The Next Stop: METRO's Podcast
Episode 63: Working With the Community to Plan the University Line 
10-03-2023


Tanya McWashington:  We keep that line of communication open, and I’m just happy to be part of an organization that believes in engaging the community and working hard to deliver the services that they can appreciate, they can utilize, and quite frankly, deserve. 

Doug Delony:  I’m Doug Delony. On this edition of the Next Stop:  METRO wants to hear from you as we work with the community to develop the METRORapid University Corridor Project. 

[Introduction music plays]

Doug Delony:  Today, on the Next Stop, we welcome Tanya McWashington, METRO’s Vice President of Public Engagement. Welcome, Tanya, and thank you for taking the time to visit with us today. You, like so many people at METRO, stay super, super busy. But let’s talk about METRORapid, the University Line, and what it takes to get people engaged and get them to provide their feedback. Well, let’s start at the very beginning here. For those who don’t know, what is METRORapid?  

Tanya McWashington:  Thanks, Doug. Happy to visit with you a little bit this afternoon and happy to talk about METRORapid, and specifically, the University Corridor Project. METRORapid is a bus rapid transit service. That is the technical term for the dedicated bus lane project that we are implementing. What’s unique about it is while it is a bus service, it has rail-like features, which makes it very convenient, very accessible, very reliable for our customers. And so, as part of the METRONext Moving Forward Plan, we have three bus rapid transit lines that are currently in development, with the University Corridor Project being the longest one, and once implemented, would be the longest BRT line in the country. 

Doug Delony:  25 miles, I know, with the METRORapid University Corridor Project alone. And for those who don’t know, you know, if they’re very new to all of this—you know, they’ll hear “bus rapid transit” or “BRT.” Some cities call it that. Here in Houston, we like to call it “METRORapid.” So, when you hear “BRT” that equals METRORapid. And like you said, it’s got a dedicated lane. It’s a rail-like experience. In fact, at first glance, some people probably think it is a train. I mean, it looks like METRORail. It looks like our light rail service that runs along the Red Line, the Purple Line, the Green Line. And for anybody who has been in the Uptown, the Galleria area, and you’ve seen the silver buses, that is METRORapid. So, you’ve already seen it. We’re just expanding service. That University line, it’s a west-to-east connection?  

Tanya McWashington:  That is correct. So, it would begin at our Westchase Park and Ride and continue along the Westpark Corridor with a transition to the Richmond Corridor. We’ll have an opportunity to provide service to the University of Houston and Texas Southern University as the line traverses through the Third Ward area, and then we will pick up on Lockwood and take it all the way out to our Tidwell Transit Center. So, it is a service that connects many Park and Rides and Transit Centers. It serves several universities and colleges. Just creating that connection and access that is going to just enhance our regional mobility. 

Doug Delony:  And it’s greatly needed to have that service that is frequent, too, with METRORapid. It’s a frequent service. And for most people, it will be more frequent than the local bus service that may run past their house or their place of business or their school. And you mentioned those colleges, and that’s why we call it the “University Corridor.”  The University….

Tanya McWashington:  That’s exactly why. [Laughs]

Doug Delony:  Exactly. But, you know, I talked about those 25 miles. You talked about how far it stretches. That really covers and serves so many communities, and so many diverse communities, and we need those communities to help us design the project. And that’s kind of also where your team comes in. 

Tanya McWashington:  That is a critical part of this project development. Obviously, the planning, the design, and engineering are very important, but the public engagement is a huge piece. We want to make sure that we are designing and implementing a system that works well with the communities, that will serve the communities, and we want to make sure that it’s designed and implemented in a way that just fits with the aesthetic of those areas. And so, making sure that opportunities are created for people to work with us hand-in-hand as a part of the project development is a key focus area of our public engagement program. We started our public engagement efforts with this project in the summer of 2021, and we have continued since then creating various opportunities through public meetings, through webinars, having an expansive website, direct mailers. We’ve enhanced our social media engagement specifically for this project to make sure that we are targeting audiences along the corridor to make sure that we are raising awareness about the project but also creating opportunities where people can actually learn about it and give us feedback that is helpful to how we move forward with project development. 

Doug Delony:  As far as the phase, you know, some people wonder about the route, and you can read all about that at ridemetro.org/university. That has been voted on…

Tanya McWashington:  Locally preferred alternative. 

