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Monday, November 23, 2009

Transportation Unlike Portland, Seattle Saves its Bus Lines

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 2:58 PM

While TriMet axed four bus lines in September and starting this month will implement frequent service reductions to patch a $3.5 million budget whole, Seattle's King County transit system has decided to avoid cutting "core bus service" by raising revenue in new ways.

Earlier this year, King County Metro faced a $215 million budget gap and was planning to cut across the board from its 225 bus routes. But today the transit agency's directors announced that they would not cut bus service, instead making cuts elsewhere and raising some money in new ways.

According to the Seattle Times article, the agency will be making up the difference in its budget by:

• Boosting adult fares by 25 cents at the start of 2011, on top of the 25-cent increase on Jan. 1, 2010.

• Allowing advertising wraps on buses. The budget shows only $140,000 income by wrapping 20 to 30 buses the first two years, but income is expected to grow, said County Council analyst John Resha.

• Leaving 39 positions unfilled and dropping four others, including park-and-ride maintenance, customer-service personnel and police.

• Spending $40 million in the next two years out of a $105 million excess that auditors located in the bus-replacement fund.

• Developing a more centralized trip-schedule system, instead of doing it separately from seven bus bases. This is supposed to reduce "deadheading," where buses often travel empty at the end of a run.

• Adding a property tax next year of $6.50 per $100,000 of assessed value to go toward bus service. County officials say the move won't raise the burden on taxpayers because a like amount of property tax is being reduced by canceling foot-ferry projects and by trimming a fingerprint-identification fund.

This last policy probably wouldn't fly in Oregon, where property taxes are strictly limited and subjected to statewide voters, but it's heartening to see our sister-city getting creative to save its bus system rather than axing transit. Portland's bus system in September hosted 200,700 trips a day: more than trips on bike and light rail combined.

 

Comments (18) RSS

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1
I still want to know how much money could be saved annually if TriMet did away with publishing paper schedules and just posted signs stating "the bus will arrive when it gets here", since that's more accurate than the printed schedules anyway.
Posted by The One True b!X on November 23, 2009 at 3:33 PM · Report
2
I like how one of the solutions is "find some money you didn't know you had."

That's my retirement plan right there.
Posted by atomic on November 23, 2009 at 3:48 PM · Report
3
Portland, OR has nine sister cities. None of them are Seattle.

Ashkelon, Israel
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Ulsan, South Korea
Mutare, Zimbabwe
Guadalajara, Mexico
Khabarovsk, Russia
Sapporo, Japan
Suzhou, China
Bologna, Italy
Posted by Graham on November 23, 2009 at 3:50 PM · Report
4
I heard a bus driver say the other day that Trimet has stopped printing paper schedules, when a passenger requested one.
Posted by toilet Joe on November 23, 2009 at 4:06 PM · Report
5
I've always felt that with a few exceptions, Tri-Met offers TOO MUCH service:

1. Too many stops downtown and in Portland. They could save significant money by stretching the number of stops from every 2 blocks to every three. This country can afford to walk an extra block.
2. Too many buses. I ride the 12 from 5-10 times a week, rush hour, (and not) and it's rarely packed to the brim. Why not push the number of times it stops to 20 minutes. I think 3x an hour 24 hours a day is reasonable for mass transit. This would save hundreds of thousands for all frequent bus lines.
3. Eliminate handicap access. Yep you read me right. Eliminate Handicap access as it delays everyone else's schedules, by up to 10 minutes! I fail to see why Handicap people interrupting hundreds of others is tolerated. Give them a service where they can call for custom pickup, or have special government passes to pay private shuttle companies for pick-up. Everyone wins.
4. Enforce riders exiting the bus from the back. This drives me crazy. People exiting the bus from the front delay the bus precious seconds, for no good reason. Eliminate this inefficient handling of riders.
Posted by NIG GER on November 23, 2009 at 4:16 PM · Report
6
You're insane. Aside from nothing to back up your arguments besides your own weekly bus ride, 'this country' can afford to walk is quite a broad statement. Especially for the disabled.
Oh and they won't be eliminating that anytime soon, it's called the Federal Disability Act.

