Road Runner: Long-range transit plan highlights need for expanded services

City and county officials are looking to help provide Tucson with more options and accessibility regarding transportation.

Officials believe their work on a new Long-Range Regional Transit Plan would provide riders with more access to the city and beyond within the next 10 years.

The Pima Association of Governments and the city of Tucson worked together to develop the draft transit plan after collecting information from public meetings in 2018 and hosting community surveys about Tucson’s transit options.

“One in 10 people live in households that have no vehicle and up to one in four people live in households that have at least two more people than vehicles,” said Daniel Costantino, a principal associate from Jarrett Walker + Associates. The firm has been contracted since 2015 to assist transit officials with improvements to Tucson’s transit system.

“We know there’s a lot of need for transportation service, and yet we also know that relatively few people use transit on a regular basis,” Costantino added.

During a public open house last Wednesday evening to review the draft transit plan, officials highlighted areas like Tucson Spectrum, where riders can’t access much of the city, especially the south side, within 45 minutes due to the lack of regular service.

“There are all sorts of places like this in Tucson ... the transit network can’t get you very far in a reasonable amount of time,” Costantino said.

And Tucsonans agree.

Of the 2,600 Tucson respondents in a survey, 70% said they would be willing to pay more taxes for expanded transit services, according to Costantino.

“Regardless of people’s age, regardless of their income, race, any way you slice or dice that data, you get a majority of people who are agreeing or strongly agreeing,” he said.

From that survey and research, officials noted three areas for transit improvements.

Improving the Frequent Transit Network

The Frequent Transit Network provides 11 Sun Tran routes servicing riders every 15 minutes on weekdays. The routes are within a half-mile of about 260,000 people and provide access to half the jobs in Pima County, according to Costantino.

A service extension would include 12th, Park and Campbell avenues on the south side and Flowing Wells Road, areas with dense populations and needs for service.

Sun Tran services would increase to every 30 minutes to Cortaro Road from Ina Road, to Amazon and the UA TechPark and additional Sun Shuttle services out to Oro Valley and Marana, improving the current service from every 90 minutes to every hour.

Service would also improve to Rita Ranch and Pima Community College’s East Campus.

However, the most important hurdle is finding a way to pay for the improvements. Over 10 years, increasing services by at least 35% would cost roughly $25 million per year.

“The last time when we talked about expanding services, they raised the bus fares, which is really making it difficult for people who rely solely on the bus,” said Dan Stormont, a Tucson transit rider.

“They raised the fees on the passes, like the senior passes and the low-income passes, so there’s a question about how to pay for that.”

Increasing weekend and evening services

Survey respondents were split between increasing weekend and evening service compared with weekday services, officials discovered. But more people with lower incomes and no vehicle access wanted to increase the weekend and evening access.

“There’s only about a third as much service on a Sunday as there is on a weekday, about half as much on Saturday as on a weekday,” said Costantino. “What we’re proposing is the same level of service seven days a week on the Sun Tran network. What that gets you is essentially tripling that amount of job access that’s available on Sundays compared to what you have right now.”

These service improvements would also be done for all transit riders.

“Expanding the evening and weekend service also, by default, means expanding complementary paratransit at those times as well,” said James McGinnis, transit services manager at the Pima Association of Governments.

During the evenings, main service routes include Broadway, Speedway, Oracle Road and South Sixth Avenue operating every half hour. Elsewhere, service is every hour.

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In the proposed transit plan, all routes would operate until midnight, with routes along the Frequent Transit Network running every 30 minutes.

“If you go downtown and the last bus is at 8 o’clock, what are you going to do? I mean nothing even starts until 8 o’clock,” said Stormont, who attended last week’s public meeting with his partner, Jana Segal. Both agreed on the need for improvements.

They rely on services from their residence near Swan Road and Speedway.

“It just limits your life if you don’t have more locations,” Segal said. “There’s a lot of jobs I didn’t get. I could’ve become a substitute teacher, but it would be too hard on public transportation. Some of this might help that a little bit.”

Improving transit stops and infrastructure

Survey results weren’t clear about a streetcar extension, funding bus rapid transit lines — dedicated bus lines with fewer stops — or spreading funding around to address smaller improvements in multiple places.

But officials would like to address the different transit stops, citing an “uneven” level of amenities.

“It would ensure that there would be a minimum level of signage at any stop, any stop on the frequent transit network would have benches, shelter and lighting and the highest boarding stops would have amenities that are more like what’s available at streetcar stops,” Costantino said.

He cited amenities such as real-time arrival displays.

After transit officials release their final plan by the start of 2020, the next step will be getting residents to understand the value of financially supporting transit improvements.

“I think the message is that we want to carry more people to more places, to make transit a more realistic option for a lot more trips,” Costantino said.

“Right now, there are lots of people who don’t have an independent means of transportation or need to depend on others for their transportation. And there are many parts of town where there isn’t enough transit to make it convenient for them.”

Down the Road

Overnight closures set for Arizona 83 at I-10: Motorists in Vail should expect overnight lane closures starting Tuesday on Arizona 83 at Interstate 10 for a week.

Between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., installation of a temporary signal system and demolition of one side of the existing Arizona 83 bridge will close access to all traffic.

I-10 will be reduced to one lane in each direction. Periodically, eastbound I-10 traffic will detour off I-10 using the exit ramp and back to I-10 using the entrance ramp.

Westbound I-10 traffic will be diverted to a temporary bypass in the I-10 median.

All vehicles attempting to cross I-10 will be detoured to South Wentworth and East Sahuarita roads.

On Wednesday, the Arizona 83 bridge over I-10 will be restricted to a single lane with a temporary traffic signal for access.

Motorists should expect delays.

New signal installed at I-10, Wilmot Road: Motorists should expect intermittent lane closures this fall as construction crews complete work at the Interstate 10 and Wilmot Road interchange.

A new signal system was installed this week in the area, but additional work is needed. Crews also will be installing signals on the north side of the I-10, Rita Road and I-10, Kolb Road interchanges.

Houghton Road shoulder improvement project: On Sept. 3, construction crews will shift traffic on Houghton Road west to use the new paved shoulder and southbound lane. Crews will improve the northbound lane from Andrada Road to the north entrance of Pantano High School.

Motorists should expect heavy delays or seek alternate routes.