RTS Transit Center Update

RGRTA holds bi-monthly Town Hall meetings to answer customer questions and comments and to keep the public updated the latest Rochester Transit Service news. Reconnect Rochester tries to send at least one representative to every meeting to take notes and to bring questions from those who can’t make the meeting. Below are the notes from the previous meeting where we learned lots of details about the RTS transit center now under construction…

RTS Town Hall Meeting Notes

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Overview of Transit Center
On Tuesday, July 9th Bill Carpenter the CEO of RGRTA held a Customer Town Hall at the RGRTA Administration Building. Bill spent the first hour of the meeting giving an update on the RTS Transit Center now under construction on Mortimer St. There was a computer rendered 3D model of the building projected on a screen that he used to show off features of the building. Here are some of the highlights…

 

• Construction is proceeding on schedule. The Transit Center should open within the next eighteen to twenty-one months.
• The building is designed to be symmetrical with both the St. Paul St. and Clinton Ave. entrances looking identical. The building sits back from the street and they are currently designing signage that will allow people down the street know where the transit center is.
• For signage, the idea is if you are on Main St and someone asks you where the Transit Center is, they would like you to be able to point down either St. Paul or Clinton and say, “See where that sign is? That’s the Transit Center.”

 

 

• The Transit Center sits back from the street in order to accommodate a turnaround for buses. The turnarounds are necessary in case either St. Paul or Clinton are closed to traffic. So long as St. Paul and Clinton are open to traffic the turnarounds will not be used and be closed with iron gates.
• The front doors to the Transit Center are sliding glass doors that will automatically open when anybody approaches, just like at the airport. The main concourse will be over forty feet tall. There will be twenty-six bays inside the Transit Center and another four outside on Mortimer St.
• The inside of the Transit Center is designed to produce a sense of movement and flow. There will be lighted panels on the walls that will change color in order to create a dynamic environment.

 

 

• There are also lights along the side walls that will shine upwards to a large white fabric that runs along the ceiling. The light will be reflected by that fabric onto the floorspace below. The colors of these lights can also be changed and the plan is to have different colors for different holidays. For example green on St. Patrick’s Day or red on Christmas.
• There will be video displays at each gate that display the departure times (not arrival times) of incoming buses. There will also be two master lists in the center of the Center.
• There will be two information booths, one at each end of the transit center. To ensure the best customer experience, the information booths will have low walls, and transit employees will not be behind glass. No need to speak through an intercom to someone, they will simply be sitting at a desk. No money will be exchanged at these booths, instead people can buy a bus pass from vending machines that will be located at the center of the Transit Center.

 

 

• There will also be a security station at the Transit Center. Security personnel will “move along” people who are at the Center for a non-transit purpose. Bill Carpenter compared these security personnel to ushers at baseball game who ask people who have moved to empty seats in a better section to return to their original seats.
• There will be around one hundred security cameras in the Transit Center. These cameras will be monitored by personnel in the security office. There will also be fiber lines run from the Transit Center to the new Downtown Police Sub-Station across Clinton Ave. Police there will also have a live view of the cameras.

 

 

• Bill went on to say that the design of the Transit Center itself should help cut down on any crime. Bill said at locations like the Liberty Pole, there are six or seven ways troublemakers can scatter in order to escape the police. In the new Transit Center there are just two, you can exit to Clinton or St. Paul. Bill thinks that the more confined area and the increased chance of being caught will deter any crime or nuisance.
• The Transit Center will have no permanent dedicated space for any kind of retail. There will be room for something like a coffee cart. Bill said this was because that City Council insisted that RGRTA not compete in anyway with retail that already exists in the neighborhood.
• The Transit Center will have public restrooms. There will be restrooms for Men, Women and a separate Family restroom. The Women’s restroom will have six toilets, the Men’s restroom will have three toilets and three urinals.
• The Transit Center has a “green” design and will be Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certifiable at the Silver level. The Center also exceeds all ADA requirements for accessibility.

 

More information can be found at:
www.rgrta.com/transitcenter