Public asked to weigh in on impact of cuts to public transportation

For those with cars, looming cuts to the city's bus service probably don't mean a whole lot.

But for folks like Pat Meacham and Sally Martin, those colorful Mountain Metro buses are their lifeline.

The two older women, who live in Security, use Route 22 to go grocery shopping, visit their doctors and simply get out of the house.

And they used the bus Thursday to attend a meeting at Pikes Peak Community College with transit officials, who are warning riders they may have to cut up to 50,000 hours of bus service in the city and county, including eliminating the low-ridership route the women use or stopping it at Drennan Road, miles from their homes.

"People who don't ride the bus have no idea," said Martin, who began riding the bus 10 years ago after giving up driving. "People think it's just street people who ride buses. It isn't. A lot of senior citizens ride the bus."

Meacham, who rides the bus nearly three hours to get to her doctor, agreed: "If we don't have it, we're in trouble."

The transit service was asked by the Colorado Springs City Council to identify potential costs savings, as it considers cuts to many city services to make up an $8 million shortfall in the 2009 budget caused by declining sales tax revenue. Any new cuts would follow 25,000 hours of service cut at the first of the year, reducing the total hours of fixed-route service alone from 180,000 to 155,000.

Transit officials have identified a variety of cuts in service, including eliminating express routes, reducing or killing low-ridership secondary routes, stopping Sunday bus service and restricting areas where paratransit is offered. Other possibilities include eliminating the popular FREX commuter service to Denver and the free downtown shuttle, called DASH.

David Menter, transit planning supervisor, was sympathetic to riders' concerns expressed at the morning meeting at the college, one of two held Thursday. Transit staff will hold two meetings today to solicit public comments about the proposed cuts. But, he told, it will be the city council that decides how much, if any, cuts to service there will be.

"I wish I had better news," he told 30 or so people at the meeting. Further cuts, he said, would put the transit system in "hunker down mode."

If the full 50,000 hours of transit service are cut, he estimated it would affect riders who make 5,115 one-way trips a day.

Ironically, he said potential cuts come at a time when ridership on all of Mountain Metro's transit services is at an all-time high. Ridership on fixed-route buses is up almost 3 percent from a year ago. Ridership on FREX is up 47 percent; Dash, 75 percent; and Metro Mobility, which provides service to those with disabilities, 6 percent.

Martin said she hopes transit officials will consider expanding her bus route so it can pick up more passengers, making the route more viable. She also hopes the council, when it meets Feb. 24 to make the decision on what city services to cut and by how much, will think of her and her friend, who face a bleak future without Route 22.

"I love the bus," she said. "We're all really concerned."

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Contact the writer: 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com  

 MORE INFORMATION

Two meetings will be held today to discuss potential cuts to bus service and to solicit comments from the public. The meetings will be:

• 10 to 11 a.m., Falcon police substation, conference room, 7850 Goddard St.
• 3 to 4 p.m., East Library, large meeting room, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

To see an overview of some the proposed cuts, visit: http://www.springsgov.com/units/transit/April_Elimination.pdf  

The Colorado Springs City Council is scheduled to decide on budget cuts at its meeting 1 p.m. Feb 24 at 107 N. Nevada Ave., Suite 325.