Trippin Over Trips to Transit

Upper Aves and Rose Park

Gary Eaves, Mason Bancroft, Magali Villa Joel

Zepeda, Kimberly Inga,
 Community Engagement
What we Learned:
As we worked on this project with SLC transit, and working last year with West Valley
City, we have come to understand that any project that a city plans and puts into place takes so
many moving parts. A lot of people in the community think that it’s as easy saying that
something need be put in place and it just happens. But now working with two different cities
with engagement projects it takes time, research, and human power.

Even though our class has worked on this project the last three and half months, SLC
Transit has been working on this for much much longer. Starting with the Master Transit plan.
From working with West Valley city to SLC, I have come to see the importance of the help our
cities need from their community.

We learned of the many difficulties that people in the community have went through and
many of the times is the reason they are using public transit.
 Community Engagement
What were the Challenges:
Like any big project communication is key to the success and timely completion of the
project. So from the start we saw in our group that communication was going to be a challenge.
We tried to use our discussion board that was created for us. It worked for a few of us but then
not everyone would check the discussion board all the time and would create confusion on what
was going on. Besides communication the next big challenge that I saw come up in our group
was finding the time in our busy schedules of class time, homework, working to pay the bills,
and family time, to go out and gather surveys of the first mile last mile transit plan, and going to
community council meetings. All in all with the challenges are team found a way to make things
happen.

While implementing the project some challenges were talking to strangers who were too
busy. An occurring problem was the lack of internet service in many areas, so it was difficult to
get surveys done in front of us.
 Community Engagement
What was rewarding:

Understanding different community cultures was really rewarding. Noticing that even though Rose
Park and Upper Avenues are relatively close to one another; their needs are very different.

Development of skills when talking and working with difficult people

Development of group collaboration skills

Keeping that self motivation to go out and talk to people to get their feedback on Trips to Transit

Knowing that some people within the community like the idea of trips to transit

Learning about different individuals struggles with transportation over years

Getting to know the community and their lifestyles

 Community Engagement
What would you do Differently next time:

The one thing that I liked from last year’s project over this year’s city engagement is the
opportunity that we had to come up with our own project to do with in West Valley City. So
what I would like to see next time is to give the students the opportunity to work together to
pick and come up with a project that they can participate in that they are more fully invested in.
I think when the class is able to find a project that they want to work on to help with community
engagement they care more about it and are more willing to put in the time and effort to
accomplish the task.

Another option would be to have one main project and incorporate small little ones that will
help with the main idea.

Finally, what we could have done differently is set appointments with local businesses along the
route, and possibly talk with their customers who come in to take the survey. Or partnering up
with local events to get more people involved.
 Trips To Transit
What do you Know about the Program:
Trips to transit serves to provide access for communities where, due to lack of density and
demand, public transportation has not successfully been implemented. Through collected research and
examples paved by other cities Salt Lake City has decided to implement a “First-Last Mile” program
which will provide transportation from a designated community or area to a transit stop up to one mile
away or from a transit stop to an individual's destination up to one mile away. Cities have used various
mean from shuttle services to on-demand car services such as Lyft, Uber, and others.

Our part in the project is to engage the reception of the community members and gather any
feedback through direct interaction and surveying.
 Trips To Transit
What were the Opportunities and Challenges:
● Cost of the program and complaints that money could be spent elsewhere
● Use/need for something like this
● Specifics regarding how it would work and technical questions
● Talking to the community about trips to transit and changes that were coming into the
community
● Making sure everyone was on the same page
● General safety ex:
○ for children under 3
○ Seniors
○ teenagers
● Rejection
● Stereo types
● Time availabilities
● Local business and school participation
● Being a part of a Community council meeting
● Meeting with more than 100 people (goals)
 Trips To Transit
How does this program fit into the Transit Master Plan:

Makes getting to transit easier with a first mile last mile basis through the utilization of micro transit

Works on the goal to develop “on demand ride share services” extending that reach to neighborhoods
that may not have high enough density for consistent transit routes

With partnering with companies it creates jobs and thus supports our local economy

Through all of this Trips to Transit works towards increasing the number of people who use transit
systems
 Conclusion
As a group we faced several challenges from losing a member to not having schedules that worked well
for each other to collaborate more. Most of the work we did was on our own or separated into smaller
pairs where we got together during classroom time for discussion. What was stated quite often was the
idea that we wanted to do something we had a larger hand in, and I felt it was a lot of what I have done
before in my position as a student leader.

Although, it is more ideal to pick something we are passionate about as individuals, community
engagement and connecting with community members is a rewarding experience that has given us
skills we can take forward to our personal projects. We found a lot of people liked the idea of the
program and more than anything appreciated there were youths giving their time.
Q and A