All aboard : During tough economic times, Razorback Trasit still a resource for Fayetteville
Posted on Sunday, August 24, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Living/68440/
For the past two weeks, silence and sunlight have been the only two occupants in the Razorback Transit’s bus terminal on the University of Arkansas campus, as construction workers replaced the brickwork on the campus side of Garland Avenue near Maple Street. The hope is to have the project finished by 7 a. m. Monday, when the first buses are scheduled to make the rounds on the opening day of classes at the university and the start of the normal hours for the bus system. With the trend of rising gas prices and the recent news of the Ozark Regional Transit’s plans to decrease its routes by two and budget by $ 200, 000, the Razorback Transit remains as a utility to help calm the growing turbulence of local transportation. “ I think it’s a service to the community, ” said transit bus driver Jeff Hart. “ It’s a service to the people who don’t have vehicles — beyond the students. ”
Setting things straight Although the bus system has been around since 1979 as a branch of the university’s Transit and Parking Department, confusion still exists for both the public and students. The first is the general public’s view that only students can ride the buses. The second is from the students’ eye, wondering why the public can ride on buses that are largely funded by student fees of $ 2. 41 per credit hour.
As is one of the main goals of using public transportation, it’s time to clear the air. The transit system’s last budget from July 1 2007 to June 30 of this year was a little more than $ 3. 3 million, according to Andy Gilbride, the department’s program advisor. Out of that sum, two of the main funding sources are the more than $ 1 million (31. 3 percent ) from student fees and the $ 781, 000-plus (23. 3 percent ) contributed through the federal government.
A quick recent survey among university students revealed that most had no idea that Razorback Transit, which carried more than 1. 2 people last year, is partially federally funded — and thereby required to allow the public to ride free as well as one of the funding’s stipulations.
Before finding out the news, Angela Medley, a Fort Smith senior, was wondering why the buses never had a scanner for student IDs to keep track of students and nonstudents. The method is used at the privatized bus system at Oklahoma State University, where she used to attend before transferring closer to home.
“ It would be wise to advise to us that it’s federally funded, ” said Medley, who relies on the Blue Route daily. “ There’s so many times in our society where it’s not heard of to show open arms in that way … especially with gas prices, I think it’s a really great way to show support to the community and everyone’s a part of that community. ” Leonard Collins, a fulltime bus driver who normally drives the Brown Route, said he never knew that the public could use the bus for the first three years he lived in Fayetteville That was until his children informed him of the service after using it in 1995 to go to Wilson Park’s swimming pool, located about a mile and a quarter away from his home at the time off of Garland Avenue and Berry Street. He later went on to ride the bus to a former job for a little shy of three years beginning in 2003 when he was without a car. “ It’s not so much that there’s misinformation. It’s that there’s a lack of information, ” Collins said. In order to get the word out to a wider audience, Collins created an independent Web site, www. razorbacktransit. org, last fall that includes YouTube videos of all 10 regular routes and four reduced routes — as well as maps of all the routes. Eventually the university’s transit and parking system added the videos to its official Web site. “ Razorback Transit is a heck of a resource for Fayetteville. Not everybody knows about it, but I think everybody should know about it. … You can’t go everywhere that you want to go, but you can pretty much get anywhere you need to go. “ You’ve got working poor out here that are trying to get their kids to doctors, trying to get the grocery store, so it’s a godsend for them. ”
Code ‘ Red ’ The community’s biggest gift may come in the form of the Red Route, which was established in 1990, one year after the first federal grant was awarded to Razorback Transit. Timing in at about an hour, it’s easily the longest route of them all. In addition to stopping by two of the most non-downtown related destinations, the Wal-Mart near Mall Avenue and the Northwest Arkansas Mall, the route takes stops by social services vital to disabled passengers — either physically, financially or otherwise — such as the Washington Regional Medical Center, the Washington County Health Department and the local Department of Human Services.
On a recent Friday, the Red Route bus pulled out of the makeshift terminal area at exactly 10 a. m. As the vehicle’s wheels began to turn, a moving microcosm of society sat in the bright blue plastic seats. Some passengers opted to stay in their own orbs, while others chatted. Some did not mind sharing parts of their stories.
