Dixon Council to vote on transit health, safety plan

The Dixon City Council will be voting on a resolution to promote measures for healthy safety travel in the time of COVID-19 at Tuesday’s meeting.

According to a staff report by Louren Kotow, deputy public works director, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission introduced framework May 7 to create a Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force. This group seeks to assist the Bay Area’s public transportation network as the reg ion adjust s to new conditions created by the pandemic.

As a result, Bay Area transit agencies have developed a health and safety plan, known as the “Riding Together: Bay Area Healthy Transit Plan” ( RTBAHPT).

The plan, Kotow wrote, “s designed to bring the region’s public transportation providers together around transit-related safety and healthy minimum standards and mitigations to be consistently applied across the network to help the Bay Area ease out of the COVID-19 pandemic shelter-in-place order.”

“These minimum standards give transit customers consistent expectations across all Bay Area public transportation operations and identify mitigations for public transportation providers and employees regarding workplace safety and health,” she wrote.

It also clarifies the responsibilities of public transportation users and providers in implementing the minimum health and safety standards and also recommends communication strategies to promote awareness.

Kotow outlined eight safety measures that have been or are being suggested for Readi- R ide, Dixon’s public transportation service. A mong them are mandating face coverings for all patrons; limiting riders to no more than two per bus; providing hand sanitizer for operators and riders; and temporarily adopting a “Quiet Ride” campaign to request passengers keep talking, singing and other verbal activities to a minimum while riding to reduce the spread of COVID-19 through droplets.

Other measures include providing increased airf low such as open wind o ws or ventilation where feasible; discouraging cash fare payments through the use of a “no cash change” policy; issuing personal protective equipment for drivers and other employees; and doing contact tracing for any employee that reports an infection and reporting any confirmed infections to Solano County Public Health.

Readi- Ride would report to the Solano Transit Authority how it has been following all eight safety measures and receive a star- based compliance rating.

Staff is recommending the council adopt the resolution.

In other business, the council will consider purchasing a real estate parcel in the La Esperanza area from Habitat for Humanity and provide information on a printing error in the Solano County voter information g uide that was mailed to Dixon residents, a portion of which accidentally left out council contender Jerry Castanon’s candidate statement as well as information on measures S and T.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The meeting can be accessed via Zoom at Us02web.zoom.us/j/9886211137?pwd=R2dxZ3RkbU9SQXdlUVllRkc0QlQwZz09 and by teleconference at (669) 9009128. The meeting ID is 988 621 1137, and the passcode is 604754. Members of the public may comment by using the “Raise Hand” feature on Zoom or by pressing *9 when teleconferencing. Questions may also be emailed to publiccomment@ cit yofdixon.us.