 Welcome to Hawaii, the state of clean energy. I'm your host, Mitch Ewan. Our underwriter is the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum, which is a program of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. I'm very pleased to welcome our guest today, John Ando. John is the Mass Transit Administrator and General Manager of the Big Island Helion Bus Service. We're gonna be talking today about public transportation on the Big Island and why it's important. John, welcome to the show. Thank you, Mitch, for having me. It's great. I know you're a really busy guy. They say, if you wanna get something done, give it to a job to a busy guy and you're in it, man. So John, cutting to the chase, because we got a lot of information to cover in 30 minutes, why should we invest in public transportation? Public transit can be an economic driver for our community. With public transit, we connect people to employment, education, recreation, social service, quality of life opportunities. And when you have the right design system to address the many mobility challenges in place, public transit can definitely improve the quality of life. Correct. So let's pull up the first slide, which is a really beautiful slide. I think that's the new trolley bus. Is that a new trolley bus that you have in downtown Hilo? Yes, we have a partnership with the Kailua Village Business Improvement District, as well as other private businesses in Kailua Kona. And that trolley operates on our Route 201 route between Kona Commons and Kaho Shopping Center along in Leigh E Drive. Well, it's a really great wrap that you have on that. I don't know who the artist was, but it's really kind of very tropical. So well done on that. Let's pull up the next slide. I want to talk about the main elements of the new transportation plan, which is a lot of work that's gone in this from a variety of people. I mean, a consultant wrote it, but I know the county R&D department had a lot of input in it. So John, why don't you run through the top level points of what this master plan is laying out? Yeah, the transit and multimodal transportation master plan is basically the guide to help set how the mass transit agency is going to operate for the next 20 years. And it basically gives strategies on incorporating new transit services, whether it's fixed route bus, para transit, flex routes, axes, bike sharing opportunities, and how we can make public transit more robust too, as I mentioned previously in driving the economy forward, as well as having some sustainability goals to reduce our carbon footprint and improve our overall environment. Now let's pull up the next slide and let's look at the new routes and why don't you talk to us about the various routes that you have on the Big Island? Yeah, so back on September of 2021, we launched the new transit network, which basically added more express routes, localized circulators within our urbanized areas, and improved connectivity basically island-wide. We have buses now running seven days a week. We have buses that are running as frequent as every 60 minutes in our urban areas of Hilo, Kailua Kona, the Puna District, and Waimea. We have express routes connecting Hilo to Kailua Kona, Honaka'a to Kailua Kona, and Hilo to Volcano. So basically this is the new helion that we've been introducing to the community, and it's been getting a great success as a result of our implementation. Just explain to us, I'm not familiar with the word a circulator route, what is that? Basically it's a route that stays at a particular community and it connects to mainline fixed routes that could connect people to other destinations in the island. Yeah, I think there's several dispersed subdivisions on the big island, and as I understand, like in the Puna area and places like that, people would have to walk miles to get to the main bus route, including kids going to school. Is that going to be solved by this new circulator system? That is correct. Previously you had folks that lived like at Hawaii Paradise Park, or in orchid land that would walk miles to get to the highway to catch a traditional helion bus on a frequent basis. Now we have circulator buses that go into those subdivisions. They connect at a transit hub, where then users can then connect to mainline transit to get to other communities in the island. So that must be a huge new advantage for the people that live in those communities, I would think. Particularly the Puna District and the Kauu District definitely got a significant increase in transit service with the implementation of the new transit network. Yeah, that's really great. We were going to use our first hydrogen bus as a circulator bus at one stage in the Puna area when we planned to have our station at the geothermal plant. But moving on to the next slide, you've made substantial upgrades to paratransit. What are they, and how are they going to impact those that need this service? The paratransit is for people that have a disability that cannot ride traditional fixed route transit. And our enhancements that we've done to the paratransit network includes having door-to-door service in areas where we run frequent traditional bus service in Kailuakota and Hilo, and most recently expanded into the Puna District. The paratransit system mirrors what the fixed route system does in hours and in availability. And we are now utilizing subcontractors who are providing that service through MIDIVans to transport those with disabilities. It's