Tribal Planner Jim Beard said it is estimated that there are more than 300 employees and residents living in these outlying areas that can benefit from transit services. The expansion has been in the works for several years and was approved by the CTUIR Board of Trustees in October of 2007.
“But the timing of putting the rubber on the road is fortuitous considering the recent increases in the cost of fuel,” said Beard. “The expansions to the outlying cities are designed to accommodate commuters, but also provide multiple opportunities for visits to the Tribes’ institutional and commercial properties.”
The service, which eventually could connect Hermiston, Walla Walla and Tri-Cities, has so far been divided into three lines with separate schedules.
The “Cayuse Commuter” bus will pick up riders in the Cayuse, Thornhollow, Weston, Athena and Adams communities. The bus will stop at the Post Office in each town. In areas that do not have a Post Office, the bus will stop at the main group of mailboxes in that area.
Working with Community Connections in La Grande, the “LaGrande Arrow” will offer bus service three times a day between La Grande and Mission. Connections to other destinations within the Mission community and Pendleton area will be available by transfers to the Mission Metro Bus.
The “Pilot Rocket” bus will provide service between Mission and Pilot Rock and, like the others, will have service three times a day – in the morning, at noon and in the late afternoon.
At this time, the buses will run Monday through Friday with no service on major holidays.
The schedules were designed to accommodate employees that work on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, including Tribal government, Wildhorse Resort and Cayuse Technologies.
Because of a variation in work hours at different work places, the schedule could not accommodate everyone, Beard said.
The new routes are being funded by the Federal Transit Administration Tribal Transportation Program. The CTUIR intends to operate the service a minimum of two years to determine if there is enough ridership to make the routes permanent.
For additional information and/or bus schedules, go to www.umatilla.nsn.us or contact the Tribal Planning Office at 541-966-2590.
Then there's the slap on the wrist from our betters across the pond: Europeans scoff at our sticker shock and gas-guzzler habit. They pay $6, $7, close to $10 a gallon! Of course some of their cars approach a fuel efficiency of 60 miles a gallon, and everyone from Swedes to Spaniards enjoy tighter urban development patterns, a high-functioning public transit infrastructure, and subsidized health care (oops, different story).
But the gas-burning question stateside imperils a favorite American pastime: Are we looking at the imminent demise of the road trip, our freewheeling, open-ended, go-where-I-want, when-I-want credo? "Let's hit the road, honey; I think we have enough cash to make it to the end of the block."
Or could we just be looking at a revision of a classic?
Enough of complaining that we don't have a web of high-speed rail connections, buses that run everywhere every few minutes. What do we have? What would Jesus, I mean, an Australian backpacker, do? Or an American sightseer, for that matter?
A few months back, on the bus from Port Townsend to Seattle (having sold my car to save money), I heard a fellow rider talking loudly, as folks sometimes do on the bus.
"You say this bus goes to Poulsbo?" I recall him asking the driver. "That other one to Brinnon? Maybe I'll take a ride to see Hood Canal." And then: "I bet you could get halfway across the state on local buses."
Light bulb.
Jackie Smith recently reported in The Seattle Times on a local romp from Kirkland to Golden Gardens on Metro Transit, and others have detailed mini bus vacations in the Northwest over the years — around the San Juan Islands, to Port Orchard and Poulsbo. Could these short jaunts be expanded? How far could I get? Where would I end up along the way? What would I see? Could I take an honest-to-God-and-apple pie road trip by local bus?
The quest began.
But this was meant to be a road trip. The longer and more roundabout, the better. Would other people want to repeat the trip? Hardly. I'm on my own, no kids. I can't picture a family of four complete with diaper bags and DVDs getting on and off three buses a day just for an adventure. "Are we there yet?" Please. Where's the aspirin?
Thanks to the Internet and some old-fashioned paper maps, I quickly discovered that a trip to visit my sister in northern California wouldn't take forever. Just a week and a half (though I extended that by backpacking through the redwoods).
It took all of a few minutes' research to see that I wouldn't get stranded, say, in Shelton, Wash. A half day more of Googling county names and "transit" resulted in a route complete with bus schedules all the way to California.
Even better, the buses followed the coast! Goodbye eye-glazing I-5, hello ocean vistas. Buses linked Washington and Oregon across the four-mile bridge at the mouth of the Columbia River. There were smooth connections from Coos Bay in southern Oregon to Arcata, Calif.
I was on my way.
(A brief note: Recently launched Google Transit promises even more ease in trip planning, as soon as more service areas are included — only one of the 11 bus systems I took is currently on board.)
What to do? Hitchhike? That idea didn't go over so well with friends, let alone my mom. Take my bike along? Too much to lug around. That left walking. I'm a hiker. Could I walk the gaps?
Well, yes. Oregon boasts a coastal trail of white-sand beaches and cliff-hugging forests, with sea lions and sea stacks offshore. "Trail," however, is a liberal interpretation of the route where it follows US 101.
Optimistically, I decided that if cyclists bike 101, surely I could walk a little bit of it. This turned out to be less appealing when actually standing on 101's microscopic shoulder with RV mirrors winging past at 60 miles an hour. I would determine pretty early on that there are worse things than hitchhiking.
