Wilsonville transit survey rates service highly; new operations manager introduced

Wilsonville transit officials on Nov. 17 introduced a new operations manager and presented the agency's latest onboard satisfaction survey, which returned strong results.

Transit Director Dwight Pershear introduced Diana Kotler, who joined SMART in September as transit operations manager. Pershear said Kotler "hit the ground running" and called her a policy expert who is already reviewing operations.

A SMART presenter reviewing the onboard survey said the agency collected 201 completed surveys in September across typical service days and offered the instrument in English and Spanish. The satisfaction index averaged 4.6 out of 5, up from 4.5 on the prior comparable survey. Respondents rated system safety, reliability and operator conduct highly, and the presenter said more than 99% of riders would recommend the service to friends and family.

Councilors asked follow-up questions about the meaning of "reliability" (on-time performance) and whether clarity of information referred to maps, routes and schedules. SMART staff said reliability metrics reflect on-time performance and that communications improvements could raise clarity. Councilors praised the system's cleanliness and driver conduct and encouraged staff to boost weaker score areas.

The transit presentation concluded with staff noting routes that have lower ridership and explaining why that affects the sample distribution; no formal council action was required.