Dear LTD, are you listening to yourselves?

That EmX Bus is Empty

BY MIKE WEBER AND SCOTT REYNOLDS

 

 

 

Recently, Kevin Prociw of LCCRG created a short music video titled "That Emx Bus is Empty" which illustrated just how poorly utilized LTD's $43 million Gateway/River Bend line is. Tonight, this video was highlighted on KEZI 9 news, and Andy Vobora, LTD's Director of Service Planning, Accessibility and Marketing stated that "the video was shot during a time when numbers are typically low for a college town" and "having only been in service for about five or six months, it's probably a little too early to make a judgment about how successful the ridership is." 

 

Let's rewind to a little less than two weeks ago, when LTD Communications Coordinator Lisa Van Winkle said on KEZI on July 28 that "Even though we had to reduce the total number of hours, because we're still attracting a higher ridership, our efficiency is actually better" and that Gateway EmX expansion has increased ridership for the EmX by 40%.

 

Too soon to be judged, or increased ridership by 40%? Are we confused, or is LTD confused?

 

Giving LTD the benefit of the doubt here, let's give Vobora's theory about college town numbers being low. The route to Gateway/River Bend does not run through any areas that have a large UO student population, and primarily serve the hospital, a few large employers north of Beltline Road (Symantec, Royal Caribbean), a few neighborhoods and the Gateway shopping district. LTD has claimed the majority of their riders are going to and from work. College/school is second, again according to LTD.

 

Given that the footage was filmed between 7 a.m. and noon on a Friday, this covers a time in the morning during which commuters are typically going to work. However, all there was to be found during the morning "rush hour" were mostly empty buses everywhere along the route. Considering the areas served by this route, student utilization of this route should not be a major factor, and even if it was, how effective a utilization of $43 million in capital improvements plus operating costs is this route? 

 

The fact is, a regular bus served this area very effectively, and could have continued to do so.
 

But who knows anymore, as LTD can't stick to one story? VanWinkle thinks that rider numbers will go down in the fall, isn't that when the college students come back? But Vobora says this is typical for a college town right now to have empty buses. OOPS, just who is in charge there at LTD? 

 

As has been well publicized, LTD is looking to spend $80-100 million to build a new EmX route out West 11th Avenue that would terminate near where the Wal-Mart store is. Yes, folks, a bus to Wal-Mart! As of now, it is very clear that LTD did not predict the future very well when it built the Gateway EmX line, and now it wants to apply for tens of millions of dollars of FEDERAL funds for another EmX line with, again, an unproven need. We received an e-mail on March 7, 2011 from Vobora in response to a question asked about how utilized buses currently are along West 11th. The response was that about 900 boardings per day occur along West 11th between Garfield and Commerce streets. When one considers that the proposed EmX line would have 80 runs in each direction, for a total of over 160 trips, that works out to fewer than 6 boardings per trip based on current ridership! Spending $80-100 million to run even more nearly empty buses seems like an absolutely asinine proposal!

 

LTD is looking more like a three ringed circus then a transit service. EmX buses empty for half the day, running red lights and an LTD bus going the wrong way down a one way street. LTD was politely telling a Facebook community page to remove their page even though it was 100% within the guidelines for a Facebook community page, and create a Facebook group? Lost funding for the student bus pass program? What is going on at LTD? Things have only become worse since former GM Mark Pangborn retired. It looks like he got out just in the nick of time.

 

But there is a silver lining. LTD just received a FEDERAL grant to replace the 20 year old bus signs that are still readable. That is on the remaining routes left., not the EmX lines. See, the important stuff is getting done.

 

 

LTD on the Ropes. A Dear LTD guest viewpoint by Scott Reynolds.

BY SCOTT REYNOLDS

These last few weeks have not been very kind to our friends at Lane Transit District. While not very much media attention has been afforded recently to LTD's ill-conceived West 11th EmX project, or even to the beginning of new LTD general manager Ron Kilcoyne's tenure leading the agency, LTD has managed to thrust itself into the spotlight, with the aid of local citizens on a couple of these occasions.

A few weeks ago, MyEugene published a video on their site in which local citizen Ben Hallert's dash camera caught an EmX bus speeding through a red light on Gateway Street in Springfield near Applebee's. In the video, it is clear that the light for Hallert was green for a good second or so before the EmX barreling through the intersection even comes into view! This incident also was featured on KEZI 9.In the MyEugene article, it is also mentioned that LTD will not discuss how this matter was handled with the driver due to union rules. In this same article, LTD spokesperson Cosette Rees stated that "safety is extremely important to LTD".

On June 18, the Register-Guard reported that the Oregon Legislature cut funding to a program that provided free transportation to middle and high school students in the Eugene/Springfield area, and LTD responded on a Facebook post that they will be losing about $1.2 million in funding. In this same Facebook response, LTD stated that they assume youth fares will replace about $600,000 of that moneyand no cuts will need to be made. Additionally, in the same post, LTD did state that if they had to absorb the entire $1.2 million in cuts, that some operating budget cuts would likely have to be made.

On July 16, KEZI aired a report about an LTD bus operator pinning the bus between construction on Pearl Street and a fire hydrant, which blocked traffic in the area.

Yesterday, LTD also made the news again on KEZI for a bus operator driving the wrong way down Lincoln Street near downtown Eugene, when it should have headed south on Charnelton Street. We would like to give credit to Jeffery Egbert for sending the photo of the offending bus to local media!

Regular readers of this page may remember a recent article published here aboutEugene attacking free speech in which it is mentioned that LTD had limited access to its Facebook page so that citizens and taxpayers could not post on their wall anymore. Today  Michael Weber was on KEZI today because LTD requested that Weber change a Facebook page previously known as "Dear LTD" to a group as opposed to a page. Weber refused to back down to LTD's demands to do so, but did compromise on changing the name of the page to "Dear Lane County Public Transit, can you hear me now?" Weber also started another blog site about LTD at dearLTD.blogspot.com.

In closing, it is beyond my understanding why LTD is even trying to waste this community's resources and time in trying to build an EmX system that has been hotly contested every step of the way, and that we believe a majority of our community does not want. At the public hearing held in February at the Hilton and the hearing held at the Wheeler Pavilion at the Fairgrounds a few months later, people speaking in opposition to the EmX outnumbered those speaking in support by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. All around town, signs can be seen opposing the EmX project, but how many do you see supporting it?

In just the last few weeks, LTD operators have, without shadow of a doubt, shown a blatant disregard of traffic laws and for the safety of the general public, had their funding cut by $1.2 million with no idea how much may be recouped by youth pass fees, and has expended energy into limiting free speech by harassing an administrator of a Facebook page that had fewer than 100 readers at the time. When 3 unsafe driving incidents have been caught on camera/video in under a month, it is terrifying to think about how many more similar incidents like these have occurred that were not caught on film.

Rather than go chasing after tens of millions of dollars to fund an unwanted project that will do more to disrupt business, cause the loss of an untold number of jobs (which fund LTD operations by way of payroll tax) and has no proven need, LTD needs to return to its core functions of simply providing SAFE, frequent and efficient bus service to all parts of its service area, and making sure that its drivers are operating the buses in a safe and law-abiding manner. For LTD to focus its energy on anything else at this time is absolute nonsense.