On May 11, the Sedona City Council approved staff moving forward with an expedited plan to provide shuttle service to some of the area’s most popular trailheads to help reduce traffic and illegal parking.
But just less than a month later, that plan has been modified.
During that May meeting, what was proposed was a temporary trailhead shuttle exchange, which would be located on the city-owned Ranger Station Park on Brewer Road. The permanent transit hub, which isn’t expected to be built for at least another three years, is being proposed further west off 89A near Brewer Road.
City Transit Manager Bob Weber said the Ranger Station location is suitable for now because of its convenience, it’s centrally-located and its connectivity to State Routes 179 and 89A. The proposed schedule would see the busses running year-round Thursdays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with additional days during Spring Break and certain holidays.
“These limited hours of operation are being recommended to control expenditures while providing service during peak traffic periods,” a city report states. “This span of service will also offer a model that will allow the contractor [which will operate and maintain the busses] to recruit and retain qualified personnel to operate the service. Additionally, the service would operate daily during specific holiday weeks to include March spring break.”
After the proposal was made public, residents in that area expressed their displeasure to the city regarding the proposed temporary hub. During the June 8 council meeting, City Manager Karen Osburn announced there will be a modification of the proposed shuttle routes.
“Instead of having that one central location, which is ideal from an efficiency and efficacy prospective, if the Brewer Road location can’t accommodate that, then we do need to look at alternatives,” Osburn told council, noting that the plan is very fluid. “Right now we’re looking to separate everything that might be in West Sedona or potentially Uptown — all of those routes — and put them centrally deployed out of West Sedona. So, three out of the four legs of the system would be peeled off and not at Brewer Road.”
She said the only thing being considered from Brewer Road in terms of shuttle deployment is along State Route 179 to the Huckabee and Cathedral trailheads twice an hour. The city is also looking at other alternative locations to remove the hub altogether from Brewer Road, but Osburn said she’s not sure that’s possible.
For those West Sedona locations, the city is looking at Posse Ground Park and other locations as alternatives, but no final determinations have been made on deployment or parking locations.
The Plan
In order to get people to the trailheads, the proposal is to purchase five busses, each capable of carrying more than 20 passengers each. But the difficult decision facing the city is what type of bus to buy because prices vary greatly. For example, Weber said the base cost for a gas-powered bus, without any additional upgrades, is around $94,000. A base hybrid cost is around $120,000, but the price tag jumps dramatically for battery electric busses at $375,000.
Also included in this initial plan is the use of what’s called microtransit, which uses smaller busses or vans capable of carrying eight to 10 passengers. Using a phone app, users can request the shuttle to pick them up at area resorts and drop them off at the trailhead shuttle exchanges. The overall goal is to get people out of their cars and reduce the number of vehicles at area trailheads.
The timeline for implementation, while aggressive, is intended to have these services fully operational within a year. Milestones over the next year include:
■ May 2021: Finalize service schedules, trailhead stops, and the U.S. Forest Service Special Use Application, complete microtransit simulations/ predictive modeling.
■ June 2021: Publish service provider Request For Proposals.
■ September 2021: Award service contract; finalize marketing plans and materials including vehicle branding design, fare policies, fare media and pass programs.
■ November 2021: Procure vehicles, communications platform, digital fare collection system.
■ March 2022: Deploy service.
