As passengers enter and exit the light rail platform on Priest Drive and Washington Street, three people wearing highlighter green Valley Metro uniforms work throughout the day to give free face coverings to those who need them.
Christel Calvin, one of the three customer experience coordinators, talked into a microphone, her voice amplified through a small speaker attached to her belt.
“Remember, your mask protects me and mine protects you. Thank you for respecting the ride,” Calvin said over her speaker.
During her announcement, Kyle Angelini and Laronda Wood walked through the railcars distributing masks sealed in clear bags. Once they stepped off the railcar, Angelini and Wood called out how many masks they gave away and Calvin documents the numbers in a small pocket notebook.
The three of them then gathered more masks out of a large container and waited for the next railcar to arrive from downtown.
(Miles Green/DD)
Over the next three months, Valley Metro will implement a plan to bring people back while planning to give out more face coverings and engage customers for feedback on what the transit system can do better.
Valley Metro Communications Manager Susan Tierney said the company has distributed 20,000 face coverings to passengers since the beginning of summer. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Transit Administration supply Valley Metro with reusable face coverings for their passengers.
The customer experience coordinator position was put in place last fall before the pandemic hit, Tierney said.
The position was created to engage and give a friendly face to passengers. But once COVID-19 began, they were labelled essential workers and found themselves on the frontlines of a public health emergency.
“I think there was a surprise benefit for us by having customer experience coordinators already in place, because people were skeptical,” Tierney said.
Both the team and of course the passengers were nervous in the beginning of the pandemic, Wood said.
“People still have to come to work,” Angelini said. “We would like them to use our service. I think we do a good job at providing that service… We are going to do as much as we can to keep them safe.”
Angelini said he was worried in the beginning because his wife was a pregnant nurse, so they were experiencing both sides of the pandemic.
Wood said that face coverings were not required in the very beginning.
“We believe about 75% of our riders are wearing face coverings,” Tierney said. “That’s important to our riders. We did a survey in June, before face coverings were mandated.”
Tierney said that Valley Metro put a mask mandate into effect at the beginning of July.
There are a few passengers who consistently refuse to wear a mask because of either a medical or religious reason, Wood said.
The CDC say that children under two years of age should not wear a mask. Medical exemptions exist but they are for a small subset of people with breathing issues or who are otherwise unconscious.
Angelini said that passengers often approach him with concerns about fellow commuters not wearing masks. He also said that his team will always encourage everyone to wear a mask, but they cannot force someone to wear a mask and that passengers cannot be removed for not wearing a mask.
But Wood said that when she reminds everyone to wear a mask, everyone typically puts one on.
Calvin said that her position gives her the opportunities to educate people. She reminds people why masks are important and how to properly wear a mask. She said social distancing isn’t always possible on railcars and she emphasizes to passengers that wearing a mask can help others feel safe.
“Our main focus is on the commuters… But we don’t have them like we did,” Calvin said.
Tierney said that the amount of people using public transit in Phoenix has decreased by 50% because Valley Metro has reduced passenger capacity and has requested that public transportation be used only for essential travel.
“It actually hasn’t been as bad as many other transit systems across the United States,” she said.
Tierney said other transit systems have lost 80% to 90% of their passengers.
“We are making some changes on our system that will be permanent,” Tierney said.
She said busses will now separate the driver from passengers with what is called an operator door. Enhanced cleaning protocols will also become permanent. Starting in November, additional staff will sanitize more frequently throughout the day and active cleaning will become more visible for the public.
Tierney said that these changes were implemented based off of passenger feedback to surveys conducted by Valley Metro.
The Arizona Department of Health Services shows that Maricopa County is currently seeing an increase in daily positive COVID-19 cases.
The team said it’s nervous about the increase in positive COVID-19 cases in Maricopa County, but is confident Valley Metro is making safe decisions for passengers.
“We will be going back out to our riders to do another survey in early 2021, just to measure how we are doing,” Tierney said. “It is important for us to get feedback so that we know what makes riders feel safe.”
Contact the reporter at mgreen62@asu.edu.
