(Unedited) Podcast Transcript 556: From Bahrain to Connecticut

This week we’re joined by Cortni Desir, Executive Program Manager for Public Transportation at the Connecticut Department of Transportation at the Mpact transit + community conference in Portland. We discuss her international influences, upgrading bus stops, customer experience, homelessness and transit, and being curious.

To listen to this episode, visit Streetsblog USA or find it in our hosting archive.

Below is a full unedited transcript of the episode:

Jeff Wood: Cortni Desir, welcome to the Talking Headways Podcast.

We’re a partner of Impact. We joined last year and I’m the executive program manager for public transportation, which means that I help advance strategic and capital planning for rail, bus, and ferry services across the state of Connecticut.

And also it was great. I was carrying with me, I have a CT rail tote bag that has the system map on it and the. Person at the cash register was fascinated. And so we had this whole conversation about the Connecticut rail system map and how they loved it. Um, it was great.

Well, so I wanna go back in time a little bit and ask you, what was your first indication that you’d be interested in cities or transportation or a policy? Was it when you were a little kid and you’re just like, this is what I wanna do? Or is it something you kind of fell into later on?

When I was a little kid, I didn’t know. I didn’t really understand that that was a field that somebody could go into. I would say I really started thinking seriously about cities, not even cities, but just. The built environment in 2011, right after undergrad, I moved to Bahrain, which is a small country right next to Saudi Arabia, and I was there during the Arab Spring protest movement, and I saw the way in which the government leveraged the street network, um, to.

Control, protest. And it really started to get my mind thinking about the importance of the built environment, how it can both be an engine for public protest. You know, in Bahrain there was this intersection named the Pearl Roundabout. It was named that because there was a large, uh, pearl statue in the center of it.

And that is the, the main gathering place where the protest movement there had kicked off. And then. The way, part of the, the reason that the protest movement eventually was quieted, uh, to put it. Gently, um, is that the, the government was able to control the streets and the roads, and the Pearl roundabout was closed down by the government and ended up being closed down for years.

I think because of the fear that the space could invite people back in again, and so they actually. When they reopened it, they had completely redesigned it. It was no longer a roundabout. They created a signaled intersection, but those were the days that like, sort of sparked me thinking about the form of the city and, and the role that it plays in people’s lives.

But then after Bahrain, I moved to DC and residential segregation became super obvious to me. It got me like starting to think about. The city and the way that people move around the city. And at the time I, through my work, had been assigned to do a case study on something called Ushahidi, which was a platform in Kenya.

I forget, in which year, I think it was following a presidential election. There were protests or a wave of violence and a group of concerned advocates. Started mapping where things were happening as a safety tool, as a reporting mechanism to document what was going on in the country. And this ushahidi became part of this larger movement of crisis mapping.

And so I had gotten very interested in it, and it was really my first time interacting with the idea that people make maps. Like maps don’t just show up, that people make them, and that people have to. Put a place on a map for it to be mapped. Um, and so that piqued my interest in, in GIS and in my next job I was working for the George Washington University who had just launched their graduate certificate in GIS.

So I used my tuition benefit as an employee and got my, my graduate certificate in GIS and I, I loved it. That’s what really got me to wanna go into city planning and even made me aware of the fact that those kinds of programs existed.

And, um, you know, until you read some of the texts about maps, you don’t really realize, you know, until you think about it a little bit more, how much they’re, you know, it’s, the history is written by the victors type of thing. Mm-hmm. And so a lot of maps, for example, are drawn a certain way in order to convey.

Information. Mm-hmm. A certain way. And so I find that really fascinating. The manipulation for positive and negative of data is really powerful. And so those examples that you gave are really interesting.

I mean, of course, yes, there’s the, the large country outline, but sort of if you zoom into a city or a community, the features of our community, the, the roadway network, the environmental amenities, like. They just didn’t exist in a digital format, and those can become really important in the case of, um, emergency response or disaster response.

I think, you know, one of the examples that I remember learning about and really resonated with me was following the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. That much of Port-au-Prince in the surrounding areas weren’t properly mapped. In order to have effective emergency response, you need that data. So there was, you know, an urgent effort to map those areas.

