Large study on transit use in metro Atlanta

From the AJC:

After a major study, the Atlanta Regional Commission knows a lot more about who takes transit in the area and why. But the numbers, released Thursday, also beg the question: As the Atlanta region prepares for a referendum on funding regional transportation projects, is there really demand for regional mass transit?

While the ARC does not plan for Athens-Clarke or its surrounding counties (MACORTS does all that), its decisions will certainly affect us, especially as they relate to regional rail and other transit options.

I'm with MARTA CEO Beverly Scott on the crux of the issue:

"Part of the problem you’re looking at now is chicken and an egg," she said. With service that is more frequent, faster, more integrated and more convenient, "[transit ridership] numbers absolutely would go up."

In cities that have well-planned networks of user-friendly inter-city rail, intra-city light rail, subways, buses, trolleys, and shuttles, people absolutely use them.

Connect these transit options to walkable, bikeable, and otherwise transit-oriented communities, and you've got yourself a sustainable place worth living in and visiting.

Leaving all that oil behind

From Grist :

10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit

No suprises here - these solutions have been known for quite a while. Build densely and in ways that fully accomodate a wide range of transportation choices. In other words, build places that are walkable, bikeable, and transit oriented.

When we create places that can only be accessed and traversed by private automobile, surprise! - we become desperately car (and thus oil)-dependent.

Demand a more livable future, not only for your own neighborhood, but for the thousands of people, and other creatures, that your daily decisions and errands impact.

UGA budget cuts impact Athens Transit

ABH: "The University of Georgia will cut subsidies for students and employees to ride Athens Transit, costing the bus system $150,000 next year, officials said Thursday."

The Athens-Clarke government does not plan to cut service or spend more local tax money on buses, Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish said, because federal grant money will make up the difference.

T-SPLOST passes!

After grim 11th hour letdowns last year and the year before, Georgia's legislature finally passed a bill that would allow for a transportation-specific SPLOST (aka T-SPLOST, and not to be confused with our Athens-specific SPLOST):

Taking to the well for the first time this session, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston in a rousing speech led the House to pass HB 277, a bill for transportation funding by a vote of 141-29. The Senate passed it shortly afterward, breaking a logjam that has bottled up the issue for at least three years.

It now goes to the desk of Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The bill would divide the state into 12 regions. A “roundtable” of local elected officials in each region would draw up a list of projects for the region, and could then submit the list to voters for their approval in a referendum, along with a 1 percent sales tax to fund them. No county could opt out of a region’s tax, but a roundtable could decline to hold a referendum in the region.

[If a region opts out,] they will lose out on some new state benefits, including a bit more money for small local road projects. And it wouldn’t be able to try again for a vote for two years.

Well, it took us long enough to get here, and this money, if it's even approved by our region, won't be available for three years.

That said, this legislation is a great step forward.

Between these funds, federal transportation dollars, grants, Safe Routes to School funds, an increased gasoline tax (Georgia's is among the nation's lowest, as is our general funding for transit) and a commitment to better transportation planning overall, we may finally enjoy the kind of multi-modal transportation choices enjoyed by forward-thinking cities around the nation.

Good news

The latest roster of SPLOST projects for voters to consider this fall has some exciting prospects for expanded transportation options:

The recommended list includes a mix of transportation, recreation and public safety projects, including money for buses, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, parks, trails, an Atlanta Highway fire station, public art, police equipment, the county animal shelter, library books, a cooperative extension headquarters and a center for hard-to-recycle materials.

Not all transportation improvements made the cut, however:

Among the likely casualties are road and intersection improvements, [as well as] bike lane [installation] along College Station Road.

All told, we are very pleased with the list, as it addresses bicycle, pedestrian and transit infrastructure. Be sure to tell your commissioner that you support these projects!

T-SPLOST grinds forward

"A bill to allow regions in Georgia to vote for transportation funding has cleared a major roadblock," reports the AJC's "Gold Dome Live" blog.

