I led the team that launched the first ever employer provided shuttle service for employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory. More than 60% of employees travel from outside of the County, so we provided a secured parking lot along the busiest commuter route. From there, employees board a 45 foot motorcoach bus equipped with comfortable reclining seats, on board Wi-Fi, and a restroom. The buses travel directly to two locations on campus where the parking challenges are the greatest. There are four trips arriving in the morning and four trips departing in the evening. During the first few months of the pilot, ridership has grown to 1,500 passenger trips per month. A new route is planned to begin during the winter of 2024.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has a campus that spreads across 36 square miles in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. As the campus modernizes and grows, there is limited space for additional parking. So more employees are taking transit and arriving to campus without their own personal vehicle. The internal transit system consists of 40 buses, shuttles, and vans that transport staff to their worksites during the day. There are fixed routes, on-demand trips, and special requests to help people get where they need to go.
The Try Transit program was a collaborative effort between the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and the North County Transit District (NCTD). Try Transit is an employer benefit program that provides eligible employees with a 30-day pass to try one of the many transit choices - bus, train or trolley - in the San Diego region. I led the team that worked with employers throughout the San Diego region to offer this benefit. The program received an award from the Association of Commuter Transportation (ACT) for converting 67% of first time transit users to regular users of the system by purchasing a monthly pass on their own following the trial period.
When with the Rio Metro Regional Transit District I was responsible for planning and coordinating all special event service for our commuter train, the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. This included major multi-day events including the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the Bernalillo Wine Festival, the burning of Zozobra, and the International Folk Art Market. Additionallly, I worked closely with local, national and international film crews to film tv shows, movies, commericials and documentaries on our commuter train or along our right of way.
The Carlsbad Connector Microtransit Pilot was a joint project with SANDAG, NCTD, and the City of Carlsbad to provide on demand first-last mile connections from the COASTER commuter train to employer sites in Carlsbad. I met with the contracted service operator weekly and received daily ridership and customer service reports which allowed us to make adjustments to the new service to accommodate passenger needs. During the 12-week pilot, passenger ridership continued to increase until the pandemic caused service to be haulted.
While working for Rio Metro I was responsible for the development and deployment of a new mobile ticketing app. At the time it was one of the first animated transit apps that allowed our transit staff to easily distinguish between a valid or expired mobile ticket.
Also while at Rio Metro, I introcuded a text message alert system to notify passengers of late trains or buses. People can sign up just for the specific trains or buses they ride so they aren't bothered by all of the system wide delays and notices. The one step system also allowed our customer service agents to post the delays on Twitter and our website without having to use another program.