'Give them a service where they can call for custom pickup, or have special government passes to pay private shuttle companies for pick-up. Everyone wins.'

You think the above proposal is workable? Let alone affordable?

Posted by D on November 23, 2009 at 4:26 PM · Report
7
@ ?pq: What's this 24 hour nonsense you're talking about? There aint shit for service after 1am.
Posted by Graham on November 23, 2009 at 4:40 PM · Report
8
That little bit about the tax on the end would cost most homeowners about a grand a year. That's $1000 per home in taxes.
Posted by Russ on November 23, 2009 at 4:48 PM · Report
9
"$6.50 per $100,000 of assessed value"

say your home is worth $300k. you owe an extra $19.50.

omg.
Posted by Chunty McHutchence on November 23, 2009 at 4:51 PM · Report
10
You realize, guy with retardedly long name, that the idea is to save money? And your proposals wouldn't really do that?
Posted by Blanders on November 23, 2009 at 5:32 PM · Report
11
Toll the Interstate Bridge and increase top 10% tax rate.
Posted by ragold on November 23, 2009 at 5:41 PM · Report
12
@unicode_idiot: The stops on the transit mall aren't 2 blocks apart, they are 5. (When I was on crutches a few months ago, that was a very long distance.) If you ride the 12 "5-10 times a week" you'd know that. For some reason I'm guessing you are lying.
Posted by Matthew D on November 23, 2009 at 7:18 PM · Report
13
An ad hom! I win!

"For some reason I'm guessing you are lying."
You happen to be an investigative writer for the Mercury?

Why not look at a map of Tri Met and pick a popular route?

It now takes me longer to get through downtown than before the bus mall redesign on 2 of the 4 lines I ride.

"Toll the Interstate Bridge and increase top 10% tax rate."
And watch the top 10% income earners leave the city? (witness the brain and monetary drain of New York City and State.) Brilliant! How are you going to fill those empty "condos" in the South Waterfront again? You know, the ones where the empty streetcars ding ding ever so often at a loss each trip?

"Oh and they won't be eliminating that anytime soon, it's called the Federal Disability Act."
Easily offset by federal subsidy in alternative transportation methods. Both trains and handicapped people would get where they want, faster. Or is it more cost effective keeping 35 people waiting for one wheelchair, not to mention all the potentially hundreds of people down the line that will have their schedules impacted?
Posted by NIG GER on November 23, 2009 at 7:36 PM · Report
14
@ragold. If the I-5 bridge, and by necessity I-205 bridge, were tolled, the revenue would go to the construction of the new I-5 bridge, not to maintaining current bus service.
Posted by Daniel Ronan on November 23, 2009 at 7:43 PM · Report
15
"it's called the Federal Disability Act."

Actually, it's called the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Posted by GLV on November 24, 2009 at 9:17 AM · Report
16
It's 6.5 cents per $100,000, not $6.50.
Posted by Martin H. Duke on November 24, 2009 at 9:28 AM · Report
17
@unicode_idiot: Okay, I'm looking at the #12 stops on the map, and uhmm, yeah every 4.5 blocks, up from every 2 blocks three years ago. Here is the map:
http://trimet.org/portlandmall/index.htm
Care to say what are the other "3" lines you ride, since that one obviously isn't one of the "2" that are slower?

(Guess what: I don't have to be an investigative reporter to tell that you haven't actually ridden a bus in the last year.)
Posted by Matthew D on November 25, 2009 at 12:40 AM · Report
18
There is already a "service where they can call for custom pickup." It's called LIFT, and it's ridiculously expensive to operate.
Posted by wylee on November 30, 2009 at 11:47 AM · Report

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