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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 12, 2006 An RVTD bus makes its morning rounds in Talent taking passengers to Medford. Denise Baratta | Daily Tidings RVTD faces budget shortfall By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland is losing the free service that has helped to boost ridership on buses that circulate through the city. Effective July 1, the free fare will disappear and be replaced by a charge that is yet to be determined by Rogue Valley Transportation District staff. Bus riders also will wait longer for buses to come. Buses will come every 30 minutes, instead of every 15 minutes as they are now scheduled. Additionally, Ashland’s largest concentration of senior citizens — found at the Mountain Meadows retirement community, Skylark Assisted Living center and Trinity Respite Center on North Mountain Avenue — will lose service from RVTD’s Valley Lift, which provides door-to-door transportation for clients. The cuts come as RVTD reduces service around the valley to close a $1.2 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, which begins in July. Free fare eliminated In 2001, people took just 76,753 bus trips in Ashland per year. The Ashland City Council — wanting to boost ridership and reduce traffic congestion, parking problems and pollution — decided to subsidize bus service and began paying RVTD to reduce bus fares from $1 to 25 cents. Ridership shot up to 119,239 trips in 2002. In 2003, the city council decided to do away with fares altogether. Ridership climbed even further, to 195,800 trips that year, and has continued to climb, according to RVTD. RVTD projects people will have taken 285,886 trips on buses in Ashland by the close of this fiscal year, June 30. The bus fare reduction and then elimination likely worked in concert with rising gas prices, which hit a high of $2.00 in the Medford-Ashland area in 2003 and continued climbing to highs of above $3.00 in 2005 and this year, according to figures provided by Elliott Eki, director of public and government affairs for the American Automobile Association, Oregon. But faced with budget difficulties, RVTD officials told city councilors that the City of Ashland would have to pay $535,000 to keep both free and frequent bus service here — up from the current charge of $290,000. With only $290,000 budgeted for bus service, city councilors weighed whether to eliminate 15 minutes service and have buses come every 30 minutes, or stop offering the free fare. On Thursday night, they voted for 30 minute bus service and will use the savings to dampen fare hikes. RVTD is raising bus fare to $2 elsewhere in the valley. That charge should be significantly less in Ashland because of the $290,000 city subsidy. Councilors struggled with whether eliminating frequent service or cutting the free fare would have the most impact on bus riders. “We have absolutely zero data that tells us which is going to lose us the most riders,” Councilor David Chapman lamented. Council members who voted to cut frequent service said they worried about the impact of higher prices on riders. “It’s far easier to adjust their time schedule than to come up with money they don’t have,” said Mayor John Morrison. Opinion mixed Depending on their individual situations, bus riders themselves differ about whether frequent service or free service is more important. Some favored keeping fares as low as possible, even if it means they must wait longer for the bus. “Half an hour is perfectly acceptable. Fifteen minutes is a luxury,” said David, who did not want to give his last name. Taro and Shale, two 15-year-olds who also did not want to give their last names, said free or low cost fare is the most important factor to them as well. They said Ashland doesn’t really have 15 minute bus service anyway. Although the buses on Route 5 and Route 10 are supposed to be spaced 15 minutes apart, Taro said sometimes they come right after each other, while at other times, the wait is longer than 15 minutes. But Wayne Coates said he wouldn’t mind paying for the bus if that meant it would continue to come frequently when he needs it. Idalie Beyer, who was waiting for the bus with her four-year-old and two-year-old after taking classes at Southern Oregon University, said she prefers frequency. “I think it’s more important that it come every 15 minutes because I have the little ones,” she said. A Medford resident, Beyer said she is already paying bus fare because she continues on through Ashland to Medford. She said bus service should be expanded to weekends and evenings instead of being cut back. Loss of Valley Lift for many At the start of July, RVTD will offer Valley Lift only to people who live within three-quarters of a mile from its regular bus routes throughout the valley. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires bus agencies to provide the service, at a minimum, to clients living within that boundary. Agencies can charge up to twice the amount they charge for regular bus fare. Ashland Valley Lift clients who live in the North Mountain Avenue area near Interstate 5 will lose service, along with those living high in the hills above Lithia Park, according to an RVTD Ashland Service Area map. Valley Lift provides transportation to its clients, who include senior citizens and disabled people, directly from their homes to their destinations. Unfortunately, each Valley Lift trip costs RVTD $15.50, according to Craig Anderson, RVTD senior planner and support services manager. In Ashland, RVTD can’t recover any of the cost of Valley Lift service because of Ashland’s free bus fare, he added. Senior citizens who live at the Mountain Meadows retirement community — which includes the Skylark Assisted Living center and Trinity Respite Center on its campus — fall outside the three-quarter-mile boundary from Ashland’s regular bus routes. There are 185 Valley Lift riders in the entire Ashland service area, according to Ashland Management Analyst Ann Seltzer. Elizabeth Hallet, who manages the Trinity Respite Center that provides day-time care for people with memory loss, said 35 families using the center rely on Valley Lift. If families are not able to use Valley Lift to get their loved ones to the respite center, those family caregivers are more likely to grow exhausted and place their loved ones in nursing homes, she said. Madeline Hill, co-founder of Mountain Meadows, said when residents lose or give up their drivers’ licenses, Valley Lift allows them to retain their independence. “When they sign up for Valley Lift, their eyes light up and they have a life again,” she said. The loss of Valley Lift service for people living farther than three-quarters of a mile from bus routes — or a significant charge for people living within the boundary — will make life very difficult for seniors who come to Ashland’s senior center or need to go to the grocery store, doctor’s office or physical therapist, according to Ashland Senior Program Director Sharon Laws. RVTD General Manager Peter Jacobsen said he is inviting business leaders to help identify the best funding source for a long-term solution to the agency’s funding problems. Possibilities include increased property taxes or a payroll tax, he said. Voters could see a proposal in a year or less for long-term funding, he said. Eki of the American Automobile Association said his organization opposes adding any tax on gas that would be used for mass transit. “We believe all gasoline taxes should go into the highway infrastructure. That does not include mass transit,” he said. “That money is being paid by motorists.” Councilor Chapman said that although there has been resistance in the past to added gas taxes, the public might be more willing to accept a gas tax to help fund RVTD. “Times are changing,” he said. Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or [email protected]. . DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams