Sta Weathers Storm After Rerouting Buses Ridership Drop Is Less Than Feared

Sug Villella stands in the chilly morning air, running her hands through her grandson’s hair. She taps her foot, checks her watch and waits for a bus she doesn’t want to ride.

Her car broke down and her ride fell through. After a seven-month boycott of the Spokane Transit Authority, she’s back taking a bus to the East Central neighborhood day-care center where she works as director.

Villella gave up on public transportation last September when the STA moved the closest bus stop six blocks away from her West Central home.

“I used to have a bus right across the street from me,” she says. “I haven’t heard anything good about the changes.”

Like many riders, Villella lost the convenience of a corner bus stop when STA revamped its service last year.

The overhaul gave riders more frequent service and more direct routes. Buses stick largely to arterials, avoiding residential streets.

While many passengers are big fans of the changes, Villella apparently isn’t the only person boycotting buses. A slight decline in ridership that began in January 1998 - before the route overhaul - became more striking after September’s changes.

January and February showed similar rider decreases. But happily for STA officials, March numbers were higher than the same month a year ago. In fact, last month’s passenger tally was higher than March 1997 - a record year for STA.

STA board members and officials say they expected the route changes to cause more dramatic declines than what occurred. A Portland consultant who helped revise Spokane’s transit system told decision-makers they initially might lose up to 10 percent of their passengers.

STA rider numbers dropped 5 percent in the last quarter of 1998 as compared to the same period in 1997. The difference narrowed to 2 percent for the first quarter of 1999 compared to that same period in ‘97.

“You have to give the changes time,” says county Commissioner Kate McCaslin, a STA board member. “It’s far less of a drop than we anticipated. We went into the change thinking we’d see a substantial drop.”

Several things affect how many people hop on a bus any given day, says Teresa Stueckle, STA spokesperson. Knee-deep snow? People park their cars and ride. Gas prices drop? So does the number of riders.

Two years ago, bad weather and high-priced gas combined to give STA a peak rider year. Conversely, low-cost fuel and a mild winter may have helped keep passengers away during last year and the first two months of 1999, Stueckle says. The fact that gas prices have shot back up may help explain last month’s ridership increase.

Tinkering with tradition

Weather and gas prices aside, part of the drooping passenger count clearly is linked to changed routes. Some of those routes hadn’t changed since horses pulled streetcars.

“Why were they changing it when it was working all right?” said Millwood Mayor Jeanne Batson, the sole STA board member to vote against the changes.

Two years ago, in an effort to offer more efficient, cost-effective bus service, the STA paid a consultant $125,000 to study the routes. His original proposal called for sweeping changes that affected 933 bus trips a day.

Riders reacted passionately, writing more than 3,500 letters to STA board members. A public hearing drew nearly 250 people who gave mostly irate testimony.

Board members scaled back the affected bus trips to about 300 each day. But they stuck with the consultant’s basic philosophy: more frequent buses, more direct routes and far less residential meandering.

That meant some riders would walk farther to their stops but likely wouldn’t have to wait as long for a bus once they got there.

Buses that run more often have proved popular among many riders.

“I love the bus coming every 15 minutes,” says Marilyn Prussack, 69, who rides the bus downtown to shop and eat lunch with friends. “I don’t have to wait in the cold and snow and rain.”

Tamika Hill rides the bus downtown to work at the Hotel Lusso every day. On the way, she drops her 9-month-old daughter, Tatianna, off at a day-care center on Northwest Boulevard. Just 15 minutes later, there’s another bus to take her to work. The new schedule makes the entire journey “a lot more convenient,” she says.

Browne’s Addition resident Alvin Pitmon thinks the frequency of the buses is perfect, but he isn’t as fond of the weekend changes.

Pitmon works evenings and doesn’t get off until midnight. Before the route changes, the Saturday night loop left downtown about the same time he left work. Now, the last bus goes to bed about 9:30 p.m.

