On October 19th, I attended a meeting of the Humboldt Council of the Blind. I wanted to learn more about the role of transit for blind people, and how our transit system could be improved to serve their, and all users’ needs, better.

Humboldt Council of the Blind members include business owners, talented musicians, technology consultants, students, and others, blind and sighted. The meeting agenda dealt with a lot of serious business, but folks were light-hearted and funny. I laughed a lot.

Having not spent much time around blind people before, I was immediately struck and impressed by their spatial skills and abilities. I was amazed by their ability to maintain complete awareness of every part of the conference room and its furniture as they walked around it. I, on the other hand, am challenged by just walking around my own home with my eyes closed. There are a few things, though that these people are unable to do, despite their apparently amazing spatial skills, such as riding a bike or driving a car.

Peggy Martinez, an Arcata Transportation Safety Committee member and accessibility technology consultant said “If we didn’t have the buses and dial-a-ride, I couldn’t live in Humboldt County. I couldn’t work here and get around. James Forbes, an HSU business student and a bassist in local bands including the Buffy Swayze agreed. “Without the bus,” he said, “I probably couldn’t go to school.”

Without these mobility options, blind people have to get around by walking, getting rides from friends and family, or using transit and paratransit services. And, these active people sure use transit! In an informal survey, I learned that many of them use transit about ten times per week, and paratransit (dial-a-ride) between two and four times per week.

The way some people are dependent on their cars, blind people are dependent on transit. Current limitations with transit service, however, present some big challenges for them.

One problem discussed is the fact that Fortuna does not have its own bus service. Redwood Transit System (RTS) serves a few corridors in Fortuna, but this comes short of serving the whole city, and in addition, the RTS route's detour through Fortuna slows down service for passengers riding through to points north or south. Fortuna does, however, offer the Fortuna Senior Bus, which also serves disabled users. But why not create a public transit service for Fortuna that offers better service for all users?

I designed the new transit websites to be accessible for sight-impaired users newly-launched transit websites with Google Transit have made it easier for blind people to access bus schedule information. Since this doesn’t work in every on-the-go situation, someone suggested an automated 24-hour phone system for bus schedule information. I am not sure how difficult, easy, expensive, or cheap such a system would be, but some other areas offer this service, and it would definitely offer significant benefits for all users.

Improving transit will offer big benefits for all users, especially transit-dependent groups like the blind. One immediate avenue we have available is to eliminate locally-imposed caps that divert funds normally for transit to roads.

Since 1971 with the passage of the Transportation Development Act (TDA), Californians have been paying a 0.25% sales tax that goes to transit, bicycle, and pedestrian purposes in their county.

In Humboldt County each municipality as well as the county government receives a certain allocation of TDA funds. Arcata and Eureka both fund their respective transit services with these funds, and, along with other municipalities and the county, fund the Redwood Transit System. But there is an old agreement which sets proportions each entity gives to RTS. Eureka and Arcata spend all their TDA allotments so no additional money can be spent even though the county has leftover TDA money. This leftover county TDA money, approximately $700,000, goes to fund roads. This is a significant amount, as the annual RTS budget is about $1.4 million.

So, one way we can better fund transit service would be to amend the agreement that locks in proportions for TDA fund contributions by recipient entities to Redwood Transit System (contact your Humboldt County Supervisor and Humbodlt County Association of Governments and Humboldt Transit Authority board representatives).

There are many reasons to improve transit for Humboldt County, and many ways to help do it. One of the best is to simply ride the bus which improves farebox revenue and shows demand. I also encourage anyone to become involved in the current Humboldt County General Plan update and the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) update process in 2008. Please consider consider joining Green Wheels as a member-supporter to fuel our advocacy efforts.

The Humboldt Council of the Blind meets on the third Friday of every month at 2:30pm at the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District building at Seventh and J Streets in Eureka. To leave messages or hear info about current news, phone (707) 839-7266.