A group of Greater Des Moines civic and business leaders will gather for the first time this week to discuss public transit and consider what the community wants its transportation network to look like in the future as the metro area continues to grow.

The Transit 2010 committee, chaired by Greater Des Moines Partnership President and CEO Martha Willits and assembled by the Des Moines Metropolitan Transit Authority, will consider Central Iowa’s current public transportation offerings and projected growth patterns in order to develop a vision for an integrated transportation network.

“The trend is that you deal with it too late,” said Steve Spade, general manager of the MTA. “I think Martha is leading a group into something that’s starting to recognize challenges before they happen.”

The MTA initiated the committee following work for its latest strategic plan, in which consultants observed a disconnect between the type and level of service the MTA has been offering and how the community leaders perceive the system. The MTA board decided that an agreement needed to be established between both parties as to what the MTA should be doing in Greater Des Moines.

In a handful of meetings over the upcoming months, approximately two dozen committee members will work toward establishing not only a vision but a framework for future activity by the MTA and the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization in preparation for the next two or three decades worth of growth.

“I think in that period of time we want to be smart enough to be looking ahead because our city is growing up,” Willits said.

Aside from construction, she said, there are other issues, such as workforce pattern growth, that demand attention from leaders regarding transportation.

“Employment downtown is expected to double in the next 30 years, so we’ve got to think about how we’re going to get people downtown,” said Amanda Steward, director of the Greater Des Moines Transportation Management Association, a non-profit consortium of private companies and public agencies that works to reduce traffic congestion.

Spade cited research results from the latest strategic plan that shows the Greater Des Moines’ public transportation system compares favorable with those in peer cities in productivity and efficiency.

The MTA covers 32 percent of its costs through fares with an average cost-per-ride of $2.49. Averages from the six peer cities, which have comparable populations and service areas, show 16 percent of costs covered by fares and a cost-per-ride of $3.20. The Des Moines system also, on average, carries more passengers.

But a growing population and downtown workforce could compromise those numbers. An Oct. 28 luncheon that kicked off the Transit 2010 Committee featured renowned transit expert Shirley DeLibero, who related her experience in transforming Houston’s public transportation through a light rail system. With some projections that Greater Des Moines’ population could reach 1 million by 2020, some have considered that an option as part of an updated transit network.

“Light rail is one of the options in this community, but to date, with the population density that we’ve got, it may not be feasible,” Spade said. “But there are other methods of moving people that are similar to light rail that might be more feasible for Des Moines.”

Bus rapid transit, he said, could provide similar benefits and ease of service to commuters without the high cost of constructing a light rail or commuter rail system. Houston spent approximately $325 million to build a seven-mile light rail line through its downtown.

Through a bus rapid transit system, railroad rights of way would be paved similar to a roadway, but would be accessible only to city-owned buses, which would stop at a limited number of passenger stations. The city has funding in place to study the feasibility of such a system within the metropolitan area.

Steward emphasized that construction on Interstate 235 “is considered minimal build,” and further steps must be taken in order to create a 10 percent permanent reduction in the number of cars on streets in Greater Des Moines.

The Iowa Department of Transportation said the reduction would be necessary if the city wanted to avoid “full build” of I-235, which would have made a deep cut into the city’s infrastructure. The DOT, Steward said, could not promise that current reconstruction work will be adequate for the number of vehicles it anticipates will be traveling through the city in 30 years.

Maintaining the 19-minute maximum commute time in Greater Des Moines, she added, is essential in order to continue to attract development to the area.

“It’s a huge selling point and we want to maintain that,” she said.

“Transportation is the whole of economic development,” Willits said, noting the importance of being able to move a company’s workforce and its products. “Wherever you put transportation, you cause growth.”

Willits said as the representatives from various businesses and government bodies come together to discuss and create their vision for a transportation network, she will encourage committee members to leave personal opinions at the door and resist getting into programmatic changes.

“I would say that would be hard for us Iowans,” she said. “We want to get things done. If we don’t get carried away, a few choice vision plans are worth a lot.”