your ability to use fixed route.

29:12 That application is reviewed. And, from there, they make a decision whether they can clearly see if you're eligible or if maybe they want you to come in for an in-person functional assessment. And, if that's the case, then they will set up an appointment, have you come in, and talk to me. I'm the one who does the functional assessments. And, that's just to kind of see if we can get more information to help that process to see if we can help you become eligible for CBAN. We just want to make sure that we get the full picture before we make that decision and maybe deny somebody that really there's more information out there that we're not seeing. And, this is the, the process can take a little bit, so it's not an instant service.

30:10 It can take up to 21 days for a decision to come through after we get all of the information. So, it's kind of, it's an important piece for people to realize that it's not something that they're going to call for this service and get it that day or even that week. So, something for people to keep in mind. Children from age nine and older can ride the service on their own without an adult. If they're under nine, they can still qualify, but they would need an adult to ride with them. You may be, again, you just may be eligible if you're prevented from getting to or from a bus stop, getting on or off a bus, or it causes you difficulty in navigating the system. Next slide.

31:05 Some things we also wanted to talk about is the accessibility of our regular bus system or fixed route system or the big buses. All of our buses have a wheelchair base. A lot of people don't realize that all of our buses, all of our vehicles are wheelchair walker accessible. Our fixed route buses have at least two wheelchair bays. Our vine buses have three. They also kneel so that they're easier to get into, and what that means is the front of the bus can be lowered so that that front step into that bus lowers by about six to eight inches, so it makes it much easier to get into. All of our buses are also called low floor, so there's no steps up into the bus.

32:02 They're all at the same level until you get all the way to the back of the bus, so it makes it much easier to get into. >> Can I just ask a question? Do you have to request of the driver that the bus kneels for you? >> Yes, you can request the driver at any time to kneel the bus. >> Okay. Just wondering if it did it automatically or not. >> No. Yeah, it's something that the driver has to do for you. And then with the vine, it doesn't have to be -- no. That's something that's called level boarding. So we've actually built that into the vine system where the platforms where the buses pull into are already at the same level as the floor of the bus. So once that bus door opens, you can just walk right in without any height difference.

33:00 And they're also designed where the bus can pull up very close to the curb so it minimizes the gap between the sidewalk and the bus. There's also securements inside for people using mobility devices. So when they are in there, they can get parked, and we can secure them down for a safer ride. And then there are also bike racks on all of our buses. Our regular fixed route buses, in that picture you can see they're on the outside of the bus. On our fixed route, we have them on the inside of the bus. And then we'll go to the next slide, please. So when you're boarding a bus, we also have lifts and ramps. All of our buses, our C Vans, all have lifts.

33:57 So we have a piece of equipment that will come out. You can get onto that, and it will lift you up to the floor of the bus. On our regular fixed route buses, there's a ramp that flips out that will bridge the gap between the sidewalk and the bus so that a person can just drive right onto the bus or walk right onto the bus. That makes it much easier, so there's no stepping even over that small gap. We also have braille signage along our system to help people identify the different bus and our bus numbers. We also have audio announcements along the route so that people have an easier time being able to figure out where along the route they are. We do have reader boards inside that announce also where you are.

34:53 So if you're a little harder of hearing, you can see and read where along the route we are and where the next stop is, but it also announces most of the major stops. And the next one, okay, my favorite part, the travel training. This is the one-on-one or group instruction where we go out and work with people in teaching them how to use fixed route buses. We figure out where they want to go, where somewhere that's going to be of interest to them. We meet them, we walk to the bus with them, show them how to use the writer's digest that Jay was referring to or our transit app so that they can learn how to plan a trip,

35:49 know when the bus is going to be there, know where they're going to transfer and feel safe and confident in knowing that they're going to get to where they want. Our transit app is basically Google Maps for public transit, really easy to follow, stays up to date, is in real time, so it shows you exactly where the buses are and is really easy to follow. The accessibility of the transit app has become very easy to use. So it can be looked at differently for everybody because it can be like a general overview or it can be very in-depth. It just depends on the person. I've worked with people several times over a year in helping them get comfortable in using public transit. Sometimes it's only maybe once or twice or even over the phone.

36:48 For an example, we talked about going to Fairview Village. That was a group of folks we went out and did a presentation for. Here coming up, I'm providing instruction to a trip for them to a place they wanted to go in Portland. And so they all wanted to learn how to use public transit. They picked a place in Portland. So we're all going to go. We're going to use transit. We've planned out the trip, and now we're going to go take the trip. So it really is individualized to what it looks like, but the end goal is to become familiar, confident in using public transit. And the next one, just want to say thank you again for allowing us to come and talk with you. And then we'll take any questions you have. >> We have questions. I know Amy sent you a list to start with.