definitely complementary to the fixed route system. So once again, providing a transportation service to people that have difficulty in getting, say, to the store, to the doctor or something like that, that must have been well received as well. Yes, it has. So next slide is, you have quite things to do list, I noticed in your slide deck here, like enough to choke a horse really. So without getting too much in the weeds, so what are the high level tasks that you need to implement going forward? You know, this master plan has been a very detailed document and in order to continue to bring mobility to Hawaii County residents, we need to get infrastructure such as new buses. We need to brand our fleet, increase our marketing efforts, continue to implement more mobility programs such as our van full program, enhancements to the shared ride program, and then invested in technology to make utilizing the transit system easy, such as automating vehicle locators and make to this management inventory system. So we definitely have a lot to do in relation to this master plan to give that right transit system for Hawaii County residents to enjoy. So are you doing all these tasks all at once or is it one after the other? Some of them are simultaneously and others are one at a time. It just really depends on how that task interacts with the various programs and modes that we have to offer. Yeah, one of your new services is, I think it's a new service is door to door program, which is, can you tell us about the door to door program? I see there are a lot of elderly people on this van, so it must be something to do with them. Yeah, particularly our partnerships with the Hawaii County Economic Opportunities Council and the Brantley Center, allows us to provide door to door service for seniors, persons with disabilities and low income residents throughout the island. It's complementary to the Helium system to where they primarily pick up folks in areas where it's not easy for a bus service to particularly serve. This service is kind of our best kept secret and we're hoping to make some revisions later on this year to make it more inclusive to the general populations in our extreme rural areas that are far away from traditional bus service. So what's been the uptake on that? Is this now becoming a very popular program and how is that going? And what are some of the challenges you're running into with this program? Well, the program, it's starting to become noticed and the challenges that we face with it is just the availability of drivers to provide that service island wide. It is a first hub, first serve program and you have to register in order to use it. But we are still being able to provide that necessary transportation in those areas for people who just don't have access to transportation or if it's very limited. How do they sign up for this program and how does that work? I noticed that, can they just dial up and mass transit and you send them something in the mail or how does that, what are the mechanics of how that works? Particularly with the HCEOC program just reach out to them, hceoc.net, fill out an application and if you meet the criteria of senior having a disability or low income, they'll register you and start scheduling trips. In the hodaka area, primarily for those that are clients of the Bradley Center and they generally do workforce transportation in the hodaka area. Okay, great. So yet another program, I noticed, when does that ever stop? I mean, which is great, don't watch this stop. You have a shared ride taxis program. So tell us about that. And my question is you only have like three taxis available or whatever. Is that a, is this just a pilot program right now? Or is this a full board? The shared ride taxi program has actually been around since the 90s and it's basically another way of connecting people to public transportation in areas where there's limited or no existing helion bus service. Right now it's limited to the Hilo urbanized area and you can get coupon books that will connect, that will allow you to ride up to nine miles. It is our goal to reimplement this program so that we can include Lyft and Uber to make that program more island wide and also change how we subsidize people utilizing this program so we can encourage more taxicabs to participate. It's great. So talk to me about your vanpool program now. Back in the day, about several years ago, I worked the energy policy forum, helped put in the vanpool program, particularly the funding using tax free dollars. So you could sign up and get into a vanpool program and you could pay it with dollars that before you subtracted your income tax, that's why I call it tax free dollars. So tell us about the vanpool. How do you sign up and who can become a member of the vanpool? Somebody has to own the van. Yeah, so this is one of our exciting mobility programs that's about to be launched, Helion Vanpool in partnership with Commute with Enterprise. We will subsidize a van at $500 per month, per van, and it's geared towards people who are commuting from their home site to a work site. Anybody can join in on Helion Vanpool. They would register with Commute with Enterprise at CommuteWithEnterprise.com. They would be ride-matched with existing vans that are in place or a particular group can form a van with a minimum of five people. The user group will then pay the difference of the cost of the van per month plus the fuel cost. And basically this commuting group would commute together