The bill – still in progress, and still in the conference committee – also may contain moderate incentives for ... mass transit.

It’s still under negotiation, details are changing, and no copy [of the bill] has been circulated publicly yet.

The bill (HB 277, formerly HB 1218) would ...divide the state into 12 predefined regions, allowing each region to submit a referendum to voters for a 1 percent sales tax to fund a list of projects within the region. However, there’s a change allowing more local choice.

In the new version discussed Tuesday, Senate and House negotiators said counties still would not be able to opt out of a region or its tax.

The bill as it stands now would offer a couple of carrots to regions that do vote on a list. First, it would increase the state subsidy they currently get for a category of small paving and local projects. Also, in most of the state, 25 percent of the region’s new tax proceeds would stay in the local governments where the money came from.

Too soon to hope? Help this happen. Given the state's budget woes, especially with transportation projects, your support of T-SPLOST may be our only hope.

In the , um, metaphor, this would be you.

Car Free Day

Three University of Georgia organizations are promoting next Friday as "Car Free Day," asking people to use alternative transportation to work and school.

The School of Ecology, in collaboration with the GoGreen Alliance and Students for Environmental Action, will station "commute captains" off campus and offer free food, drinks and prizes to participants.

Commute captains will be located at College Station Road and International Drive at 7:10 and 9 a.m. and at South Milledge and Oakland avenues at 7:15 and 8 a.m. to lead groups to campus.

Organizers will set up a refreshment stand at the front entrance of Memorial Hall between 7:30 and 11 a.m. with free food, drinks and a chance to win prizes including gift certificates for gear and a free bike check from Sunshine Cycles.

To Do: Submit SPLOST projects support letter!

The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) 2011 Committee has made its preliminary recommendation of projects to be placed on a November 2011 referendum. The current list must be pared down to match projected revenue from the tax.

On Tuesday, April 13, the SPLOST committee chair will present this list to the Athens Clarke County Commission, seeking the commission's input on further reducing the list.

BikeAthens supports a subset of the selected projects related to expanding transportation options and encourages citizens to contact the commissioners to express their individual support.

Use our convenient web form to send an email to all ACC Commissioners. Feel free to change the message to reflect your individual preferences!

The comment period ends on Monday, April 12, 2010 at midnight.

More information about the SPLOST 2011 committee and submitted projects is available here.

Thanks for taking a minute to send in your comments!

T-SPLOST rumblings in the legislature

UPDATE: "This is the year of reckoning on this issue"

Based on the 11th-hour failure last year, and the year before, I'll take a "We'll see" stance on this, but maybe it will finally happen...

Transit trouble in Clayton Co

Our neighbors in Clayton County are about to experience some very hard times with their public transportation system. Their story uncovers a much larger debate about what we do with our pooled resources and how we can build communities that are equitable and sustainable for the long run.

Clayton County pulled the plug on its bus system in spite of the fact that local transit has traditionally been led by local government. In Georgia, 127 counties and towns run some form of transit, from big-city trains down to small-town on-call shuttles, according to the state Department of Transportation. Special transit for the handicapped and medical visits might survive, but come Thursday Clayton will be the only one of metropolitan Atlanta's five core counties without any regular local transit.
...
The state is reluctant to supplement local budgets for operating transit, unlike most of its peer states with major systems like MARTA. Some neighbors with smaller systems fund operations. The Charlotte Area Transit System receives state funds for operations, budgeted at $13 million next year, and a local sales tax dedicated to mass transit, according to Charlotte's system.
...
Yet there is an exception to the state's hard-line philosophy on operating transit: Georgia taxpayers, including C-Tran passengers, are helping fund a state-run Xpress bus service for suburbanites' long-haul commutes.

When gasoline prices spike, people will turn to public transit again. Where will people turn when there aren't any buses?

Caught in the middle are the passengers, 65 percent of whom say they have no access to a car. Interviews with bus passengers this month showed a section of the metro population that faces life-changing consequences from loss of transportation. They called it "a tragedy. They called it "crazy." Some were spending big sums to break leases and move near MARTA. Some expected to lose their jobs. Others conceded that they simply were at a loss as to what to do.