37:46 Yeah. I'm glad you didn't see my original list. Anyway, so the first question I had was what changes have you seen in transportation needs and demand among older adults over the past five years, and what are the trends that you are thinking we'll see? >> I can take a first shot at that one. One of the things that we've been seeing a lot is a continued desire for aging in place. And that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. And as a result, that has a pretty significant impact on the C-TRAN system and folks' accessibility to services. Some folks are aging in place in more urban areas where they have readily available access to transit. Other folks are desiring to age in place in some of our smaller communities

38:44 that historically have not had as much access to transit service, primarily because they are lower in population or lower density areas where perhaps a traditional fixed-drought transit service isn't cost-effective. So we've been working to identify ways that we can extend transit service to as much of the community as we can. One of those ways is through our microtransit service that Veronica and I mentioned, The Current. With the deployment of that service, we've been able to functionally cover all of the C-TRAN service area with access to a non-eligibility restricted transit service, which is a really exciting development for us to be able to extend particularly to some of our smaller and lower density communities access to a service to go

39:41 to the store, go to doctor's appointments, visit family, and really make a trip for any purpose that they might desire to. Something else that we've seen is the deployment of a lot of new different types of technologies, and The Current does have a component of that. The Current is a service that you can book on demand, so I can book a trip for that right now, or I can book a trip up for two days in advance. And you can do that through a website, a mobile application, or by calling into our customer service office. We also have The Transit app, which is a mobile application that Veronica mentioned. And when we're investing in and looking into these applications, our priority is to make as much information and service available to the community as we can.

40:39 There is always going to be an investment that we want to make within those services to make sure that they're accessible and useful for folks throughout the community. If they are not comfortable using a phone, if they don't have access to one, we want to make sure that there are different ways that they can access that information while still getting the critical information available to them, like trip cancellations, real-time information about their bus, or service-related impacts to their bus. Anything you want to add? >> I think the only thing I would add about some of the needs or demands is, you know, I think people are looking for a little bit more than rides to medical appointments. They're looking at more whole-life situations.

41:34 And I think that's where microtransit has really helped out in helping people in rural areas, where before they were really just being able to concentrate on the needs to get to medical appointments, because that was really all that was available. So I think that's one of the things that The Current has really helped out and stepped up in helping people have a fuller life in thinking about being able to do more than just get to their medical appointments. >> Thank you. And how long did you say the micro has been running, microtransit? >> It started in January of 2022. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just was wondering, how do you get a hold of one of the rider's digests? That was Ellen. >> I can answer that. I should have brought some here tonight.

42:32 It's a physical brochure. They're available at our customer service offices, or there's a digital version on our website, c-tran.com. The physical version, if not at one of our customer service centers, you can find it at almost any event or presentation that we give. Oh, see, Veronica came prepared. >> I just always have one. >> Another question about your app. So last year I was in Europe, and we were in London and Paris, and literally we did everything by Google Maps. Is your app Google Maps, or is it a different app, like a C-TRAN app?

43:27 >> It is very similar to Google Maps in that it's universally available. So you can use transit in Portland. You can use it in London, and really in most major cities throughout the world, and that's something that's really wonderful about it. The reason that we use transit specifically rather than Google Maps or Apple Maps is because transit is oriented towards a transit rider. So it puts arrival information, trip planning information, and integrated agency information from around the world in a single place that makes it easiest for you to make transit-related decisions. >> So I thought Google Maps was giving us all of that kind of stuff as well, but so is it something, is it an app called Transit? >> Yes.

44:22 >> Okay, thank you. >> Anyone else here have any questions? >> Yep, this is Megan. Can you book travel for someone else, or can you only book it for yourself? >> I'll speak to the current, for the current, for someone else, we have that happen quite regularly for folks that may have a child or a dependent that they are planning a trip for. >> For CBAN, we also have people that book for other people who are unable to do it for themselves, as long as they have some sort of notice and permission from that person in our system that they can do that for them. >> Hi, thank you so much. I'm writing so many notes. I'm learning so much.