from their home site to their work site. How does Enterprise fit in this? Is this like a leased van? Well, what's the connection with Enterprise? Enterprise provides the van, the insurance, the driver training and the maintenance of a van. And they also do the ride matching as well as providing an emergency ride home program. So if you have to leave your van pool in the middle of the day because of an emergency, you still have that safety net. So does one person have to be the person that signs up and he's responsible for that van? How do you deal with five people or a minimum of five people managing the van? So the driver is basically the coordinator. And they're also the one that would take home the van that coordinated maintenance, it's wash heated, it's fuel lead. And then the passengers would pay collectively to the coordinator that will report back to Enterprise. And then within that group, they would designate a backup driver coordinator if the primary was not available. So you may have said this already, but how does MTA fit into this mass transit? So five of us are at work. We wanna get to the van pool program. Do we go and talk to the mass transit agency first and then you help set it all up? What's the... No, folks can reach directly to commute with Enterprise and they will take care of them for van pool opportunities on Hawaii Island or if they reached out to the mass transit agency, we would refer them to Enterprise. Okay, good. So Lyft and Uber, you mentioned that just before, a few minutes ago, how does this work? This is another great program. Yeah, bringing Lyft and Uber into the shared ride program will help make that program become island wide. And we would basically do a subsidy instead of just the issuing coupons. So we would subsidize up to $12 is the intent. And that will allow anybody to go as far as they can with $12, then the user would pay the difference. By going to this model, it would allow for more taxi cab companies to participate because we would be basically charging the transportation at the established rates and then we would subsidize a portion of that. Well, that's pretty efficient because Uber is a very efficient service. How are the Uber drivers and Lyft drivers responding to this program? Is this something they're really enthusiastic about? Do prices change depending on time of day and traffic? How does that all fit in with the existing Uber and Lyft model? Well, the program is still pending. We're finalizing contracts with them as we speak. However, Lyft and Uber has done these types of partnerships across the country. I actually managed one at a previous transit agency job that I was director for. And I could tell you that the public definitely utilize the program as a compliment to the fixed route service over there. That's our goal is to do the same thing here. Well, let's not forget about bicycles. So how do you tie in? You're tying in. Is this the beaky bike program that you're tying in? We fund the high bikes that are operating in Kailua Kona and in Hilo. Helion riders can ask the driver for a code and they'll be able to get a limited high bike access for a 30 minute period throughout the day. And it's just another way to connect active transportation to public transportation and address that first mile, last mile gap from when you're getting needed to connect to like your job or a particular facility that is not available on the transit system. You can still take your own personal bike and put it on the bike rack on the front of the bus, right? That is correct. Pretty good. And is this program going now or is this another one that's in process? That program is going now. And what's been your experience with it so far? So far, people are still learning about it and we're seeing some use. So we're gonna actively promote it so we can get more use. Especially since it's free to Helion users. What, it's actually free? It is actually free to Helion users. It's asked the driver for a code. So who pays for it? I mean, somebody's gotta pay for it. Does that come out of? That's coming out of the man's transit agency's budget and also a grant from the research and development department of the County of Hawaii. Now, maybe you wanna comment on the, this is one of the advantages of a public transportation system we're trying to decarbonize our economy. And the best way to do that and one of the best better ways to do that is not get in the car in the first place. So what's the effect of having people take the bus rep first? That's their first choice because you're making it so easy for them now to take the bus. There's not the first mile, last mile. How do I get it? I'm like, I know we're gonna talk about standing out and the rain and all that kind of stuff and making it more comfortable. Why don't you talk, comment about that? By having a comprehensive system that makes sense and just provides those options so people can comfortably get from point A to point B without any delays, hitches or challenges. I think it's important towards the ultimate success for a public transit system like what we're trying to achieve with the guidance of our master plan. Well, we're on my favorite topic now which is zero emission buses. So why don't you describe your zero emission bus program and I won't beat you up about hydrogen. Well, on the mayor in 2017 signed a proclamation stating that we would commit to zero emission by 2035. So we are well on our way toward doing so. We took delivery of our first hydrogen bus