City transit director: fixed-route ridership up 4%; microtransit-paratransit study complete

Isaac, the City of Knoxville director of transit, told the Knoxville Transit Advisory Board that fixed-route ridership rose 4% in the first month of the fiscal year and that on-time performance for the system was 82%.

"Ridership was up for fixed route 4%. Our on time performance was 82%." Isaac said the city and Knoxville Area Transit contracted with a consultant named Banesha to study integration of microtransit with paratransit; he said the study is finished and he will distribute an executive summary and the full report to the board for review before staff returns with a presentation in September. "This will allow the board to review this over the next month and then we'll come back in September and we'll kind of give a ... overview presentation of the findings, recommendations, implementation, considerations, and then answer any questions that the board may have," he said.

Isaac cautioned that the revenue figures discussed in the packet were unaudited. He told the board the agency is tracking productivity metrics and that, while both passengers per mile and passengers per hour matter, transit agencies tend to focus on passengers per hour as a productivity measure. Staff took questions about what it would take to improve on-time performance; Isaac said reaching a 90% target would require traffic-signal prioritization work by the city's engineering department.