Lawrence.com

Sign #367 that Lawrence is a strange place:

Gas prices are rising, signs of the metalocalypse are running crazy, you can hardly plug into the news without being deluged with stories like one The New York Times published last week-"Americans are giving up their gas guzzlers, making fewer trips to the mall and even riding public transportation."

Meanwhile, in Lawrence, money is tight at City Hall. And city commissioners, getting ready to plan next year's budget over the next few weeks, say many things may get cut, including the bus system, the T.

This is a bus system that was established in late 2000. After much argument, study and deliberation, federal, state and city funding was secured. Buses were purchased. Routes were planned. The Citizens for Public Transportation were excited.

On a cold and blustery December morning of that year, a man named Kurt Thurmaier received Transfer No. 000001 on Route 7. The historic rider wrote in to the Journal-World, beaming:

"I was greeted by courteous drivers and enjoyed a warm ride to the corner of 27th and Iowa," he wrote, "where I hopped off to purchase some gift certificates at the Autozone auto parts store."

Seven and a half years later, the T has reached likely the most critical juncture of its brief history. The city's costs of operating the system are projected to jump by $1 million next year, nearly doubling. And a majority of commissioners don't like the idea of reallocating funds from other cash-strapped departments or raising property taxes.

The apparent solution is a sales tax increase of 0.15 percent to be voted on in the fall. If it passes, the T can remain it its current level. Otherwise, the T will likely have to be gutted or scrapped.

Back in 1999, shortly before the T was created, a Journal-World editorial raised a key question: "Support for the concept of public transportation seems to have grown in recent years, but whether that philosophical support will translate into actual rider support remains to be seen." In five or 10 years, the editorial went on to say, "it will be interesting to look back : and see what effect it has had on Lawrence and what it has cost local taxpayers."

It's 2008, and the honeymoon is over.

Chopping Block

Mushrooming gas prices may be the strongest argument for both keeping the T and doing away with it.

MV Transportation, the company that operates the city buses, is due for a new contract at the end of the year. Currently, the city pays a flat rate of $1.60 per gallon of diesel fuel, and MV Transportation pays the rest. Under a new contract, that sweet deal would no longer be the case. And as fuel prices continue and continue to rise, so will the cost of operating the T.

On the other hand, common sense dictates that a prolonged era of high gas prices, although yet to create a noticeable jump in ridership, will make the T an essential service in the long run.

But with the city exceptionally strapped for cash this year, more money for the T is highly unlikely be found in the budget. And an increase in income taxes to pay for the T, which wouldn't require a vote, isn't favored by a majority of the commissioners.

Between the day the T was created and the present, the City Commission has significantly cut the amount of income tax the bus system receives. With less money from taxes, the city has been relying on a reserve fund created in the initial years of the system when there was a funding surplus. That fund is about tapped out.

A sales tax increase-the commission has until September to decide whether to put it on the ballot, but right now it looks like the most likely option-would allow the T to operate at its current level of service, but no higher. "There's a lot at stake here for this budget year," Commissioner Rob Chestnut says. "It's just a tough year for everybody."

The commission is waiting for a report from city staff on smaller-scale systems that could replace the T if voters were to deny a sales tax increase. While about half of the T's operational costs and a majority of the capital costs, such as new buses, are paid by federal and state agencies, the city would likely have to foot the whole bill for any replacement program.

"I think that we have to look at some of those other alternatives," Chestnut says. "If we didn't have a federally funded system, what other options might we have?"

One option, Chestnut says, would be taxi vouchers for the elderly and disabled, which are used in Olathe. Additionally, Mayor Mike Dever has been in continued meetings with KU on Wheels and says a long-sought partnership of the two systems could be part of a solution.

Calamitous Times

Lawrence's fickle history with public transportation began not long after the founding of the city itself.

In 1871, 17 years after New England abolitionists planted their stakes in Lawrence, a horse-drawn railway named Progress started carrying passengers, one horse per car, from the Kansas Pacific depot in North Lawrence down Massachusetts Street to about 10th Street and back. Lawrence public transportation was born.

