What kind of transit system should the region have in the next decade?
That was the discussion topic for a presentation at the Pima Association of Government/Regional Transportation Authority headquarters downtown on Friday.
The group hired Portland-based Jarrett Walker and Associates to conduct workshops and come up with a regional vision for transit in the future.
“In 10 years the city will be larger and the core part of the city will be denser,” Walker said at the meeting of regional government leaders and community members.
As that happens, Walker said, cities usually are faced with some basic choices about transit: whether to increase frequency or increase coverage.
Coverage means expanding the breadth of a transit system, often into far-flung and suburban areas. Increasing frequency usually means providing bus or other transit services in areas of the highest population density. Either could be options for the Tucson area.
An interesting point he made on density — as regions increase in density, the demographics of transit users change. More working-class, upper-income and younger people use transit systems in highly dense regions.
For areas like Tucson that for decades expanded out from the core but now have seen new interest in high-density, intensely urban development, expanding frequency in the growing urban core could be a way to increase transit ridership.
Another interesting point Walker made was that having transit service at 15-minute intervals has been an effective way to maximize ridership. Conversely, decreasing the frequency of service has caused precipitous drops in ridership.
Telling the region how much to invest in a transit system or even what mode of transit should be in place was not the role he played, Walker said.
In fact, costs or potential future costs played a small role in his presentation.
That’s probably for the best, as the region as a whole continues to struggle with funding basic government services.
Even so, the city of Tucson continues to pour tens of millions of dollars into transit, which primarily means buses.
Ten years ago, the city was subsidizing transit at about $25 million per year. Today, nearly $50 million in general fund transfers go to support transit.
For many in the community, facts like this can be troubling.
They see potholed streets, parks in need of repairs and a pension system that gobbles up more of the budget each year.
Perhaps an exercise like the one Walker completed for the RTA and PAG stands not only to inform the region on future transit options, but also provide a lesson in basic civics.
While the financial impacts of the transit system are immense, as most necessary government services are, the number of people who participated in the visioning workshops was relatively small.
Representatives from local governments and people involved in various area organizations and activist groups made up the bulk of participants.
That’s not a knock against those folks. It’s healthy for the region to have people involved in setting the long-term priorities of our government.
The problem isn’t who participates, it’s that too few people participate. Reporters see this all the time.
People go to a government meeting up in arms over an issue, just as the governing body is set to cast its final vote, unaware that the meeting is the last stage of a process that may have begun years ago. Sorry to say, but at that point, it’s just too late.
Rather than show up at the tail end of a multi-year process asking why you didn’t know about it, scribbling angry screeds on social media or shouting at your car radio as some talk show host tries to gin up outrage, try instead to get involved early on in the process.
No matter where your politics lie, if you don’t like where the region is headed, shouting in the wilderness or threatening to move to the state of Maricopa won’t change anything.
The opportunity to get involved in this phase of transit visioning may have passed, but it’s not the only opportunity out there.
A good place to start your involvement is PAG’s developing 30-year Engage Regional Transportation Plan.
Take the survey, at http://gismaps.pagnet.org/RTPEngage/. Let your views on how the region should approach transportation issues in the future be known.
It’s a small step, but it’s a good place to start.
Down the road
The Tucson Department of Transportation has delayed fog sealing work for area roads as a result of the extreme temperatures we’ve been having. Work has been postponed until early October. The locations scheduled to be fog sealed were Fort Lowell Road from Oracle Road to Country Club Road; Campbell Avenue from Prince Road to Fort Lowell Road; the Country Club and Fort Lowell intersection; the Stone Avenue and Fort Lowell intersection; Campbell Avenue from Benson Highway to Valencia Road; and the Tanque Verde Road and Catalina Highway intersection.
