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 in. Your audio is unmuted.
I will be announcing the agenda
items as we move through 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. Kendon
Masterson is excused. David
Moss here. And Rogers is here.
So we have a quorum. Given that
we have 123, four, five, six
seven members here. 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.
>> So.
>> Second. Is there any
discussion on the motion. Okay.
I will now take a take a vote
on the passing of the approving
of the agenda. All those in
favor of approving the agenda,
please say I, I.
>> I.
>> Anyone not in favor, please
say nay. Okay, so the motion
passes. Okay. So the motion
passes. 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
meeting 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 2627 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
2627 term? Okay. I'm going to
take a vote. Do we need to vote
by name or can we just take an
A and an A.
>> Voice vote is fine.
>> 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 announced that Mike will be
the president or the chair for
the 2627 term. Congratulations.
Thank you. Okay. We will now we
will take nominations for vice
chair. I have nominated Julie
Donovan for consideration. Do
we have any other nominations?
Okay. I will take a motion. No,
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
2627 term? Everybody say, oh,
please say yay, yay, yay. And
all those not in favor of Julie
and Julie Donovan as the vice
chair for the 2627 term, please
say nay. Hearing no nays, I.
The Julie is also has been
voted in to be the vice chair
for the 2627 term.
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.
>> All. I am Fred Hoven and I
have handicapped people on my
cul de sac. And really, I'm
speaking for them and a few of
my older friends. 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 a
system. So I went online, tried
to access a 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. Was it Fred? Yes.
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, 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. 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 Marty Taylor ET
and J House, 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. Taylor ET 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 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
J 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
outreach, immigration, law,
education, and community health.
In his role as C-TRAN, he
manages the Community Advisory
Committee Committee 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. Okay.
>> It's our pleasure to be here
today to. 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. 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 extend
throughout Clark County. We'd
like to talk a little bit about
our community Advisory
committee, our engagement, and
provide an overview of Kyvin
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 in Clark County
and 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 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. 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 ten
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.
It's not county wide at this
time, although it was when
C-TRAN was formed as an agency
in the 80s. That did change in
the early 2000. 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
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 are fixed route
and our Kyvin 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
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.
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
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,
Listener Battleground, Camas
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, 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 and 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 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
facility 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
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.
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, can
everyone hear me? Okay. So I'm
Jay Horse Guard. 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 their. So
there's members who are deaf
and hard of hearing, blind or
low vision, older adults, low
income representatives, social
service representatives, etc.
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
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 the transit
options in the region? And so
one of the things that we often
do when we're out and about is
take out our writer's Digest.
If you haven't heard of that
already, that's a comprehensive
guide. It's, 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
season's now, but historically
in downtown Vancouver, that's
kind of been a 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 past, 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 $0.75 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
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 Coger
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 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. Marty.
>> Hi. I'm Veronica, can you
hear me? Okay, great. I'm going
to talk a little bit about
Kyvin 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 campus, Washougal
area, Ridgefield, LA center,
and partial 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 CVN, that requires
an eligibility process where
the current does not. That's
available to anybody to be able
to ride C van, you can apply in
two different ways. 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, it's 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. 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 C van.
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. 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, 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. Some things we also
wanted to talk about is the
accessibility of our regular
bus system, our fixed route
system, or the big busses. All
of our busses have wheelchair
bays. A lot of people don't
realize that that all of our
chair, our all of our busses,
all of our vehicles are
wheelchair walker accessible
and they have our fixed route
busses have at least two
wheelchair bays. Our busses
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 6 to
8in. So it makes it much easier
to get into. All of our busses
are also called low floor, so
there's no steps up into the
bus. 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 the vine,
it doesn't have to be nil. And
that's something that's called
level boarding. So we've
actually built that into the
vine system where the platforms
where the busses 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. And they're
also designed where the bus can
pull up very close to the curb
so that it minimizes the gap
between the sidewalk and the
bus. There's also secure 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
busses, our regular fixed route
busses. 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 a lifts and ramps. All of
our busses are C vans all have
lifts. So we have a piece of
equipment that will come out.