Transit-oriented communities are cleaner, more pleasant places to live, and effective public transit provides access to essential services and employment for broad segments of the community.

[William] Millar, the American Transit Association president, said that every dollar invested in public transit generates about four dollars in the economy.

Funding public transit allows people who can't drive, including the elderly and those too poor to own car, to participate in society, he added.

"It’s really a basic question of values," he said.

New mayoral candidate supports transportation choices

"Nonprofit homebuilder Spencer Frye is running for mayor of Athens-Clarke County," reports the Banner-Herald.

Frye's platform also includes many of the progressive positions held by the current mayor and commissioners. He said he supports strict environmental laws, adding Athens Transit routes, building sidewalks and bicycle lanes, [and] protecting neighborhoods from development.

NB: Due to our nonprofit status, we cannot endorse or campaign against any candidate for elected office, but we're happy to see the issues being addressed!

T-SPLOST revival

Plans for a transportation-dedicated SPLOST were championed by David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) today.

He said action on the bill, which would divide the state into 12 transportation regions, is overdue.

The House committee was trying to put finishing touches on the bill as the Legislature wrapped up its 26^th day of the 40-day session. Legislation must pass one chamber of the Legislature before the 30^th day to have a chance to become law this year.

Under the bill, each of the 12 regions would hold a referendum on a list of transportation projects, and a penny sales tax to pay for them. If a region’s voters passed the tax, the money collected in the region would all be spent on projects in that region.

Well, this is mostly what we've been clamoring for for the past three years. My fear is that the bill gets tweaked such that a portion of the funds are dedicated to highway projects and only a small percentage is established for transit, pedestrian, or bicycling infrastructure.

The process should be open so that each region can establish its own transportation priorities. State-wide, it will likely lead to a mottled and dis-jointed approach to transportation planning, but at least we'll have a chance to prepare for a future that will demand less driving, whether we like it or not.

Text of HB 1218 here, if you're feeling masochistic.

Athens Bus Campaign

Activist Michael Smith recently formed the Athens Bus Campaign to get the Athens-Clarke Commission to lower bus fares, reports the Banner-Herald, but neither Athens Transit nor the Mayor & Commission are being persuaded.

Athens Transit has become too reliant on University of Georgia students and employees whose fares are subsidized while not doing enough to attract other kinds of riders, Smith said.

He argues that many buses are not filled to capacity, so increased ridership could fill the budget gap created by dropping fares to make them more affordable.

"We feel like (lowering fares) could jump-start ridership," Smith said.

But few additional people would hop on a bus for $1.25 as opposed to the current $1.50 adult fare, Athens Transit Director Butch McDuffie said.

"The only way to increase ridership is to make your service more frequent and more available," McDuffie said. The commission has added night and Saturday service in recent years, but in the recession lacks the money to make additional improvements.

I tend to agree with Mr. McDuffie on this. How does Mr. Smith know that lowering fares would increase ridership? Has he conducted any surveys of prospective riders? If not, he should get in touch with UGA's social science departments - their students can help him do this.

An aside: What seems to increase ridership most acutely is a spike in gas prices. Until buses are as convenient to use as private automobiles (i.e. more frequent and available service), many people will only utilize transit when they have to.

Any other thoughts on this?

Free bus rides for ACC employees?

Perhaps, if a proposal by several commissioners moves ahead.

This idea is definitely leading Athens in the right direction- public transit will increasingly become a feature of America's livable cities. Transit-oriented development is development that accommodates walking, cycling, historic preservation, mixed-use, and all the other features people routinely identify as markers of a higher quality of life.

It might make more sense to offer a deep discount instead of a totally free pass, however. Plenty of other populations have as much of a claim to free bus service as people employed in public service. Why not give free passes to residents of public housing or to people using the bus during high traffic times of day?