In 1894, a civil engineer named Holland Wheeler dreamt up the city's first bona fide crazy transportation idea. He wanted to build a railway up the 14th Street hill that would be pulled by a cable controlled by an electric motor sitting at the top of the hill. Water tanks rolling along the tracks underneath the street would be needed to balance the weight of the streetcar. The system wasn't built.

In 1902, a man named C.L. Rutter bought a nine-passenger, steam-powered automobile, founding the city's first "bus" system. But who wanted to ride the bus? The newspaper reported:

"It was the stubborn conservatism of the public that militated most seriously against the undertaking. Mr. Rutter says that hundreds of people who needed being taken uptown, or to the depots, have walked alongside the passenger auto, that was far faster and much more comfortable than the horse drawn vehicles, looked it over curiously, asked the price, and when told it was 25 cents, the same as the other mode of locomotion cost, walked slowly away looking over their shoulders suspiciously as though half-afraid 'the thing' might explode while their backs were turned:"

The railway system was ruined when the Kansas River flooded, and Rutter began operating a new bus in 1907, running mainly between downtown and Haskell. It was pretty successful until a group of Ohio investors opened an electric railway two years later.

The railway expanded its reach through the city, and in 1930 a bus route replaced one of the streetcar lines. Eighty percent of the city was within a quarter-mile of public transportation. Three years later, most of the streetcar lines had been replaced by buses.

In 1957, Lawrence Bus Co. took over the line and expanded. In 1971, with ridership down, the city paid the company an $8,000 subsidy to cover losses and restart the East and North Lawrence routes, which the company had canceled. A study predicted 300 daily riders on those routes; there turned out to be only 20. A subsequent study blamed the low ridership on an inconvenient schedule, good weather and social pressure encouraging high school students to drive cars.

In 1971, KU Student Senate voted to contract with the Lawrence Bus Co. on routes running through campus. The other routes closed, and the non-student community would remain without a public transit system for about 30 years.

(Info from a chronology of Lawrence public transportation prepared by Carl Thor and from newspaper clippings.)

Big Question

As the community figures out whether it wants to pay for the T, people ought to take a fresh look at what role the system should play in the first place, says Cliff Galante, the city's public transit administrator.

Today, the T is used mainly by young people who don't make a lot of money and don't have cars. An on-board survey of 537 riders from last year found that 78 percent didn't have an available vehicle. Forty percent rode the bus to work, and an additional 15 percent used it to get to school. Sixty percent reported a household income of less than $25,000. Fifty-eight percent were under the age of 35. Twenty-five percent were students.

Teresa Williams, 26, waiting at a bus stop last week, said she'd been using the bus for three months to get from First Step House, where she's living, to work. If the bus system were gone, she said she'd probably take a taxi. A taxi doesn't cost $1 per ride.

While a base of mostly bus-dependent riders has steadily grown, a large-scale behavioral shift by the dedicated car-driving majority has been harder to spark.

Commissioner Boog Highberger argues that if the city were to raise the level of service-more stops, less than 40 minutes of lag time between buses-such a shift could happen. But that, once again, would cost more money.

Public Transit Advisory Board member David Dunfied, who was on the City Commission when the T was established, says, "It is a sort of catch-22. It's certainly a difficult situation for us. We're confronted with the issue of shortfalls in funding and the desire to improve the quality of service. Doing both of those things at once is going to be quite a challenge."

Galante points out that ridership has grown 123 percent since the T's first year of operation, rising steadily every year until the past year, when fares were raised incrementally from 50 cents $1. T supporters are hoping that the dip is temporary and that growth will resume when people adjust to the new rates.

"In the long term-and that's how I would view public transit-are we growing and changing our travel behaviors, and are more people taking public transit in our community?" Galante asks. "I would say yes."

But Galante points out that no matter how much ridership grows, the T will never be a self-sustaining system. Only about 10 percent of its money comes from fares.

So is it worth paying for? Is the bus the way of the future, a cash-saving and environmentally friendly alternative to driving? Is it vehicular welfare, an unfair burden on the gas-guzzling public for the minority of people who can't afford to drive?

The people of Lawrence will likely have to answer that question in November. Galante describes Lawrence's most recent bus affair as a painting in progress. He says only about a quarter of the canvas is covered. "We have to decide," he says, "do we want to keep painting, or not?"»

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