So when I went into undergrad, I chose to study Arabic, and I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I think when I was 18, the, the sort of spy movie allure of being a CIA agent drove me to wanna. Become a student of Arabic language. That’s certainly not the direction that studying Arabic or the history of the Middle East took me.

But that was the beginning of the path. I, I studied Arabic in Middle Eastern history. Also studied post-colonial history and was very much interested in the dynamics of colonialism and occupation and the ways in which they shaped. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was very much interested in the way that they shaped cities and communities, those dynamics.

So that’s what got me to Bahrain After graduation, I very much wanted to situate myself somewhere in the Arab world, and then I moved back to the United States and. Was still working on, on the Arab world and also on Iran thinking about the intersection of technology and governance. And even when I applied to my city planning program, I thought I was going into the international development track.

And once I got there. I mean, I loved the theory and the history that we were studying in the international development track, but my second semester of grad school, because I had taken my GIS certificate prior to going into the planning program, I wanted to be able to use it. So I applied and got an internship with Boston’s Regional Planning Agency, and that was really the first time where I felt like my passion for thinking locally start to come around.

I loved working. Um, helping projects data to inform housing production plans. Thinking about, at the time we were working on, I believe it was called the State of Equity, you know, so learning how to pull in all of the census data and other data sources to really paint a picture of equity in the region.

And so that was, I would say the start of my second career, uh, where I said goodbye to Arabic and the Arab world and really started to focus locally because after I graduated. I then took a position as an analyst in the Office of Innovation and Analytics for the City of Somerville, Massachusetts, um, program called Somer Stat.

And that role was all about city operations and it solidified my love for it.

You know, always being curious. And I think that is something that is very valuable, uh, transferable and really important in public service is to ask questions and to stay curious.

They’re comfortable in that, you know, not asking more questions. And that can be really challenging. And so I think the way that I approach it is that I, I want people to feel empowered to be able to ask questions. Sometimes real or imagined. People might not think that their questions are welcome. And so if I’m talking about, you know, onboarding someone who’s gonna be reporting to me.

That’s a value or a work norm that I try and put on the table, like day one is, hey, on our team, we are open to asking questions. We hear each other and we’ll receive the questions and figure them out together. Um, but really just setting that expectation from day one. That, that’s the kind of environment that we work with now for folks who are not directly reporting to me or, you know, I don’t get the benefit of like a, a fresh recruit who we can, you know, shape this environment together or create that culture.

I think you have to build trust first. In my position at Connecticut, DOT and, and my previous work, I have had the opportunity to have a position where I get to work with people. Across the organizational chart in, you know, one of my physicians, I, I frequently worked directly with department heads and my mandate from, from the mayor’s office was, you know, to get certain things done.

But the department heads weren’t my direct report. So it was a lot of. Relationship building, being an empathetic listener, helping people see that I was there to help them and really start to build that trust. And also let them know that I’m asking questions ’cause I come into their subject matter expertise.

You know, humbly someone who hasn’t spent their whole career working in that field or on that topic. And that I’m asking questions from a place of curiosity and from a place of wanting to understand. And you know, me asking a question, isn’t me critiquing the way that you do something. It’s simply trying to understand, so it’s.

Lot of relationship building.

And I feel like there’s so many people and with so many really good ideas, there’s so many ways of looking at things that you could learn from. And so I find that fascinating as well.

I’m taking that and hopefully helping, you know, working with them to build a solution to a problem or a challenge that they’ve been facing. And so similar to you, like you ask people all kinds of questions, but then you put it together in this published product that then helps others learn from the conversations that you’ve had.

And so the questions then result in value. And I think it’s important for people to see that and to understand and, and realize that. Their contributions made that value and that. Their work matters and that they matter. Um,

The state operates a little differently. I mean, it operates like other states, but from a transportation standpoint, like it has a transit agency. Mm-hmm. But, you know, states like Massachusetts, states like New York, others, they have agencies that are individual, but not the state level. I’m curious how that makes it a little bit different than other places, maybe when you’re thinking about expansions or planning for capital projects or doing a number of different things that transit agencies do.

