Transportation director presents FY27 transit and parking priorities; council seeks ridership and cost-per-rider data

Marcus Moore, director of transportation, and Deputy Director Quu Aima presented the department’s FY27 operating priorities and performance measures at the Finance Standing Committee on May 4.

Moore highlighted recent successes in securing state and federal capital grants for transit and parking; staff reported roughly $1.5 million in grant support for capital projects. Transportation staff emphasized preventive maintenance compliance, an ambition of zero FTA-reportable accidents, and ongoing work to improve meter reliability and wayfinding in and around parking garages.

The committee discussed ridership and the department’s pilot services. Quu Aima said the magenta downtown shuttle remains the system’s highest-ridership service, followed by the brown and green routes; the recent gold "Go" pilot (replacing underperforming orange/purple service) remains in pilot status through July 2027. Moore and Aima said the department can provide five-year, route-level ridership data and elasticities for service and fare changes on request. "If we want to target choice riders, it means we need more money to run buses more frequently," Moore said.

Members asked about payment modernization; staff said on-board credit-card acceptance and mobile-payment options are being evaluated but pose technical and transaction-cost challenges that require coordination with Finance and potential vendor solutions. On ADA/paratransit, staff noted the service is federally required and lightly used compared with fixed-route services.

On electrification and special projects, staff said two large electric buses were already purchased using grant funds, and several smaller EV vehicles have been procured. Regarding the proposed hybrid ferry, staff confirmed a grant agreement was signed to preserve funding, but the mayor’s office and council members emphasized that signing preserved the option rather than committing to construction or landing design; more scope and procurement steps remain.

Council requests and next steps: transportation staff agreed to provide a five-year route-level ridership dataset, cost-per-rider calculations (including the magenta shuttle and the shared rest/contract-provided service), and an estimate for adding a third Eastport electric shuttle if the council chooses to fund one for March 2027 deployment. No new service changes were approved at the hearing.