Metro Magazine, September/October 2015

Under his leadership the JTA implemented the most aggressive transformation in the authoritys history by launching Blueprint 2020 a subset of the BTE that represents already planned or ready to go projects that can be implemented within the next five years The projects include a Route Optimization Initiative ROI the First Coast Flyer bus rapid transit system and 100 million for road and bridge projects in the JTAMobiityWorks initiative funded by the extension of the Local Option Gas Tax that was scheduled to sunset in 2016 In addition to his prior positions as CEO of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Ford is also an active mentor and was recently named one of Northeast Fla s Ultimate CEOs by the Jacksonville Business Journal One of the first aspects of Blueprint 2020 that JTA worked on was the Route Optimization Initiative ROI how did that project come together When I came to Jacksonville one of the first things I did was to meet with stakeholders including business leaders elected officials customers and the community at large During these listening sessions I received their input and heard their concerns about the quality and frequency of service and suggestions about how we could improve I saw with my own eyes the conditions of our bus stop shelters and thought about the amenities that could be added Ridership was stagnant if not slowly declining and it was clear that we could increase it by providing a better service to existing customers and implementing amenities that would attract new customers While there had been a great deal of focus on the road and highway side of our operation it was clear we could enhance transit operations During those meetings and through an independent peer analysis I found that the JTA had numerous routes where the frequency of service was an hour or longer I knew that for Jacksonville to have a robust economy and to position ourselves as a regional transportation leader we had to do better in terms of our transit operation frequency of service the quality of the equipment and passenger amenities We started out by looking at our on time performance Throughout the organization anyone that I asked gave me a different number a different performance level so that gave me an indication that on time performance wasnt being measured through a accurately or with a standard measurement system After a peer analysis found the JTA was spending the same amount of revenue per passenger hour but carried fewer passengers than our peers we started a campaign called OTTO or On Time Transit Operations With that initiative we selected our lowest performing routes and assigned managers from across the organization to work with the operators on those routes to improve performance We broke down silos by having individuals from from other department assigned to the routes to determine what the problem was and what could be done to improve Through OTTO we were able to achieve some success by raising our on time performance on our lowest performing routes from 685 percent to about 75 percent However we also identified some systemic issues created from a route system 76 mETRO mAGAZINE SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015 metro magazine com five questions Nathaniel P Ford Sr CEO Jacksonville Transportation Authority JTA As CEO of the JTA Nathaniel P Ford Sr leads an agency with an annual budget of 230 million and 850 employees which provides transportation planning road and bridge construction and transit services for the Northeast Florida region Among his most recent accomplishments is the development and implementation of the Blueprint for Transportation Excellence BTE strategy that lays the foundation for JTA to become a regional multimodal transportation leader in Northeast Florida Prior to joining JTA in December 2012 Ford lead Atlantas MARTA and the San Francisco MTA He was recently named one of Northeast Floridas Ultimate CEOs