With the help of grant funding, Jefferson City's transit system is looking to get new equipment.
Transit Division Director Mark Mehmert said JeffTran is looking to invest in new equipment, which will help officials make decisions when the division begins assessing its long-term plans.
Using federal grant funding administered by the Missouri Department of Transportation, Mehmert said, the division would like to purchase automated passenger counters and a new automated vehicle locator or bus-tracking application. The passenger counters would help identify the most heavily used stops and which times of day the system is used most, which Mehmert said would allow officials to make "data-driven decisions" moving forward on how to improve the transit system.
"It will help us figure out where our hot spots are," Mehmert said. "We have to be able to get to the point where we can put numbers down and regularly track them. ... This will give us a whole lot of information that will help us make better decisions in the future."
Looking into a new bus-tracking system could help increase ridership, Mehmert said. The city does have an existing tracking system Mehmert said is not very user-friendly. Going to a different system would allow users to get information on when the next bus is arriving, he said, which could increase ridership as people would be able to more effectively plan their trips using transit.
The grant funding, which is available only for capital purchases for buses and bus-related equipment, would pay 80 percent of the costs, while the remaining 20 percent would come from transit's portion of the city's half-cent capital improvement sales tax. Mehmert said the city has applied for the funding but has not yet heard whether it has been awarded or how much will be awarded.
Depending on how much can be afforded, Mehmert said, the transit system may also look into other equipment upgrades including a system to announce stops as they're being made to ensure sight-impaired passengers know where the bus is stopping. Currently, Mehmert said drivers do that themselves, but there is always the risk a driver may forget to announce the stop.
The Public Transit Advisory Committee unanimously approved the plans Tuesday, but further approval is still needed from the Public Works Committee, the City Council and MoDOT.