So. Connecticut, DOT. Most states, your DO Ts are a highway agency in Connecticut. DOT oversees the state’s highway system as well as the state’s public transportation system. For us, that means that we operate our commuter rail services. We have over 240 miles of passenger rail service that we operate across three different lines.

We also own part of the Northeast corridor. Between the New York, Connecticut border and New Haven. In addition, we operate 75% of the state’s bus service. Now, unlike a transit agency, the operators of our trains and of our buses are not DOT employees. So for each of our services, we contract out to a provider.

So for example, on the New Haven line, the service that operates from New Haven into New York City, that’s operated by metro north of the MTA. But Connecticut as a state is responsible for capital improvements along the corridor and on the branch lines, so that has some pluses and minuses. You know, we are a small team within the DOT when it comes to public transportation.

We’re about 140 people in my bureau. But if you were to include the staff and operators that we contract to keep people moving on bus and rail, I think the number is closer to 6,000 people. So it’s. It’s a big system. It’s a tiny state, but we got a lot going on. Um, in some ways, you know, being part of the DOT is a benefit because as a state agency, when it comes time for legislative proposals and preparing for the legislative session, we always have the ability to have a voice.

It doesn’t mean that the governor’s office or the legislators are gonna listen to what we say, but we’re always invited. And I think taken seriously because we are a state agency and I think that dynamic is probably a little bit different than in other states. I think it probably also makes it a little bit easier for us to partner with other state agencies and benefit from resources they can provide.

And in particular, one of the sort of circumstances or examples I’m thinking of is this week here at Impact, I’ll be speaking with some colleagues from TRIM here in Portland and VTA in California about transit agencies roles and responsibilities and supporting unhoused individuals on the transit system.

And for us in Connecticut, being able to have those partnerships with other state agencies is really key to our approach to supporting unhoused individuals.

To

Transit agencies at their core are about moving people, not about housing people, but we have to be part of the solution and part of the reason that this. Falls to transit agencies in some places is that when individuals have nowhere else to go, they seek shelter and transit infrastructure, whether it’s a station or a bus stop.

They need a place that they feel is safe and protected from the elements and sometimes. Figuring out how to navigate that situation comes in conflict with how an agency wants to create a certain customer experience. And so you’re trying to balance providing support to folks who really need it, and also creating a certain environment that customers might expect.

So that can be a really challenging line to figure out.

And providing warmth. The buses have heaters. I’m sure that’s worse in Connecticut in the winter than say like San Francisco most of the time because it’s different. Mm-hmm. Temperature. But I find that a lot of folks, when they have these discussions, they don’t quite understand that all these social services are connected and.

The bus is just the last place and the end of the downstream effect. Mm-hmm. And so that’s where it shows up, but that’s not necessarily the place where the impacts are happening. And so as an agency, it seems like you can only control so much because there’s only so much that a transit agency can do, but the transit agencies are the ones that see the impacts of something maybe further upstream.

Part of the complexity of this is that we’re talking, you know, Connecticut’s a small state, but we have 169 municipalities. Our public transit services reach over a hundred of those municipalities. So you have all these different jurisdictions to engage and to create partnerships with. And so we have a safety and security team, and, and on that team, there’s one person whose main responsibility is, is to do this relationship building and to create a program with, quite frankly.

Not a whole lot of resources, and so it’s very dependent upon our partnerships. One of those partnerships, as I mentioned, is with the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, GMAS, and through them they’ve been able to fund, they’re called TH teams. Transit, homeless Outreach Project T Hop, and we have three teams in the state located in some of our busiest areas.

So there’s one in the city of Hartford, one in the city of New Haven, and one in the city of Bridgeport. And these are professionals who are trained in doing outreach and can connect with individuals and help them get to services. That’s a really important partnership. And outside of that too, it’s not just limited to those three T Hop teams.

Our staff also work to build connections in other places. You know, if an issue comes up and it’s a place that they’re not as familiar with, you know, they’ll get on the phone. They’ll start calling local organizations and figure out who’s the right agency or or organization to respond or to assist. And then also have.

