Lawrence’s main bus systems consider joining forces

By Ryan McGeeney

Monday, October 13, 2008

Even after Lawrence voters decide whether to fund the city bus transit system through a pair of proposed sales taxes on the Nov. 4 ballot, both the city and University will still have at least one major transportation issue to sort out.

A collection of representatives from the University, city and Student Senate has been meeting on a weekly basis since September to discuss the details of a proposed merger of Lawrence’s two bus systems: KU on Wheels, which also includes the Park and Ride system, and the Lawrence bus transit system, the T.

A merger would involve coordinating the city’s fleet of twelve buses with the University’s 43 buses, five of which are dedicated to the Park and Ride system. If the merger were to go through, its organizers hope to have its details worked out by July 2009.

Casey Toomay, the city’s interim transit administrator, said one of the primary motivations for the merger was a sense of the two systems’ inefficiencies resulting in wasted resources.

“I think there’s a perception in the community that there are deficiencies out there, like routes and destinations that are served by both systems,” Toomay said.

Toomay said that the two systems had different, if occasionally overlapping, goals.

“KU’s goal is to get people from where they live to the campus,” Toomay said. “That’s a little different than our goal, which is to get people all throughout the community. We have routes that go through campus. Whether we would continue to do that under a consolidated system or a merged system, we don’t know.”

Because the merger’s very existence rests on an unknown outcome — namely, whether Lawrence citizens will pass a tax proposal in November that will provide funding for city transit after January 2009 — the individuals in the meeting are forced to react to a series of hypothetical situations.

Most of the planning stems from the Dan Boyle Report.

The report, commissioned by the city, lists possible variations of combined routes, governance and other factors of a merged bus system, including contingency plans for various levels of funding.

Robert Chestnut, vice-mayor of Lawrence, said that the lack of certainty about the city transit’s funding required a broad spectrum of alternative merger plans.

“It could be approved at two different levels,” said Chestnut, referring to the two sales tax proposals. The first would provide basic funding for the city transit system through a 0.2 percent sales tax, and the other would establish a bus replacement fund through a 0.05 percent sales tax. “It’d be one thing if it were X or nothing. Then we could start planning right away. But because it could be X, or Y, or Z, it’s just wise to wait and see what we have to work with.”

Derek Meier, Independence, Kan., sophomore, participates in the meetings as the Student Senate transportation coordinator.

Meier pointed to the current ambiguity of the city system’s future as cause for the University to withhold direct involvement.

“Most of the student senators are sitting on the sidelines until a merger plan emerges,” Meier said.

“The details aren’t known yet. I think that Student Senate forming an opinion at this point is pretty premature. There’s not many details to be passing judgment on.”

— — Edited by Adam Mowder

Comments

sjschlag (anonymous) says...

As much as I love buses (anyone who knows me will tell you about how much I'm into public transit), I'm not very comfortable with the situation we are in right now as far as our transit systems are concerned. Many Lawrence residents have expressed concern that we have no idea what we are voting for on Nov. 4th. What changes will be made once the sales taxes are passed? Will the system stay the same or will the routes be changed? What's the merger going to look like?

It seems kindof like reverse logic for the city and the University to sit on their thumbs and wait for this vote to pass. If they really wanted voters to support this, then surely the merger plans would be on the table, there would be a list of improvements that could be made with the new .2 and .05% sales taxes and a new map with brand new routes and schedules (based off of data from 8 years of T operations, and more than 30 years of KU operations) oh and don't forget the shiny new buses the city needs. The City and the University would not have to work so hard to convince voters to vote "Yes" if we knew what benefits we all could have by voting for these taxes.

Instead, I'm voting yes because I don't want to see our city without a bus system for people who need it. Instead of a very positive campaign for expanding public transit, we have a negative campaign to "save" public transit. The city commission and KU have made promises and said they'd work on plans, but nothing is concrete. I think many people who are on the fence about this issue could be sold by solid plans and something tangible, not a bunch of pipe dreams presented by KUOW and the city.

And as for merger plans being solid and concrete by July 2009- good luck guys! Getting the City and KU to work together has always been a challenge, so getting the two of them to run a bus system together will be an even bigger challenge. I'd like to see it happen before I leave- especially the changes it will bring at work, but judging by the fiasco when MV took over the KUOW contract from LBC, it will probably be a few years before this is all running smoothly.

October 13, 2008 at 11:35 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

em1 (anonymous) says...

I miss NYC's public transit......

October 14, 2008 at 8:59 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Advertisement