A reprieve was granted to the Sedona RoadRunner when Sedona City Council agreed with the Citizen Review Commission to continue the service for one year with a six-month interim review.

Max Licher, speaking on behalf of the RoadRunner Citizen Review Commission, presented that and other recommendations to City Council on Feb. 10.

Formed in June 2008 at the request of Mayor Rob Adams, the commission spent the intervening months studying current operations, financial information and existing plans for the RoadRunner Circulator Route and the Cottonwood Express Service.

Both services are currently operated by the Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority, using four Supreme Trolleys, two of which are usually kept in reserve as backups.

The circulator provides service primarily to visitors and is free, running in a loop between Uptown, Tlaquepaque arts and crafts village and Hillside Sedona during daylight hours.

The Cottonwood Express Service runs from Cottonwood to Sedona twice each morning and from Sedona to Cottonwood twice each evening, charging $2 per trip or $40 per month for those purchasing a pass.

Recommended revisions are:

• Reduce the amount of vehicle hours on the circulator route by taking one of the vehicles out of service during non-peak hours, but maintaining a 20-minute frequency.
• Serve the Municipal Parking Lot in Uptown on all circulator trips.
• Expand the Cottonwood Express Service to total eight round-trips per day, Mondays through Saturdays, an increase of six round-trips and a daytime frequency of 90 minutes. Add one round-trip on Sunday for a total of three round-trips.
• Establish performance measures and tie future funding decisions to achievement with key measures being riders per service hours, cost per service hour and cost per trip.
• Improve marketing program through signage, renaming the system, distributing brochures, increasing awareness and working with local businesses.
• Reduce overall program budget.
• Pursue private funding.
• Pursue collaborative jurisdictional funding.

Adams made a motion to approve the above recommendations with council concurring 7-0.

“The bottom line is our citizens have been left out all along,” Adams said, “These recommendations benefit our local population and serve a greater part of the community, justifying changes to the system.”

Separately, Adams moved to direct staff to work with NAIPTA on determining the feasibility of liquidating the trolleys and replacing them with more efficient vehicles.

Council voted 6-1 to concur with Adams while Councilor Nancy Scagnelli voted against a search for more efficient vehicles.

Vice Mayor John Bradshaw recommended a separate task force look into electric vehicle feasibility along with paid parking and fare policy. Council voted 5-2 to approve with Scagnelli and Councilor Pud Colquitt objecting.