A partnership with the Connecticut State Police to provide some coverage of our CT rail lines, our CT rail, Hartford Line, as well as our CT fast track, which is Connecticut’s bus Rapid Transit Service in central Connecticut in Hartford. We do not have a dedicated transit police or security force. So a partnership is something like four officers, if they’re available to take shifts to cover a really wide geographic area.

There’s approach and our team is really proud of it. It’s something that has evolved over the last several years. And I think has made great strides, but, but then it’s also a safety issue. One of the tricky situations that happens is when you have individuals building encampments along the rail right of way.

And that is a safety concern for them and for others. And so it’s great to say, oh yeah, we have the outreach team, but sometimes. Even the outreach team and the best of intentions, they’re not always able to provide what individuals need. And so it can take time to get people out of these unsafe situations and in into a situation that is safer for them and for others.

Yeah, that’s a big challenge. Yeah.

Like how do you talk to folks who you’re reaching out to, to see what writers want? ’cause obviously there’s gonna be a lot of different opinions on that, right?

Of the writers of your system.

So the CX action plan. Had over 10,000 points of engagement with people who use the system, people who operate the system, people who don’t use the system really to try and understand what priorities were. And the result of all of that was three broad priority focus areas, improve service, make it easier to use and enhance accessibility and comfort.

And then within each of these buckets, there were specific action items that were recommended, and it was launched in 2023, and the commitment was to have an annual progress report. So this past July, we published our second annual progress report. Some of the things that I’m most excited about include the launch of a Tap and Ride pilot to make it easier for customers to pay.

So for those that may not know, you can use your credit card or your phone’s digital wallet to literally just tap when you board the bus, and that is your bus pass. My colleague, Dan Baker, was on the show last year to talk about a couple of the things inside the CX action plan that I’m really excited about.

Launched Tap and Ride Pilot last year, and we had a successful pilot. I think the most important thing from the pilot was actually the lessons learned. That are going to help shape a statewide rollout so that right now we have one transit district in the state that you can use your credit card to tap, and it has fair capping and it even works for our senior and disabled discounted fares.

So it provided the foundation to move to a statewide rollout, which we’re in the very early phases of doing. And I was saying, my colleague Dan, was on the podcast last year to talk about this, and I’m really proud of the way that the team. Went out and engaged riders, engaged operators to help make them aware and to feel comfortable with the new technology, with the new way to pay.

And I can’t wait to see when it’s launched statewide.

Basically you have that process where you can work with another state and luckily Jillian’s been putting together this program that allows other agencies that it might be a little smaller to benefit from the size of California and the ability to create contracts. And I feel like that’s benefit, but also the ability to tap, to pay.

And although payment systems just makes it easier to ride and so, mm-hmm. From a customer experience standpoint, there’s a number of things on the chart. There’s like a three section chart that I saw with, uh, the customer experience plan. And a lot of the middle section of the chart was like being able to pay, making it easier for you to get on the bus, et cetera, et cetera.

And so everybody benefits from the payment system. Mm-hmm. And being able to just tap or have a card or something along those lines where they can just get on the bus and it’s pretty seamless and frictionless.

Customers were able to see different types of seat material for the buses and vote on which ones that they liked the best. And so that customer input was then used in the design specs for our order of 50 battery electric buses, and they are now out on the streets in Connecticut. That’s really exciting.

It’s a double win because it’s both. We have buses with customer picked amenities like the seats, as well as things like. USB chargers and real-time information signs, expanded bike racks and their battery electric, helping us move closer to fully electrify our bus fleet by 2035.

It’s not a bus shelter program because not every stop will end up with a shelter. The way that we’ve designed the program is looked at the 14,000 plus bus stops in the state and categorize them by ridership. To determine what level of amenity is appropriate for the stop, and so of course the higher highest ridership stops.

Will be sheltered. Not all of them are now, I believe it’s approximately 600 shelters that will be added across the state in the next four years. But it’s not just about the shelter. It’s about ensuring an a, d, a accessible stop adding seating, adding realtime information to stops. This is a state funded project.