45:19 With the spread of these massive housing developments now, do the housing developers ever approach you to do, you know, cohesive planning together, or are you always kind of behind the ball on that? >> I like to think that we're working well together. It can always be improved, but we do work with all of our jurisdictional partners during their comprehensive planning processes and their transportation planning processes so that we can get ahead of the curve and be ready for those developments. That being said, those developments do go in sporadically in different places, and kind of the decentralization of the population within the county is certainly one of the bigger challenges that we need to address, because most of our services are along a corridor, and in some places they've been along that corridor for a long time,

46:19 and a large development going in nearby but not directly adjacent to that corridor can be quite a challenge to appropriately serve, both in terms of making sure that we're providing access to those developments, but also ensuring that we're not sacrificing the service of people that have had transit access for a long time. As those developments are going in, we absolutely do work with them to make sure that we have things like accessible bus stops within those developments and access to the bus stop from pathways within a community as they're working through the planning efforts for those developments. >> Okay, anyone else here? I have more questions, so. >> Yeah, this is Mike.

47:17 Are you doing either park and rides from like Ridgefield and Battleground and the outer things into Vancouver, or how are you-- I'm not sure if you have any scheduled routes. I was trying to see that on the map, thinking of folks that live in the outskirts that live or work in more central Vancouver to help them get in quickly, because that's usually the biggest issue is how long is it going to take me to get to work? And so I don't know how you're addressing those for peak ride times and that. >> That's a great question. And in some cases, we do have park and rides in various places throughout the county. What we found though is that over 90% of people using C-TRAN are getting to a C-TRAN service by other than driving.

48:13 And especially since 2020, we've seen a really dramatic shift in terms of how people are accessing C-TRAN service, and that's why it's become very important for us to work on creating connections to the C-TRAN network, services like The Current where folks can use it to travel from a small cul-de-sac that is never going to have a fixed route bus in it because that bus can't turn around there to connect to a transit center where they can access the broader C-TRAN system and a lot of our different services to different destinations has become more and more important. We do have a handful of park and rides around the county. We have small ones in Le Center, Ridgefield, larger ones in Salmon Creek, Hazel Dell, the Fishers Landing area.

49:10 And through our long range planning process, we're working on identifying some key alternative locations where those could help support ridership and operations in our system, areas like Washougal, Battleground, Yackel, and some of those smaller communities. >> So this is Ellen. So when you were talking about The Current, and do you find that it's mostly taking people from a point to a transit system or a point to a point? And that's probably just a nitpicking question that I'm interested in. >> I love the question. It's both, and that's what we really love to see is a service that works for a variety of different needs. We do have a lot of people that are using The Current to take trips to school, take trips to the grocery store, to the library.

50:09 In most of our service areas, we have some very defined community destinations that are our higher ridership locations for The Current, but we do have probably a third to a half, depending on the service area, of riders that are using The Current to connect to a different C-TRAN service. >> And then do you have any idea of the percentage of demand that you guys, you are able to satisfy with The Current? Meaning, is it 100% so anyone who calls is going to get a ride, or is it, do you have any idea of that? >> It is unfortunately not 100%, and what we've found since 2022 is really that the only factor on demand for The Current is how many vehicles and how many operators we have available to provide service.

51:06 It's a service that works well for people because it's a quick point to point trip that is very flexible. That being said, it is one of the more costly services that C-TRAN provides in terms of C-TRAN operations, our C-MAN paratransit service is the most expensive service that we provide in terms of how much it costs C-TRAN to operate. The Current is a little bit less costly than our C-MAN paratransit and our fixed route service is dramatically less costly to operate, which means we can provide more of that service moving more people. So that's the primary reason that we don't serve the entire county with The Current. It would be an incredibly costly endeavor for us and where we have destinations where we have a lot of people going between those two places or corridors

52:05 that have a high density of populations or destinations. That's where we really want to see those rides on our fixed route service and why we make those deliberate investments in creating an accessible experience both to the stop, at the stop, and on the vehicle for our fixed route because we're never going to be able to meet 100% of our microtransit service demand. >> But what percentage would you say you're able to serve? Is it 75%, 50%, 20%? Do you know, do you have, you know, you must track the calls and so I just am interested. >> Yeah, I would say that from the people that we know that want to try to use our service on any given day, we can fulfill, depending on the zone where our level of service is a little different and different population areas, we're likely to be able

53:05 to fulfill anywhere between 75 and 90% of demand on a given day. But there's a huge latent demand of people that we know would use the service if it were more accessible to them with more vehicles or available in their area. >> How many C vans do you operate during the day? I go to the First and Bird quite often and it's like you can't be there 10 minutes without another C van showing up. So I didn't know, you know, what number of C vans you're running throughout the system. >> You know, that's a great question and I do not have a specific figure for you on an average day. I can tell you that we have about 90 C van vehicles in our fleet on any given day.

