Local Transit Crafts Hybrid Planning Scenario

Preston L. Schiller has been working on issues involving transportation and the environment for 17 years at state, regional, and federal levels, and has written reports for several nonprofit and environmental organizations, including “Taking the High Road, Protecting Open Space Along America’s Highways,” Trust for Public Land (2002).

Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA), the public transportation agency for much of Whatcom County, has responded to public comment and the directive of its board and crafted a “hybrid” planning scenario incorporating elements of the previously released “frequency” and “coverage” scenarios.

The principal strengths of the Hybrid Scenario are:

•There are increased frequencies in several corridors (some 60 minute routes become 30 minutes) and there are some frequent (every 15 minutes) services in segments of a couple corridors.

•A minor system change begins by introducing a satellite transfer station at Cordata-Bellis-Whatcom Community College (CBW).

•It proposes a quasi-flex/on-demand service in Sudden Valley (appears to be a 24 hour call-ahead dial-a-ride), which could be a significant innovation for WTA.

•It reduces the total number of routes.

•Routes tend to be a little more direct, a little less looping.

•A few new destinations are served.

•A few very unproductive segments are eliminated.

•It eliminates much of the confusion about special routes: WWU, evening or Sunday (however, final decisions on evening/Sunday services and the route numbering system haven’t been made).

•It begins to address the need to improve service to dense neighborhoods.

The principal weaknesses of the Hybrid Scenario are:

Planning continues to be dominated by forcing most routes to pulse (come together with each other) and layover for several minutes at the Bellingham Station (downtown) as well as having many routes change into other routes as they pass through downtown rather than being longer continuous “corridor” routes. This forces WTA to plan routes in multiples of 25 minutes or less so that 10 minutes of every hour can be spent transfer-pulsing and laying over downtown. While this may maximize the efficiency of operations for some infrequent routes, it limits system change and frequency improvements in several ways:

•Many riders (from one end of Bellingham going to another) are delayed for several minutes in their trip, which is a deterrent for “choice” riders (those who could choose to drive or take the bus).

•Some routes, which could have been “corridor” routes, begin or end in downtown, thus forcing many center-to-center riders to transfer downtown. At present, and for some time into the future, Western Washington University will remain the key transit destination in Bellingham. Forcing riders from the neighborhoods where the majority of WWU students and staff live to make a transfer and wait downtown will deter growth in WTA’s most robust transit market.

•Because of forced transfers, the potential of the Alabama Hill Frequency Route is probably diminished.

•There has been little re-routing or fanning-out of bus routes in downtown in order to help create more of a transit grid there to better serve the growing number of downtown residents and businesses.

•Being driven by the downtown pulse-layover, many route schedules probably do not leave enough “wiggle room” for increased ridership, which could result in slightly slower travel times as the bus stops more often. This can slow the whole system as drivers often call ahead and ask other buses to wait downtown until they arrive.

More frequent core corridor routes not pulsing and laying-over downtown could overcome this limitation and deterrent to building choice ridership. When Boulder, Colorado initiated its six “Community Transit Network” routes in the 1990s, to complement its lackluster standard transit routes, it reasoned that if service were frequent enough on core intersecting routes than one would not need to worry about transfer-pulsing.

Some of Boulder’s frequent routes go through its downtown transit center, others simply cross other frequent routes making transfers possible and easy. Get off one bus and the one to transfer onto will be along in just a few minutes. This strategy succeeded in increasing Boulder’s transit ridership almost 500 percent between 1990 and 2002. (You read correctly; 500 percent!) WTA’s goal is to increase regular route ridership by 28 percent by 2010—a good increase compared to many Washington agencies. But is that enough for a rapidly growing community with a low percentage of choice riders? How about an increase of 100 percent by 2010?

•While there is a 20 percent increase in evening and Sunday hours, one needs to ask if it is sufficient to meet needs and attract more “choice” riders.

•There is insufficient differentiation between core corridor “big bus” services, which should be frequent and extend into evenings and Sundays, and “small bus” neighborhood services, which could be more flexible but less frequent and could connect with core routes at several neighborhood transfer points.

•The issue of “unfair fares” and transfer costs is unresolved. At present the same 50 cents gets a rider from Bellingham to Blaine or only from one neighborhood of Bellingham to downtown where it costs another 50 cents to transfer to another Bellingham destination.

The following changes to the Hybrid Scenario should be considered:

•Reduce the number of buses between downtown and the Bellis-Cordata area from nine per hour to seven per hour. By comparison, there are only five buses per hour proposed between downtown and WWU, the destination for half of all WTA riders and one that attracts at least four or five times the number of riders as Bellis-Cordata. WTA is proposing four buses per hour on Northwest (currently one per hour), two per hour on Meridian (same as present), two per hour via a new Downtown/Barkley Village/Sunset Square/Bellis-Cordata route (the “Mall Crawl”) and one per hour via St. Joseph Hospital (“Shop and Drop?”).

It is not clear whether demand on Northwest justifies four buses per hour. With two each per hour on Northwest and Meridian, there would be good downtown to Bellis-Cordata (center-to-center) frequency and good service for the many riders residing in the Columbia-Fountain District and lettered streets neighborhoods. The Northwest and Meridian buses should go on directly to WWU from downtown and not force riders to transfer. The hours saved by this minor reduction should be applied either to better service in the Happy Valley neighborhood or to more evening and Sunday service.

•The Frequency Route proposed between downtown and lower Alabama Hill at Woburn (where it branches off into three routes: two Mall-Crawls and one to upper Alabama Hill) could be improved by connecting directly to WWU from downtown rather than forcing the many WWU-bound riders to transfer to another bus downtown.

•The Fairhaven-Happy Valley-WWU-Downtown route should connect to the Fairhaven Transportation Center in order to allow travelers at that facility to connect better with WWU and downtown as well as increase the visibility of transit along Harris in a rapidly developing corridor.

•WTA should take seriously requests from WWU students working on transit issues that some routes should be redesigned to reach into student neighborhoods better, and that several routes should have improved evening and Sunday service.

Not surprisingly, the majority of persons who turned out to WTA’s mid-August public meetings were riders resisting change—even where they might have benefited from change. It would have been very surprising had large numbers of WWU students returned early to Bellingham in order to attend meetings—or even heard about them. WTA continues to hear largely from those on the bus in the summer while WWU students and faculty and other potential riders are not heard from.

Downtown Bellingham and WWU are WTA’s major destinations because parking is priced and regulated there and because many persons of modest means are travelling to these centers. If other important destinations in Bellingham and Whatcom County were to emulate their parking wisdom, transit ridership would be greatly increased. Why WTA is finding change difficult will be the subject of a future article. Meanwhile let’s keep working on developing frequent core routes, and better evening and Sunday services in Bellingham. §