Sedona City Council is continuing to approve the different aspects of its upcoming transit program. Three gas-powered vehicles will be purchased for the micro-transit project, after a unanimous vote at the Dec. 14 council meeting.
The micro-transit program will be a ride-share program for tourists or locals with the stated goal to provide easier access to trailheads shuttles without having to find parking for their cars, but will possibly involve rides to restaurants, shops and more. Approval will give the micro-transit service five vehicles in total after two vehicles are being provided by a grant from the Arizona Department of Transportation.
“We are having the internal conversations from an operations perspective about how can we possibly prioritize people who want to go from a hotel or from a short-term rental to the trailhead shuttles,” city manager Karen Osburn, said. “What we are afraid might happen if it’s just opened up to anywhere within the zone that people are going to call and want to go to the grocery store, the hairdresser and that the units will be tied up doing that and not available to support the trailhead shuttles, which is the primary goal.”
The city will set up a “micro-transit zone.” The proposed zone would cover all the trailhead shuttle parks and rides, but the entirety of the zone is still in talks. Initially, the city will run four of the buses, which altogether are predicted to be able to do 150 one-way trips per day.
Council members stated concerns for approving vehicles that were not electric-powered or at least hybrid. According to Robert Weber, the city’s transit administrator who was hired in January, the transit program is all for exploring electric or hybrid options, but with limited market availability and the lack of services for electric vehicles in Sedona, the gas-powered vehicles are more cost-efficient.
“This is a really tough time to be starting a new transit system … we are in the middle of a two-year pandemic, we have supply issues, we have labor issues.” Weber said. “If we are going to push forward with this, we have to take advantage of these opportunities and move quickly.”
According to city staff, the micro-transit initiative is in line with the city’s goal for environmental stewardship, community connections, improved traffic flow, economic diversity and walkability.
“When I rejoined Council this past spring I couldn’t imagine myself approving the purchase of gas-powered vehicles, given the urgency of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. But staff explained that electric or hybrid vehicles of the type we need, as well as the infrastructure to charge and maintain them, are simply not available yet,” Councilman Jon Thompson said.
The city will purchase 2021 Ram Promaster 3500 vans. These vehicles can seat up to 10 passengers or eight passengers with two wheelchair-accessible seats, and exterior bike racks with the ability to hold two bikes. Micro-transit will be available for anyone in the Sedona area that wishes to be picked up.
“Everything we are going to do in this city for public transit is going to be federally funded…” Weber said. “So anything we work on, anything I work on, anything we deploy, has to be open to the general public.”
The research on what software and app the micro-transit system will use is still developing. Weber and the transit team are looking for apps that prioritize trailhead trips and also limit the wait time to around 15 minutes.
The hybrid trailhead shuttles were approved for purchase in August, also through Zion Bank financing. The financing for the micro-transit vehicles includes a five-year lease not exceeding $336,000.
“While I’m sure that our environmentally-conscious residents may be disappointed or upset that we are purchasing gas-powered vehicles, I hope they will trust that this is the right environmental choice,” Thompson said.