As a bus user in a small town, I was also curious about who rides rural buses, for what reasons. The newspapers are full of stories about increased transit ridership in metropolitan areas. In the first quarter of this year compared to last, there were 6 percent more boardings on King County Metro Transit and 2.6 percent more riders on Portland, Ore., TriMet buses and MAX trains. Even car-is-king California isn't immune: In January through March 2008 in Los Angeles, rail use increased by as much as 16 percent and bus use by 8 percent over the same period a year prior.
But what about in the sticks? Are more people riding in and around small towns? Is there even service? After all, rural buses don't usually travel commuter routes.
Most of all, though, this Washington-to-California trip promised a version of the open road without owning or renting a car, without the ka-ching ka-ching cash-register soundtrack at the gas pump. All told, transportation cost me $177, about $80 of that on local buses and the rest on Amtrak.
Let me say that again: Three weeks, more than 2,000 miles, and $177 spent on getting myself around.
(Full disclosure: Dinner conversation at a youth hostel turned into a long hitch the next day, saving me $55 because the driver wouldn't take money for gas — yes, I offered, three times. And though not strictly a part of transportation costs, accommodations were on the cheap — hikers and cyclists pay only $4 a night to camp in Oregon State Parks.)
So I spent approximately what it would take to drive the route in a Prius at $4 a gallon. But I don't have a Prius. What I did have was a road trip. Care-free adventure. Freedom. Simplicity. If you can call 48 buses simple.
"We coordinated with the emergency operations center to get people to shelter sites for food and care," said Cindy Howe, Sunset Empire Transportation District. "After we got one phone operational in Astoria, we were able to offer demand response (where a customer calls and requests a specific ride) and transport a few people to the grocery store and to shelter sites."
In the meantime, Howe worked with the local radio station – as soon as it was operational – to get the word out to residents that public transit was available.
"I can tell you that each of my employees attempted to come in and do his or her part, only to be intercepted by the high winds, road debris, slides and flooding," said Matt Mumford, general manager of Tillamook County Transportation District. "I’m so proud to be associated with public transit on the Oregon coast."
Cynda Bruce, with Lincoln County Transit, said her crews worked wherever they could even though many were without electricity from Saturday through Wednesday during the storms.
"I had to shut down services on Monday because we had so many impassable roads," she said, "My staff, however, was unstoppable, with everyone who could make it showing up for work."
"I am extremely fortunate to have such wonderful folks working for the transit district," he said.
Howe added, "I am really proud of our staff. I can’t tell you how great it is to work with these people."
Introducing customers with disabilities to accessible fixed-route service used to be about creating choices and providing independence. While it still accomplishes these things, the reality is that a primary goal of increasing the use of fixed-route service has rapidly become the bottom-line, one that is growing at exponential rates as more and more active seniors and people with disabilities use paratransit services at increasingly higher levels.
Fueled by the beginning of baby boomer retirements, greater community accessibility and greater educational, work and recreational opportunities, seniors and people with disabilities are starting to use public transit. For many, this means paratransit service. Couple the increased demand with the increased cost to provide such service, and you have the perfect storm. Trip lengths are increasing as communities grow, vehicle wait times are increasing as more trips are medical related, and more young and active people with disabilities are using paratransit services on a regular basis. As all transit providers know, the cost for providing these essential services falls squarely on our shoulders. Transit providers face annual double-digit cost increases that appear to have no end in sight. At Lane Transit District (LTD), the costs associated with paratransit service have increased more than 300 percent over the past decade, but more alarming is the fact that these trends are not slowing, which means that difficult budget decisions lie ahead.
Demand for all public transit services is growing. Funds already are being stretched by rising fuel and personnel costs. Whats the answer?
Unfortunately, it appears that part of the answer positions paratransit services against fixed-route services. With only so many service dollars to go around, paratransit becomes the heavyweight, while fixed-route service battles to stay in the fight. With the Americans with Disabilities Act in its corner, complementary paratransit services will be funded, and there is little question that they should be. However, at a time when demand for fixed-route service is at an all-time high, this situation is most challenging.
LTD has long been an advocate for service to seniors and people with disabilities. It achieved 100 percent fixed-route accessibility in 1985. Innovative programs like travel training and transit hosts have been in place for many years, and a strong relationship with local agencies and advocates has established a foundation of collaboration and coordination. LTD hopes to create an opportunity to realize new efficiencies and is in the process of instituting a centralized transportation call center. The Lane Council of Governments Senior & Disabled Services Department has dedicated case management positions to serve as call takers for Medicaid non-emergency medical transportation trips for Lane County residents for a very long time.
LTD is taking the ambitious step of creating a call center combining the Medicaid transportation program and all other human services transportation options and programs (such as ADA, Lane County Developmental Disability services, services to a local pre-school program for children with disabled parents) into a one-stop shopping call center for eligible participants. When the call center is operational, customers will have a single telephone number to call to arrange their transportation, regardless of how the services are funded or what program they are affiliated with. A great concept, but the devil is in the details.
It is unlikely that this or any other single strategy will be the silver bullet that districts are looking for to solve this complicated problem. The answer likely will involve a range of strategies, and it will be different for different properties. Whether or not creating a call center will yield the desired efficiencies LTD is seeking will not be known for a couple of years a couple of years when the demand and cost for paratransit services will continue to rise. As an industry, we must continue to ask these questions: