Total ridership this month was 9,195.  Overall ridership decreased by 12%.  The SAM-Gresham ridership decreased by 12.8%.  SAM-Estacada ridership was 510 which is a 41% decrease from the previous year.  The SAM-Estacada route experienced significant changes to the route in November.  Although 510 is 41% decline from the previous year, it has steadily increased in ridership each month since the implementation of changes.   There was 21% increase since December 2016 and a 22% increase over last month.  We expect the ridership to continue to rebound for this route.

STAR ridership decreased by 4%.  Due to weather, there were a few days when STAR was for life sustaining services only.  Elderly and Disabled ridership on STAR remained high at 65%.  The Elderly and Disabled program (out-of-town medical rides) experienced a 12.8% increase in ridership as compared to February 2016.

The new Shopper Shuttle experienced a 57.5% increase in ridership since the December launch.

Sandy staff spent many hours preparing for the State Special Transportation Fund (STF) and Federal 5310 program grant cycle. Anticipated funding amounts were announced in February.  Both STF and 5310 experienced decreased funding for this biennium at 12% and 16% reductions.  Sandy Transit took the bulk of the funding loss in vehicle replacements to keep STAR, ED, Estacada and preventative maintenance funding as steady as possible. This biennium will be difficult and some policy changes may need to be made, especially to the Elderly and Disabled program as the demand for medical and life sustaining rides into areas outside of the Sandy area continues to increase.

The grant agreement for the ITS equipment for SAM and MHX buses is now in place and an RFQ will go out soon.  The Department has met many, many vendors and had the privilege of Joe Knapp’s presence at the last demonstration.  This proved very helpful with data capacity information and the possibility of self-hosting the data that is collected.  ITS equipment will allow real time arrival data, on board automated announcements and upgrade data collection for much improved reporting.

Finally, the minivan that was surplused last month sold for $10,000.  The company that won the bid provides medical transportation in the Portland area and are very excited to buy the other minivan when it is posted.