“I have to hoof it or take a taxi,” Pitmon says.

Stueckle says Saturday’s shorter service hours may be partially to blame for the ridership decline.

“We’re looking at putting that service back in,” she says.

Another factor affecting weekend rider volume may be the timing of transfers, Stueckle says.

The downtown bus plaza has room for only 10 buses at a time. Under the old weekend schedule, with fewer buses running, drivers would do something called a “turnback,” Stueckle says. That means they would drop off their passengers, circle downtown and return to the plaza to pick up riders left by the last round of buses.

To save money, STA did away with turnbacks, meaning some people have to wait as long as an hour to catch a transfer, she says. That too may be reconsidered, she says.

“People who ride on weekends are more of a transit-dependent group than those on weekdays,” she says. “We don’t want to impact those people negatively because they’re the most loyal.”

Impact on the elderly

Aside from weekend service, the most frequent complaints about the changes stem from relocated bus stops. While most riders still live within a quarter-mile of a stop, a few now have to walk a quarter- to a half-mile.

For some riders, particularly senior citizens, those changes either greatly reduced or even severed their relationship with STA.

Virginia Lake moved to her Valley retirement community only after she checked out the bus service. Shortly afterward, STA changed the routes, she says.

Now, her Broadway bus doesn’t run on Saturdays, so she has to walk several blocks to catch a ride, Lake says. “I’m not young. I’m 75, … but I don’t like to stay home.”

Lake hasn’t given up riding the bus, she says, but she doesn’t ride as often, and almost never on weekends.

North Side resident Kathleen Drowley, also 75, gave up riding buses. While the stop near her home stayed put, the drop-off points at her most frequent destinations moved several blocks away.

Now, Drowley’s daughter-in-law takes her to the store or to visit her sister, who lives in a nursing home.

“They assumed that people wouldn’t mind walking a few blocks for faster service,” Drowley says. “But faster service doesn’t mean a thing to those of us who don’t work who are older.”

Some rider complaints can’t be solved, STA officials say. Efficiency required doing away with some routes and relocating most stops to arterial streets, they say.

Choosing which routes to eliminate or relocate was difficult, but those calls had to had to be made, says City Councilman Jeff Colliton, another STA board member.

“Is it economically feasible to run a route for two people?” he says. “Where do we cut that off?”

Why does an agency that has nearly $34 million in reserves worry about money?

Because taxpayer money supports STA, Stueckle says. That means board members and officials answer to the public - including nonriders - who complain loudly about the “empty bus” syndrome, she says.

“People always talk about the money that we have as this reserve,” she says, noting that STA hasn’t had to take out a loan for major capital projects. “In the long run, we’re saving the public a great deal of money.”

Besides, the money has a purpose, Stueckle says. Nearly $6 million is part of STA’s self-insurance fund, while the rest is there for building expansions and modifications.

“We’re trying to be a business and a public service,” she says.

In February, STA placed surveys on buses aimed at gauging passengers’ opinions about the route changes. At least 3,000 riders returned the survey and the results are being tallied, Stueckle says.

Next month, the board plans a series of public meetings for the same reason.

Whatever the outcome, riders shouldn’t expect a lot of revisions right away, Colliton says.

Graphic: STA ridership

This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETINGS Follow-ups In May, the STA plans a series of meetings and a public hearing on the route changes at area libraries and the downtown bus plaza. Library meetings include: May 4, 6-8 p.m., Valley Library, 12004 E. Main Ave. May 6, 6-8 p.m., South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry. May 11, 6:30-8 p.m., Cheney Library, 610 First St. May 13, 6-8 p.m., Shadle Library, 2111 W. Wellesley. STA Plaza meetings, at 701 W. Riverside Ave., will be held: May 5, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 7, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 10, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 14, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A public hearing is set for May 26 at 3:30 p.m., but the location hasn’t been chosen.