Missing The Bus? Sta’s Proposed Route Changes Draw Complaints From Valley Riders

Vera Hunigan is steamed over locomotion.

The potential lack of it, anyway. The 67-year-old Valley resident doesn’t want to hike the half-mile from her apartment near Broadway and McDonald to a bus stop along busy Sprague Avenue.

But if the proposed revamp of Spokane Transit Authority routes happens, that’s what she’ll have to do.

“They’re stripping away our independence,” declared Hunigan, who lives in the Grace Court retirement apartments. A couple of her silver-haired neighbors nod in agreement.

Now, the bus arrives just a half-block from Grace Court. Walking farther would be difficult for most residents of the apartment complex and impossible for some - especially in winter.

“Can you see some of us out here, trying to slip and slide,” Hunigan fumes, “when some people don’t shovel their walks?”

Grace Court residents aren’t alone.

Many in the Valley are upset about the proposed bus route changes, which, if approved, would take effect in 1998.

Riders fear they’ll be stranded. But STA says it’s just trying to bolster the busier routes, cut little-used lines and schedule others to arrive more often.

“It has nothing to do with money or anything,” says Jill Lamb, STA spokeswoman. Lamb says that, contrary to rider speculation, the new plan would cost the same as the present one.

But the customers don’t seem to care. They want their buses at the same times, same places. Especially peeved are those who use the No. 18 route, which passes Grace Court, and the No. 12, which makes beelines for downtown via Interstate 90.

Both would be eliminated under the new plan.

Having a bus line near Grace Court was one reason the Department of Housing and Urban Development was interested in funding the project for senior citizens, says a spokeswoman for the apartments’ managers.

“You just don’t want to develop a property unless it’s near a bus line,” says Sheryldene Rogers of Goodale & Barbieri. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Hunigan says she needs the bus for “groceries, friends, U-City, NorthTown, downtown.” Everything.

She admits she can walk to stops along Sprague or Pines if the weather is nice. But others, such as Phyllis Patterson, 62, can’t walk much more than a block. She has heart problems. And she doesn’t want to drive in the snow.

“They know their skills are declining,” Rogers says.

The riders of the No. 12 - the U-City Limited - are in a different pinch. They tend to be business commuters who want a speedy connection between the Valley Transit Center and downtown.

“The 12 is the best route they’ve ever had. I just like this bus, and I hope they keep it around,” says Ted Lechner, riding home from his job at Wal-Mart. The 27-year-old is dressed still in the tell-tale blue vest, and he looks a little beat. No wonder - he gets up at 4:45 a.m.

“Once you get off work, your feet are tired, and you just want to get home and relax,” he says. “You don’t want a long bus ride.”

STA’s Lamb says there will be another quick connection replacing the 12 - the No. 9 Sprague Limited. And it will arrive every 15 minutes. But it won’t offer service during middays, when most commuters are working.

Most commuters, but not the neatly-dressed woman returning from her job downtown. “It would be a desperate inconvenience!” she says. “THIS is the best!”

She took the normal Sprague No. 9 bus once. It ambled along the avenue, stopping everywhere, seemingly forever. “It took us 45 minutes,” says the woman, who did not want to be identified. “It was sooooo slow.”

The bus driver, who also didn’t want her name used, thinks there’s a different reason too. The No. 12 is full at rush time. There are men with jackets and briefcases, women in pantsuits and dresses.

The Sprague line is different. “East Sprague has a mixed bag of jokers,” the driver says. “Prostitutes, pimps, drunks … Some smell.” The driver says she was punched once while driving it.

That’s not what the No. 12 commuters are into, she says.

Lamb has heard those gripes, too. She thinks some fears are racially motivated. Many who ride the Sprague bus are minorities.

“I thought Rosa Parks got on the bus a long time ago,” counters Lamb.

That’s one thing Hunigan, who sometimes rides the Sprague, does agree with. “People need to not be so scared and live life,” she says.

While riders of the No. 12 have an option under the new plan, others would have to rethink their day.

Line 20, which serves Spokane Industrial Park, would arrive only in the mornings and in the evenings. It runs throughout the day now.

James Dickerson isn’t happy about the change. The steelworker slumps against a cold, blue STA pole after a long day at the industrial park.

“The only way home is on the bus,” he says, blinking drowsily. “I think it’s wrong. They should keep it the way it is. Man, it’d cost a lot for a cab, especially from way out here.”

Bart Franks, waiting too, says he can’t afford to drive. But he starts work at noon and he and others like him “would have no way to get to work on time.”

Some riders want to know why STA can’t just expand service without cutting routes. While STA does have $25 million it saved since the mid-1980s, that money is a “capital replacement reserve,” says Jim Plaster, STA’s director of finance. It’s for replacing or adding vehicles and facilities, not operating routes.

Still, it’s not settled. “We see we’ve got some problem,” Lamb says. The plan’s kinks will be smoothed out, she says. And a survey of 2,000 bus riders found that 62 percent found something they liked about the changes.

Back at Grace Court, Hunigan isn’t one of them. She’s trying to drum up a way to get money to buy a car. But she says that’s just the urge that STA should cure.

“They’re forcing people back into the car.” , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (2 Color)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NOTHING’S FINAL The Spokane Transit Authority says the proposed route changes have not been approved. Bus riders and others interested in commenting can do so on Oct. 22 at a 4 p.m. public hearing, which follows a 3 p.m. STA board of directors meeting. Both the board meeting and public hearing will take place in the auditorium at Lewis and Clark High School, 521 W. Fourth. To get to Lewis and Clark, take your regular bus from the Valley to the STA Plaza downtown, then transfer and ride one of these buses to Fourth and Stevens: The No. 7 (Lincoln Park) leaves the STA Plaza at 5 and 35 minutes past each hour. The No. 14 (East Fifth) leaves the STA Plaza at 5 and 35 minutes past each hour. The No. 33 (Manito) leaves the STA Plaza at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour. The No. 34 (Cable Add) leaves the STA Plaza at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Ward Sanderson Staff writer By Ward Sanderson Staff writer