54:03 We do want to see around 70 to 80% of those in use. The actual utilization varies throughout the day and when we can fit more rides on a single vehicle, we operate a lot more efficiently and we need less vehicles in specific locations which allows us to extend our service quite a bit more. >> So which parts of Clark County present the greatest transportation challenges for older adults of the areas that you serve? And then what makes them particularly difficult? >> I think we've touched on a few areas where we see a lot of challenge and that's some of our smaller communities that are largely connected to the Vancouver urban area but are not necessarily connected to each other and that's something

55:03 that we're really exploring through our long range planning process, communities like Ridgefield and Battleground, both of which are seeing dramatic increases in their population and their development and there are new community assets in those places like the Ridgefield waterfront, Costco and significant growth in Battleground and we're working to find ways in the future that we're going to be able to connect those to each other without requiring long trips through the more urbanized Vancouver area that currently anchors our transit service today. So those more rural communities but also some of our urban areas that came into our urban growth area and the C-TRAN service area a little bit later and may have physical infrastructure gaps, areas like Minnehaha,

56:02 the area north of Vancouver Mall around 63rd where we have higher population densities but we don't have connected street grids with sidewalks and urban infrastructure. Those can be really challenging areas for us to serve because C-TRAN doesn't control the right of way so we don't control what the street looks like necessarily what is connected with sidewalks and has street lighting and that introduces some pretty significant constraints on us for how we can provide service because we can only provide a fixed route service in an area if we can do that in a way that meets specific ADA compliance regulations. So if there's not a bus stop that we can build in an area that is ADA compliant with a connected sidewalk and curb ramps even if we run a bus through there it's not going to help anyone.

56:55 So a lot of those areas that we're seeing densifying today and we see kind of a patchwork of connected infrastructure in place but not a whole network are becoming more and more challenging for us to serve in a comprehensive manner. >> Do you hear from those residents about it or the population within those communities? >> We absolutely do and we have great partnerships with our partners in Clark County Transportation and the City of Vancouver and all the jurisdictions that we work with that help us connect to those communities and also really highlight C-TRAN as an element of their infrastructure prioritization processes so they consider where C-TRAN service is today or will be in the future

57:54 when they're evaluating new sidewalk projects, new bikeway projects and various aspects of their jurisdictionally owned infrastructure that can help support the expansion of our network because we very much hear from a lot of those communities particularly after we see larger developments or subdivisions go in and places that may be disconnected from the greater transportation network and we're certainly beginning to see more and more of that. >> Is there hope that they will connect? >> There absolutely is. >> Okay. >> There absolutely is. >> Money and time. And then how, well what is one thing family caregivers or care partners often don't realize until they actually need the transportation services? What do you wish they would know early on?

58:51 >> I think I kind of mentioned earlier the time frame that it takes to get connected. Unfortunately, we have a lot of folks that call and need something now and we can't, we're unable to provide that. You know, we have a time frame that it takes to get through the eligibility process. So maybe looking earlier into that or maybe, you know, trying to help with travel training a little bit earlier. Looking at, you know, we look at a lot about our retirement plans, right? What does the financial situation look like? Where are we going to live? We don't think about how are we going to retire our driver's license, right? So as we look at that, you know, a lot of times folks might look at, well, I'm not going to drive on the freeway anymore. I'm only going to drive a certain distance.

59:49 And maybe supplementing driving with fixed route. Maybe you can drive to the bus and then take the bus from there. And that's where travel training can help in supplementing that driving portion in a small way and kind of helping ease that part of the transition in an easier way. And then travel training can help build that knowledge and confidence. And where they're not having to do it on their own because that change into public transit after you've driven most of your life can be kind of scary. And so that's where we can come in and help try and maybe soften that change and help that transition be a little easier and a little more realistic and more successful for them. >> I always think about, you know, what we wish we knew earlier.

1:00:48 And I think that's part of it. If you could just have billboards around town that said what you wanted people as their aging to do, what would that be? Would it be explore the C-TRAN option early, start writing early? And do you have any programs like that where you have your ride day or explore C-TRAN day or? >> I think every day is explore C-TRAN day. That's just my personal opinion. But we do a lot of, you know, you can call us and, like I said, we can do the travel training any time for anybody. We can do it one-on-one. I do outreach to senior living communities where we put together travel groups.