Marvin Adkins, a 36-yearold Fayetteville resident, was bound for Wal-Mart with his children to buy school supplies. Adkins has a car, but tries to use the bus at least twice a month to save on gas.
Before Adkins moved to Fayetteville three months ago, his home was in Tulsa, Okla., a place with a transit system that charges $ 1. 25 for a fixed-route adult fare.
“ I’m used to having to pay for the bus, so when I found out about it and tried to catch the bus, I was amazed it was a free ride, ” said Adkins, who mainly uses the system to buy groceries at that Wal-Mart location.
Fayetteville resident Jessie Selvey, 23, takes the bus “ usually when my truck breaks down, or in the case of today, runs out of gas” to and from his job at the Lowe’s off of Zion Road.
Selvey added that his ’ 91 Chevy 1500 pickup last had a full tank of gas in “ about an eon and a half. ”
“ It’s not even funny how long it’s been, ” he added.
A 46-year-old woman who would only give her initials “ J. J., ” said that in spite the efforts of Collins and others, the bus system needs to be promoted better than it has been — especially to the elderly community members.
“ They want to keep it for the students, but there’s a lot of people in the community that could use it but they don’t know about it, ” she said.
“ J. J” mentioned that not everyone who rides the bus could afford to pay a fee if it was mandatory, such as the average adult fixed-route, round-trip fare of $ 2. 50 on Ozark Regional Transit.
Furthermore, she said that when contrasted to the ways of Europe and other international destinations, even in age of a burgeoning sense of environmentalism, “ There’s kind of a stigma of using public transportation in this country. ” She said that as a former worker in the insurance industry, she understood how difficult it is for individuals with lower income to maintain even car insurance. “ So this kind of service is really important. ”
The few, the proud This kind of service is also extremely rare. Although just about every sizable American city has some sort of public transportation, only a handful of buses, trolleys, trams and ferries offer a fare-free transit system, according to Al Babinicz, the executive director of the Clemson Area Transit in Clemson, S. C. His system is similar to Fayetteville’s but more reliant upon money from the city of Clemson and four other nearby municipalities In addition to serving Clem son University, an institution comparable in size to the University of Arkansas, three other smaller universities sit along the routes.
“ I think those few transit systems have discovered that collecting fares is counterproductive to increasing ridership, ” said Babinicz, who set up the transit system at Clemson in 1996, when the original recommendation was to charge a fare to nonstudents.
Charging patrons a fare is the same as making them pay twice for a public service, he said. In addition, he said that the fare-box collecting system is extremely expensive to operate and often more hassle than its worth. There’s also the environment to consider. Babinicz said an average full city bus can replace up to 50 cars.
“ Public transportation benefits everybody even if they never use it because it reduces congestion and improves air quality, ” he said.
With the rising costs associated with all forms of transportation, congestion on his buses has been hard to avoid.
In spite of the predicted rise in use among both students and nonstudents looking to conserve fuel, Razorback Transit officials said they are not worried about any major gridlock when it comes to boarding the buses for the upcoming school year.
“ We’re always prepared for things to happen, ” Andy Gilbride said.
From her office window, Sandra Allen, DHS county administrator, sees two or three people a day waiting for the bus on Frontage Road.
“ I do think it’s certainly needed by this community because of the traffic that we see out there. Two or three adds up over the days, ” she said. “ It’s obviously something that’s a great benefit to anybody. It’s something to be proud of that we have in this community. ”
To others, though, it might not be that obvious.
“ I think [passengers ] come to expect it and then they take it for granted so they tend to gripe and complain about certain things that they get for free, ” said Jeff Hart, who added that first-time riders are always amazed and appreciative of the service. “ It’s common for me to tell somebody who starts complaining to go get their money back. ”
Leonard Collins admitted that “ after a very short period of time we become part of the background. We become part of their everyday life. ”
Still, he’s not one to complain, preferring instead to embrace his role as a public servant.
“ Anything that I can do to help Fayetteville, I’ll do it, ” he said. “ It just makes me feel like I’m getting paid for something that is benefiting so many people. ”