Council Approves Metro Grant to Upgrade Dial-A-Ride Service as part of Monday’s Consent Calendar

The City Council on Monday voted for five agreements, purchase orders, and contracts totaling $1,817,203 following a sweep motion for approval.

The vote authorizes City Manager Steve Mermell to execute agreements with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) associated with the receipt of $689,612 in reimbursable Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5310 grant funding. 

The money will be used for the continuation of the Enhanced Accessible Mobility project, including three years of additional operating funds and assistance to purchase three Pasadena Dial-A-Ride vehicles. 

Other items on the consent calendar include a $93,925 purchase order with Chevrolet for three half-ton vehicles for the city’s Water and Power Department, and a $265,456 contract for voice and data cabling parts and hardware with Graybar Electric Co. 

The city also entered into a $408,645 contract with Divad Corp. for infrastructure cabling. And an additional $359,565 could be spent for up to five years on a purchase order contract with Ennis-Flint Inc. to provide traffic delineation marking materials and supplies.

The Chevrolet item was temporarily pulled while city staff confirmed that they had in fact reached out to a local business regarding the three half-ton vehicles. After that was confirmed the item was passed. 

On the Dial-A-Ride program, FTA Section 5310 is a grant program designed to assist with the transportation needs of older adults and people with disabilities. Metro issued grant solicitations to the city and other transportation providers to competitively award these funds.

In 2019, the city successfully applied for expansion and continued funding for the Pasadena Dial-A-Ride Enhanced Accessibility Mobility Project. 

The original 2015 grant funded the purchase of two wheelchair-accessible minivans that could travel on narrow streets and gain access to other locations where vehicular access is constrained and funded the operation of these vehicles until 2021 with a local match of about 33%. 

The new grant will extend the project from 2021 to 2024, with the city providing a lower local match of 25%. 

The vehicles from the 2015 solicitation went into service in 2017 and began serving the Pasadena Dial-A-Ride service area, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino, and unincorporated areas of the county that were previously more challenging to access.

Prior to the grant, the Pasadena Dial-A-Ride fleet included only large shuttle vehicles that were too big to travel on narrow streets.

The grant-funded minivans allowed Pasadena Dial-A-Ride to close the service gaps in those service areas and increase available service on Pasadena Dial-A-Ride by nearly 15%, consistent with the Pasadena Short Range Transit Plan. 

The added service capacity contributed to historical high systemwide ridership and productivity on Pasadena Dial-A-Ride in 2019 and 2020, until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As part of the city’s transit response and support to the community during the pandemic, the minivans have assisted with delivering food from food banks to Pasadena Dial-A-Ride members who are members of a high-risk vulnerable population. 

The 2019 FTA Section 5310 grant also provides funding to replace the two original minivans. Additionally, a third minivan was funded to allow for more service to be provided during peak demand times. Staff will return to the City Council for the awarding of the vehicle purchase contracts. 

It is anticipated that the 2015 grant funds will be exhausted at the end of 2021. Once gone, the 2019 continuation grant funds will begin and continue for the next three years.