There’s $20 million budgeted for this and. We hope that it is going to enhance customer’s experience, make people feel safer, more comfortable when they choose to ride the bus.

And I was like, oh, that’s a fancy, nice way of putting it. Um. But I also find, you know, bus stops can also be kind of political and fraught with discussion. I mean, and in Los Angeles recently, they had the Los Brita discussion where there’s a lot of, uh, politics and, and also process that needs to go into putting up a bus stop.

And so they came up with this idea that really kind of fell flat on its face. And so, um, the bus stops are more robust than that, obviously the ones that you’ll be putting up. But I’m interested also in kind of understanding like you choose by ridership and there’s a process for choosing which, which stops there are, but also there are those other, you know, thousands of stops that don’t get the extra benefit of, of having the greater amenity.

And so I’m wondering if like those are slated to be fixed along the way, or, or is that something that comes add later and it just depends on funding. How do you decide like, oh, we’re only gonna do 10% of stops, we’re only gonna do 5% of stops because every bus stop could be important. But, um, obviously there’s political calculations and, and there’s decisions that are made, you know, at a certain level that impact how much of the bus stops in the state can actually get this improvement.

I think the. The shelters. It’s a combination of one, the ridership profile, but two, also we have to enter into a maintenance agreement with the municipality. So it’s both. We as a state DOT, identify that this stop is eligible to have a shelter in our program. The municipality has to also want it and also sign on to the master maintenance agreement, because I think in many places there’s a.

Sometimes a tension between who’s responsible for the bus stop and maintaining it, or the shelter, and who’s responsible for clearing it of snow and ice in the winter. So a lot of the program design, a lot of thought was put into how do we ensure that once we install these shelters, that they are then taking care of and there’s a sense of ownership and pride in them.

Um, and so that comes down to the agreement.

In construction now to create fully accessible platforms, and I think this is gonna be such a big win for our customers. Not only is it going to make boarding easier for everyone, but especially those who are using a wheelchair or other mobility devices, but. The project also includes platform amenities that are going to make the experience of, of waiting for your train much more enjoyable.

Um, we have heated platforms, windshields, better lighting, a lot of thought went into how to make these platforms feel comfortable, and a place that people want to wait for their train in addition. One of the platforms is in the borough of Nauck and it’s being relocated, and they’re moving it to be adjacent to like the downtown Nauck area, and that is going to create opportunity for transit oriented development in that area.

Um, both the borough have invested a lot of their, you know, municipal. Capital funds into improvements in that area. And so I hope that this is an example of sort of the potential of transit oriented development or transit oriented communities along Connecticut’s rail and bus system. And let’s see, other capital projects.

We have a really big one, um, at New Haven Union Station. There is the station and then a parking garage, and then a surface parking lot. And we have entered into an agreement with a developer to develop mixed use housing and commercial public space on that lot. Um, so it will go from being single service level parking area to providing housing, jobs and public amenities for.

The travelers going to New Haven Union Station and those who live in that neighborhood.

So for those who are not familiar, uh, Connecticut built a nine mile BRT Guideway in It opened in 2015 this year. We got to celebrate our 10th anniversary of CT Fast Track Service. We marked it with this beautiful CT fast track bus cake. I had to miss the event, but I heard that the cake was delicious.

They link to the municipalities surrounding Hartford. So one of the great things about CT Fast Track is that it has helped spur development around the alignment. So since 2015, we’ve seen over $550 million in economic development in the Hartford area, including over. 2000 new residential units being built and more than 250,000 square feet of commercial and office space.

And we anticipate more housing units on the way. And these are projects led by the municipalities and you know, private developers around the CT Fast track.

Um, with my Impact National Steering Committee hat on, I am super excited to go to Toronto, oh my gosh, in September of next year. Mark your calendars. That

With my C-T-D-O-T hat on.

I think that they are really gonna meet the needs of our customers, of our passengers, and I’m excited for them to start arriving in Connecticut next year.

You can read the full CX plan that we published in 2023, and then you’ll also have both the year one and the year two progress reports available.