that was built in partnership with the university and with the US hybrid and that bus will be lodged in Kailua Kota, it's a fairly soon. We will be expected another two more of those hydrogen buses later on this year. We are also going to be transitioning our diesel fleet to diesel hybrid electric buses and we'll be running those island wide later on in 2023. And then lastly, we're getting ready to go out to bed to purchase battery electric buses. Those battery electric buses will primarily operate in the Hilo area and the Puda district. And we're hoping that over time, our ultimate goal is to have all 55 buses that would be basically some form of zero emission. So it's fairly exciting that we're now actually implementing this task. And I do also wanna mention that we are currently ready what electric bus being provided by our contractor, Roberts Hawaii in the Hilo area. That's great. And it's been really great working with Roberts they're so responsive and such a really great company to work with. We have some questions now coming in from our audience. So we have one YouTube viewer. In fact, I think this person's asked two questions, Cyrene, I don't know if I've pronounced your name, right, Cyrene, but she or he asked John, can you tell us about the ETA for a mountain view bus stop at the Kalani stoplight? There are three house lot neighborhoods on one side, two acre residences on the other. So we presently have bus service and mountain view by way of the route 10, the red route 11 and the flex route 403. Those services primarily operate Monday through Saturday with the 11 red line running through Sunday. They primarily stay on the highway, but 403 is what is called a flex route. If you call our contractor dispatch one hour before the bus arrives, mountain view, the bus will go off route and pick you up at your door within a one mile radius. And if you're on the bus and you wanna be rock closer to your destination in mountain view, just ask the driver. Well, you certainly know your routes. So Cyrene has another question, she's a she or he, sorry, I hope I got it, right? I got, I covered both angles. So I bike to, I bike to bus, how can I take Uber or Lyft back? Can Hawaii County communicate with them to inform us what drivers accept bikes, please? Not quite sure what she means by that last part. You know, right now, we don't have the partnership with Uber and Lyft just yet. So it would be on a discretion basis with the Uber Lyft driver. However, I could bring up your concern with Uber and Lyft to see is if there's a possible way that if somebody has a bicycle, if that could be noted somehow early on in the app, so a vehicle that can accommodate a bicycle can be able to provide that transport. Okay, so moving on to your fleet replacement plan, what is it and how are you gonna pay for all these new buses and infrastructure? Well, we got grants to buy 36 buses this year in 23 and in 24 from the federal government. So we are actively trying to procure those buses as we speak. And it is our goal to have our fleet age drop to about 2.9 years by the end of calendar year 2024. And then we're also investigating partnerships with a private public venture where they would provide the infrastructure for our battery electric system as well as five battery electric buses that we could operate in the Hilo and Puna district areas. So we're closing in on our last part of the program. Believe it or not, we're already blown through about 30 minutes. We're getting pretty close. But let's talk about passenger amenity. So we mentioned this, it rains a lot in Hilo. I've noticed that it's either raining or it's about to rain or it's just rain. So how are you gonna make the life easier for your passengers so they don't have to stand out in the rain and other things, you know, like operate their cell phones and while they're waiting for the bus and all that kind of stuff. Passengers many's are important. We're going to be constructing bus shelters island wide. We do have a capital improvement program going on as we speak and we're also going to be engaging a bus stop consultant that will evaluate and identify close to 900 bus stops island wide with signs and give us recommendations for adding either benches, trash cans and or shelters to provide more amenities for those that are using the transit system. Well, that's pretty awesome, John. So last slide is your contact information and we'll give the slides a rest. We can just leave that up for a while while we wrap it up. So we've been talking story with John Ando, the County of Hawaii Mass Transit Administrator and General Manager. We've learned about the importance of mass transit and how the County of Hawaii is introducing innovative approaches to provide public transportation services and are really revolutionizing how transport services are being delivered. Well, at least they're revolutionary for us in Hawaii and are supporting the local economy and quality of life for County residents. You're really doing a heck of a job, John. I really, I enjoy working with you on the Hydro Project. I'd get the little plug in there. So that's it, John. And I want everybody to know that John jumped up at the last minute and filled in. And just to show you that he's very game and he's got a lot of energy. So thank you, John. Thank you, probably be better. And thanks to our listeners and please join us in two weeks on our next edition of Hawaii, The State of Clean Energy. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.