Doug Delony:  Yes, locally preferred alternative. And I’m actually going to check out the website right now. Talking about that project timeline. The project development phase, which includes planning, environmental study, and 30 percent design, is expected to be completed this year, 2023. Design is expected to be completed toward the end of next year—that’s 2024—with construction expected to begin at the end of 2024. So, we’re, you know, just about a little over a year out from possibly the beginning of construction on this. It’s anticipated that construction will last over four years with a start of service planned for 2029. But here’s the key line, here’s the key thing about all of this: “Public and stakeholder engagement is ongoing and will continue throughout the project.” So, that’s the good news and that’s why we’re making such a big deal about getting people engaged. And what we’re working on now is the design. That feel of the system. The lighting, the trees, perhaps the public art that’s involved and in this system. And of course, the street improvements, the curbs, sidewalks, how all of this is going to look. And some of that urban design component is a lot of the discussion that’s happening now. At this point, you know, we’re recording this late September 2023. We’ve already had many, many, many rounds of various types of public engagement in every segment, and just recently, we wrapped up the workshops or work groups. I went to a couple of these. I saw people filling out little comment cards, but I also saw them using strings and large markers and Post-it Notes. 

Tanya McWashington:  So, I think this is the fun part of what we’re doing because now the line itself will actually begin to take some shape. And as you mentioned, the urban design component is what influenced this series of design workshops, and it was designed and intended to be very, very interactive. All of the different components of the line, as you mentioned, public art, issues with trees, customer experience, lighting, safety, all of those elements that we know are very important to how transit is implemented, and quite frankly, how people will respond and use transit. And so, to have the public directly involved with that creativity, shaping that, giving us feedback on what they’d like to see, how they want to see elements reflect some of the historical components of their neighborhood. That’s all part of this urban design process. And so, I think it’s important for people to get involved in that, and actually, you know, be there to have some say in what it looks like. And it is the basis of our public engagement program. We don’t want to design or build a project that is not reflective of the community, and this gives us an opportunity to understand what the community’s preferences and priorities are. 

Doug Delony:  It’s really talk to people and sit down with them and understanding we have common cards, but we go well beyond that. And you know, our website, too, where you can provide feedback. We really encourage people to pay attention to ridemetro.org for those upcoming events, and these upcoming meetings that people can sign up for, or you can just show up as they are publicly posted because I know that our rounds of engagement have not ended. 

Tanya McWashington:  And I think it’s important to add that even though we do have our scheduled public workshops, public meetings, and we invite people to come and join us for those. We’re very intentional about meeting people where they are. And so, part of our program is very focused on going out to the community, taking the time to take information directly to community groups, community events, various activities. Quite frankly, Doug, right now, we’re doing a series of mobile workshops. We have modified what you saw a couple of days ago and taken that workshop model and taken it on a roadshow. 

Doug Delony:  [laughs]

Tanya McWashington:  So, we’re still collecting information from different groups using those same interactive exercises but rather than waiting for them to come to us, we’re actually going to them to create those opportunities to have that information shared. 

Doug Delony:  That’s great. I know we also go door-to-door in some communities. But certainly, like you said, meeting people where they are, these meetings that we have that are scheduled, you know, they’re not at 1900 Main, which is our administrative building for METRO. It’s not at the METRO headquarters at 2 p.m. on a weekday. 

Tanya McWashington:  Right. 

Doug Delony:  We’re talking about after-hours. We have Saturday morning meetings. 

Tanya McWashington:  Yep. 

Doug Delony:  At various segments throughout the line. 

Tanya McWashington:  We also didn’t want childcare to be a deterrent or a concern. We also know some of the meetings were near dinnertime, maybe, between people getting home from work. And so, trying to consider all of those elements, we provided food during this round of meetings, so people could have a snack since it was sometimes around dinnertime. 

Doug Delony:  Mm-hmm. 

Tanya McWashington:  We had a kid’s table with interactive activities for children to give parents an opportunity to be able to participate in the design interactive exercises that we had. So, we’re trying to be very thoughtful, very intentional about making this information as accessible and available to anyone who wants to participate. We recognize that this corridor, as you indicated before, is very, very diverse, so we’re very conscious of the need to have information in multiple languages, having translators available. So, anything and everything that we can do to make this information available for people to participate, we’re doing it. 

Doug Delony:  Right. And I saw that food, by the way, but I stayed away from it because I’m a good METRO employee, and I was like, “Nope. That’s our visitors.” 

Tanya McWashington:  [laughs]

Doug Delony:  [laughs] So, just to make light of it. But, no, I did notice some of the additional things that we offered at our most recent round. What would you say to someone who claims, “Ugh. METRO does not listen. They pretend to take our feedback.” 

Tanya McWashington:  So, we can point, not just on this project but other projects and services that have been proposed and implemented over the years, we can point to specific examples where we have modified services. We’ve modified alignments. Maybe we implemented something that wasn’t originally proposed but was a great idea presented by the community. And so, there are countless examples of how the direct input from the community has influenced how we implement our service. Specific to University, though, I’ll point out we had proposed an overpass in a particular area that was not favorable by the surrounding community. We rolled up our sleeves. We worked directly with that community to come up with an underpass solution, which is what has now been implemented as part of the alignment. That is a perfect example of how we listened directly to the community to come up with an amenable solution. So, it is a—we never stop taking input. We never stop taking feedback. We’re very conscious of information that’s shared and where we can find a meeting in the middle that’s what we’ve always strived toward. And we keep that line of communication open, and I’m just happy to be part of an organization that believes in engaging the community and working hard to deliver the services that they can appreciate, they can utilize, and quite frankly, deserve. 