The biggest issue facing public transit use in Athens is how to provide a level of service that most people will find equivalent to private automobile use. Most people simply will not ride the bus unless it is as convenient as driving alone. Buses need to run every 20 minutes or so, and they really ought to run in both directions on each route. Night service and full weekend service would be ideal. The problem, of course, is how to pay for this expansion of a needed public service.

For several years, we have advocated for a T-SPLOST, a small sales tax dedicated exclusively to public transportation infrastructure, operations, and maintenance. Gov. Perdue has proposed a version of the T-SPLOST, but it wouldn't be voted on until 2012, meaning no funds would be collected until the following year.
We don't have time for these delays. We're already 30 years behind where we should be with public transportation. Perdue's proposal is certainly better than nothing, but it really needs to be on the 2010 ballot.

Parking it at UGA

The Red & Black compares UGA's parking facilities to those of its peer institutions.

“Parking is one of the biggest problems on most any large university campus,” [ University of Florida vice president of Business Affairs Ed] Poppell said. “On our campus we say, ‘We have enough spaces, but just not in the right places.’”

The saying is a result of one of UF’s initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and congestion on campus by enforcing certain regulations, such as the university’s “auto-free interior campus,” where only buses and service vehicles are allowed on the interior of campus from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“We have significant policies on our campus limiting what students can do and where they can park,” Poppell said. “We have also continuously increased the price of our decals, encouraging people to find alternative means of transportation.”

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the parking is highly selective. With 16,000 total parking spaces on campus, the school allows only 3,900 of its 28,136 students to park on campus. Unlike the University, UNC does not offer parking to incoming freshmen.

“There are a lot of folks who prefer to utilize the transit system,” said Randy Young, spokesman for the UNC Department of Safety. “We’ve gone to inordinate measures to make sure that the congestion and dependence on single-occupancy vehicles are attended to here on campus. We have 6,000 people on the Commuter Alternative Program.”

The program offers students an incentive to walk, ride bikes or use transit on campus by rewarding them with prizes and merchant discounts.

The University has a similar program called the Alternative Transportation Program, with a student participation of 1,200.

The program allows students who walk or take the bus* to receive 22 days of free parking per year in specified parking locations.

*ATP is also available for cyclists. With its campus pedestrian malls, campus transit, and bike racks, UGA certainly leads the county in supporting alternative transportation infrastructure.

Still, more can be done to encourage alternative behavior among a student body overwhelmingly conditioned to drive enormous SUVs for 2 mile errand trips. Increasing ATP participation should be a top priority. Given the comparatively low levels of participation, UGA has a ways to go before it can say it has "gone to inordinate measures to make sure that the congestion and dependence on single-occupancy vehicles" are minimized.

Indeed, since its inception, the Alternative Transportation Program has grown more restrictive, due to concerns that the program was being abused. Instead of marginalizing a good idea, UGA ought to develop creative enforcement solutions and then widely publicize the program's availability and benefits. Fewer cars means less need for bond-financed parking decks, which means less congestion, both on our roads and in our air.

Unfortunately, other considerations tend to distort the University's thinking on these things.

Democrats re-introduce T-SPLOST

From the AJC:

Citing a failure of state leadership to raise transportation funding, Georgia Democratic leaders on Thursday announced a proposal to allow regional referendums on a penny sales tax for transportation, and to dedicate part of the current gas tax for any transportation purpose, including operating a mass transit system.

Creating a long-term source of operating funds could clear the way to compete for federal grants to build new local transit projects, transportation officials said.

Almost all of the Georgia gas tax currently goes to transportation, but one cent per dollar goes to the state’s general fund. The part that goes to transportation can only be spent on roads and bridges, not mass transit.

GA loses out on even more transit funding

As if the loss of high speed rail funding wasn't painful enough, AJC comes in with this late hit.

The Federal Transit Administration on Tuesday published a list of 27 transit projects recommended for $1.8 billion in federal funding. Georgia wasn’t on it.

