Today, members of the City of Phoenix Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee met to discuss (among other things) agenda item #7 which read:
Extended Weekend Light Rail Service: This report provides the transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee with information, cost, and funding alternatives to provide extended light rail service on Friday and Saturday nights.
Many options have been considered with the final recommendation being 20 minute service until 2:00 am on Friday and Saturday nights beginning July 1, 2009. It was my understanding that the extension of hours will be done on a one year trial basis after being heard by Tempe, Mesa, and by Metro's board on May 19th for their approval. Mesa and Tempe have a much smaller stake in the system than that of Phoenix, but Mr. Simplot mentioned his understanding that Mayor Hallman of Tempe was in favor of extending the hours, and another person mentioned that she believed Mesa to be supportive as long as Tempe was on board.
While this was mainly a council discussion, they did take public comments. The only public comment was from Steve Weiss of the Downtown Voices Coalition who made some excellent points about the downtown business climate. Steve was careful to point out that an extension of the light rail hours isn't just about people partying until the bars close.
With little opposition so far, this extension of the light rail hours sounds like it could happen by the July 1 time frame. The "trial period" will be an interesting test. Will enough people use the system to justify approximately $300,000 in added cost? ( I believe that was the figure given.) Will any restaurants or bars begin to stay open later? Will there be an effect on overall ridership numbers? How will the economic impact of the extension be looked at?
Just in time for July 4th, I hope!
If we get the later hours in time for Independence Day, I hope we all encourage businesses to stay open later, at least for that night and get the word out. It will be a good test case.
This is great news and shows how a little creativity in reallocating funds from different buckets can sometimes get things done in even in the middle of a severe recession. It also shows how people like Tom Simplot are listening to constituents and responding.
The only negative is the observation that only one person spoke during the public comments. Given the amount of complaining I’ve been hearing in blogs and other venues about the lack of late hours, I’m surprised and disappointed that there wasn’t a bigger turnout. If this goes forward, I hope that everyone who has been calling for later hours actually takes advantage of them.
[b]Ken[/b], good point about the 4th of July. The fireworks tend to get kind of a late start so it might be nice to know we can still look forward to enjoying a late meal etc after the show.
[b]David[/b] At this particular meeting, there really wasn’t opposition. Had there been, I know at least one more person that was there and willing to speak. 🙂 They were going rather quickly through agenda items. I hope to see some more people at the next meeting as well.