Doug Delony:  It’s interesting, we say “the community” a lot. But people forget, METRO is part of the community. We are all neighbors, you know? Sometimes I go to these segment meetings and depending on which one I go to I actually see my neighbors there. And I’m not there just as an employee, I’m also there as a neighbor of theirs, as part of the community. So, METRO serves the community that it lives in. So, it’s important for people to keep that in mind. 

Tanya McWashington:  Our public engagement program is something that is just consistent. It’s part of the way that we do business. So, whether we’re implementing projects or not, we have a focused, dedicated effort to engage the community. As you mentioned, we are a part of the community. So, we take our service area, we divide it into what we call “sectors.” And there are community liaisons that are assigned to each of those sectors that on a daily basis are meeting with community stakeholders, identifying opportunities where we can have information shared, any issues that come up relative to METRO projects or services. As it relates to our project implementation, when we focus on public involvement, it is intended to, as we work through project development, to develop plans where throughout that project development timeline, we are intentional about touchpoints with the community at all phases of the project. 

That can look like a lot of things. If there are festivals, and that’s a great community visibility opportunity, an opportunity for us to have fun, to be there to ask questions. People walk by. They get a chance to meet us. They wave, “Hey, METRO. I take you to work. Thanks for your service.” It’s just our way of kind of endearing ourselves to the community. And when we have information that’s important to share, we do look at ways that we can get them to come over, share information with them, whether it’s through surveys, whether it’s through different incentives that we’re offering. We really like to encourage people to sign up for our project updates. That’s our best way to keep them engaged and updated as we progress with the project. So, our team—just very creative in terms of thinking of ways that we can get out there and just have that visibility with the community. I bet you didn’t know, Doug, we sometimes get on buses. 

Doug Delony:  Oh, wow. 

Tanya McWashington:  And actually ride with our…

Doug Delony:  That’s right. I did not know that. 

Tanya McWashington: …ride with our customers. And actually share information, actually get feedback from them on different things. Sometimes, again, you know, we can advertise meetings and invite people to come and join us, and a lot of people do. But it’s that extra effort that we know is important where we have to hit boots on the ground and actually meet people where they are. It’s important for us to make sure that whether a person uses METRO or not, they understand the value that METRO brings to this community. And so, with our business engagement with Chambers of Commerce, different community associations, business associations, senior centers, community centers, where we can share information and help people understand why transit services are important. That’s part of our program as well. 

Doug Delony:  Yeah, I mean, I think some people, they may see the METRO logo or a METRO vehicle, maybe someone wearing a METRO uniform or clothing, and they think, “That doesn’t apply to me. I don’t use public transit. Does not apply to me.” But that’s incorrect. A city as large as Houston, a region as large as our METRO area, it applies to everybody. It impacts everybody. You can’t have—look at all the world-class cities—who doesn’t have good public transportation, right?  

Tanya McWashington:  When we continue to hear about how our region is growing, how many people are anticipated to move into this area. I mean, we have a thriving economy. Our community continues to grow. Houston is very attractive to people. Businesses are moving here, and so, when you think about that growth, we want to make sure that aligned with that, we’re continuing to improve transit services so that there are options for how people move around this region. 

Doug Delony:  I really thank you for your time today, Tanya. And is there anything that I missed, something you wished I asked, any final comments?

Tanya McWashington:  I would just encourage anyone wanting to learn about the METRORapid University Corridor Project to sign up to what we call our “subscriber list.” As you mentioned, ridemetro.org/university. You can very easily sign up for email and/or text updates. That way you get the latest, greatest information. We also have on our website community events that we’re participating in where you can come out, meet our staff, learn about the project, and there are surveys that you can take. There’s so much information that’s available on our website that’s helpful in being able to learn about the project and engage. And for those who may not have the ability to engage with us or with the project via the website, again, we are out in the community. Call us. Let us know about activities you may have going on that we can participate in. Our public engagement hotline is 713-739-4018. Feel free to give us a call there, and we’re happy to program these activities into our schedule. 

Doug Delony:  And anybody who sees us out in the public, you see us putting up the tent, we’re at that special event, that community party, the festival, please don’t be shy. Come over and say hi. Right?   

Tanya McWashington:  Come by and say hi. We’d love to meet you. 

Doug Delony:  Alright. Thank you, again, Tanya McWashington, for joining us on the Next Stop. Thank you to you, the listener, and to all of our METRO riders out there. I hope you learned something today, as did I. As a reminder, you can reach METRO’s customer service team. You can call us or even text message us, 713-635-4000. I’m Doug Delony. If you’d like to check out more episodes and subscribe to this podcast, you can find all the links you need on ridemetro.org. As always, drive less and do more with Houston METRO!

[Music plays to end] 


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