Maybe a bit of irony is included when the Republic posted an article last week, on April 15th, about the looming possibility of service cuts to downtown Phoenix bus services. It sounds like the free ( DASH ) Downtown Area Shuttle will lose its “downtown loop” will get the ax this Summer. While the savings are said to be a little North of $300k, a few downtown groups don’t like what they hear. It will be interesting to see if they can muster together the strength to change the minds of the board before the final straw is drawn.
Obviously, Phoenix isn’t alone in bringing out the chopping block to city services. The fact is, Phoenix Tempe and Mesa are all looking at bus and light rail service cuts as are many more cities around the country. While the cuts are due to a lack of revenue from their designed funding sources, it is interesting to see how the demand for transit appears to be growing nationally. According to this recent report I read from Transportation For America, 59% of those surveyed said “we need to improve public transportation.”
Finding service that is affordable and accessible for large groups of people while still continuing to “keep the lights on,” is obviously not an easy task. I’m glad it’s not up to me…
Feel free to leave your .02 in the comments below. I’m always curious to hear what you think.
I wrote on my blog last year that to save money, the City should eliminate the DASH Downtown Loop and replace that with a free-ride zone on the Metro between 3rd St and Roosevelt stations.
Thanks for the input, Ed. I would imagine their response would be that this could be a nightmare. Would you suggest the solution to be for them not to check fares between these stations?
It would be fun to watch the ridership numbers between those areas. Game nights would be even more interesting, as well.
.-= Rail Life´s last blog ..Continuing the cost cut chatter… =-.
As someone dependent on public transportation in all its forms, I find it increasingly frustrating by the cuts taking place. While I am sure many are unavoidable, it’s hard to wrap my head around the inexcusable nature of them. I am also someone that has slowly migrated here from the East (Boston, NYC, Chicago) and have experienced public transporation at levels Phoenix can only really dream of. I wish Phoenix were a city that was built around public transportation, instead of vice versa. I would be willing to negotiate a higher price tag on my pass, or even fares on current free routes, if that meant my methods of transportation were dependable and worthwhile. I am sure I live in an unbelievable imaginery world stating these things, but I would like to think the dream is not exactly lost (yet).
Thanks for stopping by Meg! No, I don’t think you are living in an “unbelievable imaginary world,” it just isn’t where we are currently at. Some of the places you have lived probably make it a little easier for people to strictly use public transit.
Who knows, with some of the changes happening around our current transportation system, (that feels like it is in it’s infancy) there might be a day when we do look like a city that was built around public transportation…
.-= Rail Life´s last blog ..Continuing the cost cut chatter… =-.
All of us here at PeopleofLightRail.com would like to thank RailLife for keeping us all informed and up to date. The loss of any public transportation is a burden on the entire public! When is Arizona going to realize that if you need to cut budgets, public transportation and education are not the place to start?
The economy has effected every business and the government is no exception. Cuts have to be made all around. But $300K-ish isn’t enough to warrant cutting the Dash out of the budget. This bus system is promoting tourism, bringing customers to businesses downtown, and reducing the number of DUI arrests in Phoenix.
Take a trip downtown and bear witness to some of the empty retail locations. Phoenix cannot take any loss of tourism downtown.
.-= PeopleOfLightRail.com´s last blog ..Drunk man falls on tracks….they rescued him, don’t worry =-.
if this cut means that longer and/or more frequent light rail hours can be persevered, it is a worthy sacrifice.
Personally, I don’t see the loss of the downtown loop as that big of a deal. It had comparatively few riders, an strange meandering route (meaning it made more sense to walk in most cases), it’s hours were already limited, and it’s servies were somewhat duplicated by the privately run ‘Ollie the Trolley” as well as the ASU shuttles.
Also, I think that fees should be charged on ALL routes, including the gov’t loop and whatever other routes remain. If a certain group wants to subsidize free service (ie. state employees, ASU, Social Security, etc), let it come out of their budgets, not Valley Metro’s.
At the same time, i think Metro still needs to do a better job of attracting advertisers (including inside rail cars and buses), and seriously consider raising fares, I am consistently amazed at how cheap the system is, especially considering it’s service area. Besides, we’ll never have east coast levels of service until we are closer to east coast levels of density.
Thanks Yuri,
Great points, for sure…
.-= Rail Life´s last blog ..Continuing the cost cut chatter… =-.
I don’t like transit cuts in general, but I won’t really miss the Downtown DASH if it goes away. As Yuri says, it follows a circuitous route with few riders. I’ve tried taking if from one point to another within Downtown a few times and have found each time that I would have been better off walking. Phoenix’s Downtown is fairly compact, and the distances between light rail stations and nearby attractions are relatively short. For that reason, any effort to promote Downtown should focus more on walkable spaces than on underutilized services like DASH and Ollie the Trolley.
.-= David Bickford´s last blog ..Chill =-.