1:01:48 And they go out and do, you know, maybe they go out to lunch once a month using public transit. And we can help put something like that together. It doesn't have to be a community, living community. It can be something like Fairview Village where they all meet at Fisher's Landing. They drive there and then we get on public transit. And they're going to go out to lunch together. So they get that experience of public transit in a safe, friendly, fun environment while going and doing something they want to do. And then as it becomes more of a necessity, it's an easier transition. So absolutely, we can do something like that. >> I'll also add, although it's not a billboard exactly, the communications team does do a lot

1:02:45 of promotion of transit in different ways. And June is considered Ride Transit Month nationally. So we coordinated with each of the jurisdictions we serve to declare that through a proclamation to help spread the word. And we put the word out in those different ways. And also encourage them to promote transit use through, you know, City of Vancouver does the Arts and Music Festival. It's a huge turnout, early August, where they expect over 10,000 people. They want to encourage transit. There's only so much parking in downtown Vancouver. So they work with us to find out which routes can be taken to get to Esther Short Park. And they promote that through their social media, through the website, that sort of thing. So we're definitely trying to get the word out that way. >> I think that's really helpful. I work with around the dementia field.

1:03:42 And driving is one of those really challenging options, right, for people. And it's really hard to give up a license and the ability to drive. So if we know June is the transit month, we can actually work with the communities to give that a shot before they need it. I love that. >> As you mentioned, the Arts Festival and Music Festival, was that last week, two weeks ago? >> I think it was two weeks ago. >> Two weeks ago. On something like that, have you done anything like you've done with the fair creating shuttles from Vancouver Mall down to the festival? Or for any of the major festivals downtown? >> We do look at that when we coordinate with different partners such as the city of Vancouver.

1:04:42 There's a variety of factors we have to consider with shuttle use. Different criteria it has to meet both through federal regulations and then also guidelines from our board of directors and operational capacity. When it came to the Arts and Music Festival specifically, we determined that because we already have multiple fixed routes that drop off within one block of Esther Short Park, it didn't necessarily warrant a shuttle service. You know, it's harder to access the fairgrounds currently. We don't have a bus that goes directly in front of it. So it'd make it much harder to get there. Whereas right now, from 99th Street Transit Center, for example, we have a route that goes every 30 minutes. So you can park at 99th Street and within I think 15 or 20 minutes you're dropped off within a block of Esther Short Park.

1:05:39 >> Any questions? I just have one last question. If you could change one thing about transportation for older adults in Clark County, what would it be and why? A dream. >> Outside of unlimited funding for an accessible transportation network. I think a connected sidewalk network. You can really empower people to be able to make their own trips and travel choices with a sidewalk network that exists and is one that they can access. It also helps C-TRAN extend our network so farther to different corridors, to different communities, so that we can get transit closer to where folks are.

1:06:36 I mean, we want everyone to know that C-TRAN exists to serve them. No one needs to -- everyone's able to have the ramp deployed. Everyone should be able to get on a bus and take it to where they need to go. And we want to extend that to the extent that we can. And fundamentally, our ability to do that is where roads exist and where sidewalks exist so that we can build bus stops at those places. And roads exist most places that people live here, sidewalks not always. >> Anyone else? >> You're all on the hook. We want to hear it from all of you. >> Well, Taylor stole my answer. Yeah, the sidewalks, the connected sidewalks is really a big thing that can be a big barrier

1:07:34 that, you know, for that piece, you know, and mobility that -- appropriate mobility devices for all that need them to be able to access places that they need to go that would be a dream for a lot of people. It can make a big difference that for people to be able to get to the public transit. I think that's going to be a big barrier for some people. >> They stole my answers. I mean, I would have said unlimited funding also, but yeah, I live in a neighborhood that has maybe 50% sidewalks and a lot of them are crumbling. And so that's a big one for me.

1:08:33 And I see it for other people. It's a challenge. So I have to second that as well. I think better sidewalks throughout Clark County would help. >> Thank you so much for being here. This great information. Thank you. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. Okay, wait. Where are we? One last minute. Do you -- we lost our public. Never mind. Is there anyone online who has any questions? Are there any public questions? >> We do not have any online guests.

1:09:29 >> I think you all heard our public comment that we got. That we got a public comment. Great. And I think his questions were probably answered a lot by what your presentation was. So thank you very much. I really enjoyed that presentation. Okay, so -- okay, we're going to -- does anybody else have any questions? No. Okay, so we're going to close out the fireside chat. And then that wraps up our fireside chat agenda. Jay, Taylor, and Veronica, thank you so much for speaking with us today. We really appreciate the time and the sharing of information. I think we all -- excuse me. We all learned a lot today. Thank you. So that wraps up our agenda. With no other agenda items to discuss, this meeting is adjourned. Ellen Rogers out.