It couldn’t be. Georgia had no proposals up for consideration, FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said.

In contrast to the high-speed rail grants last week, these recommendations would fund development of local transit projects such as new bus and streetcar lines.
...

Rail advocates last week blamed Georgia’s loss of high-speed rail money on the state’s past indifference to rail transit.

"If you don’t have operating money, nobody’s going to give you the money you need to build lines," said Lee Biola, president of Citizens for Progressive Transit. "Other states are investing in other ways of traveling [than by car] and they are becoming competitors when it comes to luring businesses and high-tech workers to their states."

If it wasn't clear before, it's clear now: Georgia's old boy network of back-slapping car dealers, sprawl builders, and road pavers will keep us mired in gridlocked traffic, smog, and ugly landscapes until we demand something better.

Bus ad revenue lower than expected

Banner-Herald reports:

Athens-Clarke County is cutting short its contract with a local firm that sells advertising on Athens Transit buses because the program is making less money than officials expected.
...

The Athens-Clarke Commission is likely to vote tonight to opt out of a two-year contract with The Summit Agency on June 30, after just one year.

The deal guarantees the county at least $75,000 per year in revenue, with the county and the agency splitting anything over that amount. After seven months, the agency has sold only $33,000 worth of ads, Athens Transit Director Butch McDuffie said.

...

The economy and a restrictive policy on what types of ads Athens Transit will accept are responsible for the poor sales, McDuffie said.

The county does not accept alcohol-related, sexual, political or religious advertising.

Commissioners adopted the policy on Athens-Clarke Attorney Bill Berryman's recommendation to head off potential lawsuits if they turned down a controversial ad to avoid the appearance that the government is endorsing a religious or political message.

...

When the county's contract with The Summit Agency ends June 30, the commission could opt to stop selling ads, hire another agency to sell them or sell them in-house. [Commissioner Kelly] Girtz said he favors continuing to sell ads.

Is the county policy too cautious? Isn't some money better than none? This is the first time this strategy has been attempted with Athens Transit, so it's to be expected that there might be some hurdles, especially in the current economic conditions.

Plenty of transit systems successfully utilize bus ads to supplement their operating budgets. We hope the commission and Athens Transit can address the challenges and continue exploring this needed funding opportunity.

Let the Commission know your thoughts on the matter.

Bad news/Good news

The bad news:
Our great state's short-sighted, issue-neglecting leaders have squandered the chance for millions in high speed rail money.

Georgia appears to have won as little as $750,000 from the $8 billion pool of high-speed rail grants.
...
Last fall, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a number of states, including Georgia and Florida, that they had better get their act together on rail transit or risk losing out on the high-speed rail grants.

In a special session weeks later, Florida voted additional annual funding for one transit rail line and expedited buying track for another.

What did Georgia's legislators do? Not a thing. And what are they doing now? Talking about more tax cuts for big business (and campaign contributors) and ethics re-form.

All of which nets us, the traffic and air pollution-beleaguered residents of the state, with .0094% of the federal funding available for high speed inter-city rail.

The good news?

Maybe folks will finally get fired up about the ridiculous priorities of our state government and demand some actual governance, the kind that faces reality and seeks informed solutions to our common problems.

Gov. Perdue sure likes talking the talk. Will we ever see any action? That's largely up to us. We'll have to drag our highway-loving legislature kicking and screaming, but we can make it happen.

Let your legislator know how disappointed you are!

Share your commute

Inspired by this bike commuter diary, we're looking for some show-and-tell from Athens' bike, transit, and pedestrian commuters.

Send us a narrative, photographic, and/or mapped description of your commuting route in Athens, and we'll share it here on the blog and on our website. We encourage you to share your thoughts on the route, including ways it could be improved, what you like about it, interesting experiences, etc.

Please submit to chair[at]bikeathens.com

We look forward to hearing your story!

UPDATE
We have one submission in the comments below! And, here's a short video of my walking commute from New Town to campus. The intro has a 3-4 second delay for some reason. Enjoy!