A 1% Tax Equals How Much Transit?

Back in February, I wrote a post called “What Might Have Been.” In it, I talked about the aftermath of the repeal of the MVET (motor vehicle excise tax) in Washington State, and how it affected nearly every agency in the state. I was still living in the Tri-Cities at the time, so I focused especially on the effect it had on Ben Franklin Transit, and the amount of service that would’ve been lost had voters not approved an increase of the sales tax rate in 2002. After I wrote that, I ended up moving to Tampa for several months. While I was living there, I spent a lot of time riding the bus with Jason Eames (author of “Yo Bus Driver!”). Many times the subject of the abysmally low service frequency and hours of the local transit agency, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, was discussed, and we both agreed that HART’s service was “small city transit in a big city.” As it turns out though, things might not have turned out this way had voters in Hillsborough County approved a 1% sales tax measure that was placed on the ballot in November 2010.

If the 1% sales tax measure was passed, 75% of the funds would have gone towards transit while the other 25% would have gone to road projects. This also included matching state grants and FTA funds for transit. According to the Hillsborough MPO, the old (and still current) property tax costs the average homeowner $45 per year to support transit service (in comparison with the average $720 in fares that each HART rider pays each year). The 1% would have cost the average household just $12 per month. Obviously, as an author of a blog with the word “Transit” in it, I’m very pro-transit and would have easily supported this measure. I’m fairly certain that the majority of my readers, especially my Tampa Bay area readers, would have as well. As part of the process to make the case for this new tax, officials at HART made a plan for the public to show how a 1% tax would benefit the community. The list is quite long, but yet impressive for a major metro that is behind the times on public transportation but doesn’t want to be.

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Route 225

BFT’s original logo

The odd child of Ben Franklin Transit.

To explain its origins, we have to go way back to the 1980’s. (Ok, so it’s not that far back…)

At this time, the Interstate Highway System hadn’t quite made its way to the Tri-Cities (as I-82 had completely bypassed the area by looping around and continuing south). In order to travel between Pasco and Richland, one would have to take Highway 14 across the Blue Bridge into Kennewick and then from there drive west towards Richland. However, once I-182 was opened, it presented a brand new option for residents of the region to drastically reduce their driving time, particularly Hanford workers.

When Ben Franklin Transit was first established, it utilized a rather simple numbering system. Numbers between 20 and 29 were reserved for routes serving Richland, 40-49 were for Kennewick, 60-69 were for Pasco, and 100-199 was for Intercity service. (There was also Route 10 which ran in West Richland, and Route 39 running as local service in an area split between Kennewick and Richland.) So, when BFT started running express buses to major employment destinations in the area, it was decided to reserve 200-299 to identify those routes. Examples include Routes 240 and 246 running to the Hanford Site. There were also buses to the Boise wood mill in Wallula (though short-lived) and other areas.

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Is The Bus Too Big?

Every now and then, I like to go on Ebay.com and take a look at the different buses being auctioned. Sometimes I might find a subtle difference on one bus compared to another, sometimes I find some pretty old buses, and sometimes I find buses that are just plain weird. Weird is probably the best word to describe one of the buses I found for sale: An Orion II.

Auctioned by the City of Owensboro Kentucky

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The Empty Bus (And The Case for More Frequency)

One of the most frequent arguments I hear from detractors of public transportation has always been something to the degree of this:

Every time I see a bus, it’s always empty!

While I’m not saying they’re lying, they’re not exactly correct either. As gas prices continue to rise further and further and demand for alternatives climbs alongside it, we see more stories of transit agencies getting bogged down by extraordinary ridership numbers. In Tampa, HART has seen 28-months of consecutive ridership growth, and that’s even with cuts in service. And as many a rider can attest to, it’s getting harder to find a seat on the bus.

The problem though is not with the bus capacity, but the lack of resources to add that desperately needed capacity.

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The Destination Sign

Perhaps the most important feature of any public transportation vehicle is the destination sign. Without it, riders would never know which route/line the vehicle coming towards them was operating on. They come in all shapes and sizes, and can be a simple as a letter to as complicated as quantum string theory.

Rollsign on a ex-Ben Franklin Transit GM New Look.

Historically, one of the most popular destination signs was a “roll-sign.” Just like destination signs of the present, these signs had some combination of a route letter/number, where the vehicle was heading, and what streets/areas the vehicle would be encountering along the way. The roll itself was just like it sounds, a long sheet with all the various destination signs the vehicle needed. To switch signs, most vehicles were equipped with a manual lever that the operator had to turn to get to the correct sign, but there were some vehicles that had powered levers that the operator powered on and off with a button installed with all the other vehicle controls. While rollsigns were relatively easy for riders to see, they started to fall out of favor eventually, as they could be costly to print and weren’t always easy to keep maintained.

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