Ben Franklin Transit on Google Maps
Posted: July 28, 2011 Filed under: Transit Leave a commentIt’s finally arrived!
Now anyone can use Google Maps to find the directions from any point in the Tri-Cities to any other point by using Ben Franklin Transit.
As far as I know, Ben Franklin Transit hired an outside firm to do this work for them, and so far through early testing, I’d say they did a pretty good job.
For a test, I decided to ask it to route me from the Wal-Mart in Richland to the Wal-Mart in Kennewick. On a Saturday.
“I Love This Bus”
Posted: July 27, 2011 Filed under: Fun, Transit Leave a commentIf you’re a county music fan, you’re probably familiar with Toby Keith. In 2003, he released a song called “I Love This Bar” which stayed in the number one spot on the Billboard Country Singles Chart for 5 weeks.
In 2010, a few of Ben Franklin Transit’s bus operators took Toby Keith’s song in a new direction. I present to you the music video for “I Love This Bus” by Ron France.
Efficiency
Posted: July 26, 2011 Filed under: Transit Leave a commentIt’s a tricky thing in transit planning.
Do you cater to the few who absolutely demand transit and provide them with excellent and accessible frequent transit, or do you try to cater to the masses, regardless of whether or not they’ve asked for transit service?
Case in point, the current debate in King County (WA). In short, King County Metro faces severe cuts to service unless a $20 Congestion Reduction Charge is approved by the county commissioners as a stop-gap measure until the state can approve a new or better source of funding. (Take a peek at SeattleTransitBlog.com for more in-depth coverage about this.) A problem that King County Metro has is the size of the area it serves. Except for the uninhabited areas in the east part of the county, Metro has routes serving the entire county. The pro to this is it opens the opportunities for people everywhere in King County to go where they need without relying a car. The con is that it costs money. A lot of it. One of the biggest examples of this is Route 209, which runs from North Bend to Issaquah. It is a very infrequent route (on average it runs once every 1.5 hours), and has a very low ridership. But, there are people using it. However, in an effort to conserve resources during these difficult financial times, many have proposed it would be better to cut this route and use the saved resources to serve people where there is much higher demand. And that is where the hard decisions begin. Do the low-ridership routes get cut in an effort to streamline the agency’s resources, or do all routes suffer the same cutbacks so that nobody will be completely cut off from their lives?
September 2011 Service Change
Posted: July 22, 2011 Filed under: Transit | Tags: ben franklin transit, BFT, columbia basin college, route 120, route 20, route 225, route 24, route 25, route 66, route 67, service change, shakeup 1 CommentTo effectively service it’s region, transit agencies often have to make revisions and changes to it’s routes. That’s what Ben Franklin Transit will be doing in September.
The following changes are scheduled to occur:
An Introduction…
Posted: July 21, 2011 Filed under: Transit | Tags: about, ben franklin transit, BFT, introduction, transit Leave a commentSo this blog will make more sense, I figured it would be best to give some info as to what I’m going to be talking about.
The main focus of this blog is going to be a public transit agency called Ben Franklin Transit, which serves the municipalities of the Tri-Cities, Washington. Most service is structured around the 3 main cities of the region; Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, but also serves West Richland, Benton City, Prosser, and Finley. In total, there are 24 different bus routes, 19 running as “Local” and 5 running as “Intercity” service. To run these routes, Ben Franklin Transit employs a fleet of 80 buses, mainly consisting of Gillig Phantoms and Advantage/Low Floors, but also some Optima Opus and MCI 102-B3/D3-SS coaches.
Operating since May 1982, Ben Franklin Transit now has about 253 employees, from coach operators to mechanics to administration personnel, all essential to continue smooth operation of the agency. There are also 2 local companies (A+ Transportation and TC Transportation Service/A-1 Tri-City Taxi) employed by BFT via contract to further increase available service to the residents of the Tri-Cities area. In recent years, Ben Franklin Transit was hit by the decline of sales tax revenue and ended up having to make some tough choices by cutting personnel levels, deferring improvements, and eliminating routes. As the nation starts to reemerge from the “Great Recession” revenue has improved a little but it’s still going to take time to get back to pre-recession levels.
Beyond talking about Ben Franklin Transit, I also plan to focus on happenings at other transit agencies in the region, including Valley Transit (of Walla Walla, WA), Yakima Transit, Spokane Transit Authority, and others. Another subject that’ll come up on occasion is the “Epic Transit Journey” movement. In short, an Epic Transit Journey is seeing how far one can travel via public transportation, often away from the beaten path.
So, that’s that. Welcome one and all to the blog, hope you enjoy!
Transit 509 