HTA Board and Staff, clockwise from the back: Stan Binnie - Trinidad (reaching for a donut, gotcha Stan! ;-) ), Greg Pratt - Director of Operations, Paul Pitino - Chairperson - Arcata, Nel Fregoso - General Manager, Dean Glazier - Fortuna, Johanna Rodoni - Humboldt County, Bud Leonard - Rio Dell.

I attended the Humboldt Transit Authority board meeting last Wednesday and found that some changes are finally brewing that, if successful, could bring additional transit service in the not-too-distant future.

Budget

The board reviewed the proposed budget for the 08/09 fiscal year. A few interesting tidbits came out of the discussion.

In the last fiscal year, the Redwood Transit System had an excellent fare-box ratio of about 39%. This means 39% of operating costs were covered by fares. The rest was subsidy. In other words, on average, your $1.50 fare is matched by $2.34 from government sources (mostly sales tax) to pay for operation of the system. This might not seem like great performance, but the required ratio is 26.4%. That means RTS could definitely use more subsidy, increase service, and not risk failing to meet its fare-box ratio requirement.

The other rather large tidbit was several mentions of the need to reopen the “JPA” or Joint Powers Agreement that governs how much money the cities and county contribute to RTS’ operation. I don’t think the JPA has been substantially changed since the seventies. With RTS buses running full, and little additional funding to increase service frequency, this would be the way to get more service, but without changes in state transportation funding, it could involve reduction in badly needed road funding for other entities, namely the County. This will be a test for our community to see if we have the political will to support transit and the benefits it provides in terms of transportation equity, reducing traffic congestion, reducing emissions, freeing up parking and providing an alternative to rising gas prices.

SoHum Service

Taking a cue from evolution in nature, the HTA is looking to save the Quail by adapting it to cahgning conditions with an interesting plan cooked up by HTA general manager Nel Fregoso and Supervisor Johanna Rodoni. The Quail, which runs 3 days a week from SoHum is currently only available to the elderly and disabled. The proposed change will open up the Quail on Tuesdays to the general public. This would transport people From Garberville and Redway directly to Fortuna or Eureka (alternating each week). If this service is popular, it will indicate that SoHummers are ready for more frequent service to the Humboldt Bay Area. If not…

The plan certainly seems like a good test of demand that doesn’t cost the County any more money than they are already spending on the Quail. It won’t do much to test if people need a service to commute to daily jobs, only to weekly shopping, but if folks who regularly do that daily commute take advantage of the service on the days it runs for them, they could save a few bucks that day on gas and maybe help the HTA justify the County spending more money to make daily service happen. No word on when this change would commence.

Fare Increase?

There was also discussion of raising the cash fare on RTS to encourage the use of tickets instead, since cash fares are really slowing down dwell times at stops as cash-fare riders try to straighten out their bills enough to get the electronic fare-box to accept them.

There was discussion of how best to educate riders of this impending change and why they were implementing it. I don’t think my suggestion of installing displays below the schedules at stops really sank in with the board, in part because few of them of them ride the bus. Informational materials on the bus are rarely eye-catching, and there is scenery passing by outside which is more pleasant to watch. Waiting at the bus stop on 4^th or 5^th Streets in Eureka as the trucks pass by belching diesel fumes, everyone gets impatient in short order and keeps rechecking the posted schedule. By the time the bus arrives, you would have any new information that is posted there memorized.

I believe riders should be reminded before they get on the bus about what a good deal the electronic tickets are. The way the fares are now, you already save $0.50 per ride with a card. As you board, you can just tell the driver which card you want, feed a $10 or a $20 bill into the fare-box as you get on the bus, insert the card that the driver gives you into the slot on the top of the fare-box, the box deducts $1.50 from your ticket ($1 on A&MRTS or ETS) and you are good to go. It’s easy, especially if you know what’s up just before you get on, instead of being reminded (if you even notice the sign) that you blew another $0.50 for no reason right after you did it, only to forget by the time you get on the bus next time.

If you are an HTA boardmember who doesn’t ride the bus with any regularity, it’s hard to see things from a rider’s perspective when making decisions. If we can improve transit to the point that most of the HTA boardmembers use it instead of one or two of them, transit improvements will really start to accelerate.

The HTA Board meets the second Wednesday of each month, 9am at the HTA Boardroom. It’s a good idea to call ahead before you come in case it is postponed or cancelled.