You can get on to that and it
will lift you up to the floor
of the bus. On our regular
fixed route busses, 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 on
to 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, so
if you're a little hard of
hearing, you can see and read
where along the route we are
and where the next stop is. But
it also announces the most of
the major stops. And the next
one. Okay, my, 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
busses. We figure out where do
they want to go, where
somewhere that's going to be of
interest to them. We meet them.
We will. 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, and so that they
can learn how to plan a trip
knowing 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 busses are
and is really easy to follow.
The accessibility of the
transit app is is 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 and in
using public transit. Sometimes
it's only maybe once or twice
or even over the phone. 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, we're doing I'm
providing our 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, I
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. 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 and
more urban areas where they
have readily available access
to transit. Other folks are
desiring to age in place. And
some of our smaller communities
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
route 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 micro transit
service that Veronic 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 to
the store or go to doctor's
appointments, visit family and
really make a trip for any
purpose that that they might
desire to. Something else that
we've seen is the, 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 or a mobile
application, or by calling into
our customer service office. We
also have the current or 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. There is always going
to be a 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. 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, 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, and
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 micro transit?
>> It started in January of
2022.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> I just was wondering, how do
you get a hold of one of the
riders digests. That was Ellen.
>> I can answer that. I should
have brought some here tonight.
It's a physical brochure.
They're available at our
customer service offices. Or
there's a digital version on
our website, c-terren.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, 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,
is your app Google Maps or is
it a different app? Like a
C-TRAN app?
>> It is very similar to Google
Maps and 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. And the reason that we use
transit specifically rather
than Google Maps or Apple Maps,
is because transit is oriented
towards 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.
>> 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 Kyann. 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. With the
spread of these massive housing
developments. Now, do the 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, 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. Pardon me, 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. 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
on the map, thinking of folks
that live in the outskirts that
live in 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, 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 LA center,
Ridgefield, larger ones in
Salmon Creek, Hazel Dale, the
Fishers Landing area 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. Yacolt, and some
of those smaller communities.
>> So I this is Ellen. So when
you were talking about the
current and is 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
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,
and most of our service areas.
We have some very defined
community destinations that are
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? It 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
limiting factor on demand for
the current is how many
vehicles and how many operators
we have available to provide
service. 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 Sea Van
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 van 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
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, do
you you must track the calls.
And so I just was 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 in different
population areas, we're likely
to be able to fulfill anywhere
between 75 and 90% of demand on
a given day. But there's a huge
latent demand of 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 Firstenburg quite often and
it's like, you can't be there
ten 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 97 vehicles
in our fleet on any given day.
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 and 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 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 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, 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 a 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. 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 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 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 we very
much hear from a lot of those
communities, particularly after
we see larger developments or
subdivisions go in in places
that may be disconnected from
the greater transportation
network. And we're we're
certainly beginning to see more
and more of that.
>> Is there hope that they will
connect eventually?
>> Okay. There? Absolutely.
>> Yeah. Money, 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?
>> 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, you know, we look at
a lot about our retirement
plans, right? What is 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.
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 of the transition in an
easier way. And then travel
training can help build that,
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, 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. And I think that's
part of it. If you could just
have billboards around town
that said what you wanted
people as they're 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 anytime for
anybody. We can do it one on
one. I do outreach to senior
living communities where we put
together travel groups 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 a Fishers
Landing. We 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
could we can do something like
that.
>> I'll also add, although it's
not a billboard, exactly, the
communications team does do a
lot of promotion of, 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 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 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 is
that was that last week? Two
weeks ago?
>> 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
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. 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.
>> I just had 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 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 much
farther to different corridors,
to different communities, so
that we can get transit closer
to where folks are. I mean, we
want everyone to, to know that
C-TRAN exists to, 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.
>> Anywhere.
>> 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 is
really a big thing. That can be
a big barrier 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.
And I see it for other people.
It's a 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 have
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.
>> I think you all heard our
public comment. 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