CC Minutes - 11/26/07 Work Session

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Mr. Zelenka hoped that the Franklin Boulevard project would also result in the millrace becoming a functional park and recreation area. Andy Vobora of LTD announced that ridership levels were record-setting, both for EmX and systemwide. He said EmX ridership had far exceeded expectations and continued to grow each month. He said systemwide ridership was at capacity during peak periods and LTD was taking measures to alleviate that. He said the success of school programs had an impact on that. He said LTD did not have the capacity to add more hours of service. Ms. Piercy thanked LTD for continuing the school bus pass program, which she felt helped to build future ridership. She asked how many people had bus passes. Mr. Vobora said that 60-75,000 people in the community had group passes. Ms. Ortiz asked how much discount was given to nonprofit agencies. Mr. Vobora replied that private nonprofit agencies received a 50 percent discount. He said the current limit per program was $350 per month and LTD currently discounted about $90,000 per year to the 110 participating program. He said the cap had been extended several times by the Board because of increasing need and another extension could always be considered, although the limitation tended to be related to an agency's available resources. He applauded the City for its contribution of $50,000 to the program, which helped many agencies increase capacity. In response to questions from Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Vobora said ridership on the Franklin corridor was 60 percent greater than it was previously on the fixed route system. He said that the loss of revenue because of free EmX service was minimal because 80 to 85 percent of the riders on that route had passes. Mr. Zelenka noted that statistics showed accidents between buses and cars on that route were declining and asked if that was expected to continue. Mr. Vobora said the accident rate was actually lower on that route after an initial period of the public's adjustment to the new service and traffic configurations. Ms. Bettman did not think it was productive to dismiss rail service because no overarching cost benefit analysis of rail and BRT had been done. She said dismissing rail on the basis of the per mile cost was unrealistic because rail systems accrued numerous benefits and cost less to operate. She asserted that rail was a viable solution in the future, even though the community had chosen to invest in BRT. Ms. Taylor stated she had attended a workshop on sustainability and a participant from Charlotte, North Carolina had described that city's recent positive experience with light rail and economic development and plan to add streetcars to the system. Mr. Zelenka pointed out he was not dismissing light rail, but since every city with a light rail system was substantially bigger than Eugene it did not appear to be financially feasible at this time. He asked if LTD had conducted an analysis of light rail versus BRT for a community of Eugene's size. Mr. Pangborn said there had been considerable analysis at the national level. He said any mass transit system that was built in Eugene required federal funding and LTD had been told explicitly by the Federal Transit Administration that it had concerns about Portland's ability to sustain a light rail system; Eugene would not begin to qualify for federal funds for light rail and would need to seek another alternative. He said that resulted in BRT as the mass transit choice. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 26, 2007 Page 6 Work Session