March 23, 2010


Upcoming Events:
Highline Canal Project Dedication
Saturday, March 27, 2010

ACT Quarterly Luncheon
Topic: Regional Transit Framework Study
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

In the News:
Phoenix Neighborhood Circulator Service may be cut, The Arizona Republic, March 19, 2010
Phoenix’s free neighborhood buses in jeopardy, The Arizona Republic, March 22, 2010

Don’t forget to visit Friends of Transit on the web at www.friendsoftransit.org! 

 

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Phoenix Neighborhood Circulator Service may be cut
Needy, youths, elderly among affected if program eliminated
by Cathryn Creno 
Mar. 19, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Every day, more than 5,000 people - including some of Phoenix's poorest, youngest and oldest residents - use free Phoenix Neighborhood Circulator Service minibuses to get to schools, recreation, stores and jobs.

Transit experts and advocates for the needy call Phoenix's circulator system world-class. The five fleets of 19-seat buses circulate on the half-hour seven days a week in Ahwatukee Foothills, Deer Valley, Desert Ridge, Maryvale and Sunnyslope.

"Getting people from their doorstep to public transportation without using their cars is an important component of a regional system," said Curtis Lueck, a Tucson transportation consultant whose clients include the Arizona Department of Transportation. "When people get into their cars, they tend to stay in their cars."

Sunnyslope Village Alliance president Billie Cawley said her community's Sunnyslope Multi Access Area Residential Transit, or SMART, bus allows residents to get where they need to go without having to own a car.

But the recession has put the free buses in jeopardy.

Next week, the Phoenix City Council is set to discuss the circulators' future. Proposals range from a 15 percent cut in routes and hours to completely eliminating the program.

When the council voted to cut millions from its budget earlier this month, members knew they would have to cut at least $889,000 from the circulators' $6.9 million budget.

But earlier this week, Phoenix Public Transit Department staff learned the city would be losing an additional $9 million in state transportation funds, said Lauri Wingenroth, Transit Department assistant director.

The council will discuss the more drastic options, which would take effect in July.

A decade ago, transportation planners viewed the development of the city's circulator system as an ideal answer to traffic congestion, air pollution and challenges faced by residents who don't drive.

By 2008, Phoenix had five fleets of the buses, and officials hoped the system would continue to expand.

In January, more than 1,000 passengers a day boarded ALEX, the Ahwatukee Local Explorer, which launched in 2001 and was the city's first circulator. In the same month, more than 2,000 a day rode MARY, or Maryvale Area Ride for You, the most popular circulator in the city.

Phoenix City Councilman Claude Mattox, who represents Maryvale, said having to cut back the circulators will hurt people who need free transportation the most in the bad economy: the unemployed, students and the elderly.

"It's frustrating," Mattox said. "After years of working to get the system to the point where it is really serving the community, the economy is forcing us to cut back. The bottom fell out very rapidly."

The proposed cuts would affect people like Mary Broadhurt, a cook at Sonic who lives in Maryvale with four children.

"I don't have a car," she said. "I've lived here for more than a year and I have never needed any other way to get around."

The free buses are most popular with one-car families and teens and seniors who don't drive.

Ahwatukee resident Linda Hohensee said she has been riding ALEX at least three times a week since she retired last July.

"ALEX goes by the library, the post office and by Target," she said. "The only challenge to riding ALEX is getting a seat in the afternoon" when students ride to recreation programs.

Hohensee said she was surprised it was free to get on and off ALEX. Both she and Broadhurt said they would not mind paying a small fare to ride the buses.

But although fares have been discussed by city officials since 2003, Lueck, the consultant, said studies show the minibuses work best when people can hop on and off without digging for change.

"A study done a while back in Minneapolis showed that ridership dropped by half" when a circulator system started charging a fare, he said.

City staff also have argued against fares. For one thing, the small buses are not set up to take money and the cost of retrofitting is beyond the city's budget right now.

"Our analysis is that a fare of 50 cents would recover only about 5 percent of the cost of the service," Wingenroth, said.

But Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who represents Ahwatukee, Arcadia and parts of north Phoenix, also is among those who say the city should find a way to charge a fare. The city has until July to make the changes, he said, and maybe an inexpensive way to collect fares could be determined by then.

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Phoenix's free neighborhood buses in jeopardy
by Cathryn Creno 
Mar. 22, 2010 08:57 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Phoenix transit staff says the city can no longer afford its $5.2 million system of free neighborhood circulator buses and should get rid of the program by July.

On Tuesday, the Phoenix City Council will review a recommendation by Ed Zuercher, an assistant city manager in charge public transit, light rail and budget and research, to end service by the system of 19-seat buses.

About 5,000 people, including some of the cities poorest, oldest and youngest residents, rely on the free minibuses to get them to jobs, stores and community centers.

"No one wants to do any of these cuts," Zuercher said Sunday. "The neighborhoods in Maryvale, Sunnyslope, Ahwatukee, and in the north all desire this kind of transportation. They have embraced it. But with state budget cuts we can't afford to have circulators and keep all of our other services running."

The council will have a month to make a decision, Zuercher said.

Already Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who caught wind of the recommendation late last week, has said he will oppose eliminating the program. He said he favors finding a way for people who use the buses to pay a small fare.

Committees of residents of Ahwatukee, Deer Valley, Desert Ridge, Maryvale and Sunnyslope had already been appointed by City Council members to find ways to cut service by circulators in their communities by 15 percent.

Earlier in March, when the city voted to cut millions from its budget, an $889,000 cut to the circulator program was approved.

Zuercher explained on Sunday that his staff found out last week that it also would lose an additional $9 million in state transportation funds generated by lottery earnings this year. That does not leave enough money to continue to run the circulators, he said.

"I'm not sure yet what we would do with the buses," Zuercher said. "Most likely they would be sold as surplus with the funds returned to the transit program as required by federal regulations."

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