"If you could take a short morning stroll to a comfortable bus stop shelter and make your way around the city while saving on the financial and environmental costs of burning gasoline, would you make the transition from automotive to mass transit commuter?
The Lexington Transit Authority board recently approved an 11.7 percent increase in funding for LexTran operations for fiscal 2007-08, much of it to account for the rising cost of fueling the system's bus fleet. Despite that increase to a budget of $17.2 million, Lexington still seems a long way from making any significant transition from cars to mass transit.
In an interview that can be heard in its entirety online at www.bizlex.com, LexTran General Manager Terry Garcia Crews said as gasoline prices remain high and unpredictable, efforts have been made to entice more commuters to make the switch. Service miles have increased by 50 percent and, in response to an often-heard taxpayer complaint, smaller vehicles have rolled into service. "They said, why are you running these big buses? And so we are able to use those smaller buses to act as a feeder system where they meander through the neighborhoods and connect to the main core routes," Crews said.
In addition, businesses eager to advertise are being recruited to help draw more people out of their cars and onto buses. "We've introduced cross promotions with Cricket where they have offered free ride days. And when we offer free ride days, you can see that our ridership escalates, so there's definitely a trend. When the rising gas prices are seen, we also see an increase in ridership." Crews said ridership has nearly doubled from 6,000 daily passenger trips prior to the LexTran tax referendum in 2004 to 11,000 today, but it's not clear who is riding and why. "We need to update our research," she said. "The last time that we did the research we saw that 70 percent of the riders were using mass transit for employment opportunities. And we are going to embark upon another base line research so that we have some level of comparison."
In the planning stage is rapid transit between suburbs and downtown involving "bus only" lanes on major corridors. "And you can also work with what they call light synchronization, where you are able to get more of the green lights and being able to kind of make that whole traffic pattern flow a lot easier as well as a lot quicker," Crews said. "There is an express service that has limited stops that also will expedite your travel destination and travel time, so there are various strategies that can be looked at."
Fuel efficiency has always had a direct impact on transit budgets, but increasing environmental concerns related to fossil fuels and global warming have made it an imperative. It's not likely, however, that Lexington will see an improved, green-friendly bus fleet any time soon. "We are basically rebuilding a transit system that for many, many years was underfunded," Crews noted. "And we have to start with the basic building blocks, and then once we do that and have the basic foundation established, then we can look for the more innovative aspects, which would be going green." Crews ruled out an expensive shift to compressed natural gas or to hybrid buses priced at a half-million dollars apiece.
Following the '04 referendum, LexTran contracted with Professional Transit Management, bringing Crews to Lexington from Sun Tran of Tucson, Ariz., where she wore two hats as assistant GM and director of marketing. Under her leadership, LexTran has restored Sunday and night services, expanded routes, increased the frequency of stops, added neighborhood circulators and established shuttle services to Keeneland and Blue Grass Airport. Enticing commuters to walk away from the convenience of the private automobile, however, remains an enormous cultural challenge in a city that has long been wedded to the automobile. The effort is made all the more difficult by the sight of riders waiting at bus stops that are little more than a sign next to a curb. "It sickens me, to be honest," Crews confided. "As I'm driving down the street and I see someone and it's hot and they are at a stop or they are sitting on the curb; I think passenger amenities are critical."
Enter a grassroots group formed specifically to enhance the public transportation experience in Lexington by constructing artful bus shelters incorporating sculpture and murals in the designs. Arts in Motion, a model public-private partnership established in 2005 by Yvette Hurt, is accepting entries until July 16 in its first design competition for an eastbound shelter at the Versailles Road Shops. The winner, to be announced in September, will receive a budget of $10,000 for materials and construction. The group's ultimate plan is to provide, with corporate sponsorships, shelters at all bus stops with existing space to accommodate structures and to find alternative locations for the remainder. In addition, the plan calls for the construction of at least three art design shelters in downtown Lexington. The group has the full support of Crews, but also her words of warning based on years in dealing with bureaucracies. "You know dealing with the utilities, dealing with the rights-of-way, the encroachment permits, the whole gamut, you would think that would be really easy. Take a shelter and put it on a corner and then you're done — but it's not that easy. So we need to figure out a process how we can expedite that."
Crews acknowledged that LexTran is working with developer Phil Holoubek to establish a shelter at his Main & Rose project scheduled for completion in the fall. She hopes that project will inspire others. "If there is a particular business who would like to embark upon a partnership, we would love to entertain those conversations with them."
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