CC Minutes - 02/25/02 Work Session

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Mr. Viggiano cited LTD's service to Valley River Center via Coburg Road as an example of a looped service. He emphasized Springfield's interest in a link between the two routes. Ms. Hocken addressed Mr. Meisner's question about how and why BRT, noting LTD's dependence on payroll tax revenues and fares for operations. She said that payroll tax revenues were much less than projected because of the recession. Much of the money LTD received from the federal government was restricted to capital expenditures such as buses, and could not be used by LTD to put buses on the road. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Mr. Pap~, moved that the City Council's recommendation to LTD be that Coburg Road to the Chad/Crescent area, with a link to a BRT line connecting downtown Springfield to the Gateway area, be immediately considered for Bus Rapid Transit. Mr. Kelly noted that the data provided by LTD indicated that the population along the Highway 99 corridor was currently 50 percent higher than the population along the Coburg corridor and would continue to be so in 2020. The population per mile was currently higher, and projected to remain so. He said that preliminary numbers, since pulled, had indicated that the percentage of exclusive busway on the Coburg Road route would be no higher than 50 to 60 percent. The council had passed a motion stating it expected BRT in Eugene would have the great majority of routes in exclusive busways. He wanted to support BRT but said he would oppose a design that was 50 to 60 percent guideways. He opposed the motion. Mr. Rayor said that the discussion should focus on where the need for BRT was. He said the Coburg route would result in more ridership because of its higher employment numbers. In contrast, the employment base in the Highway 99 area was more spread out. He said that the City and LTD should work with ©D©T to ensure that the Highway 99 route can be built next. Mr. Rayor said that the system needed a near-term success to build upon. Ms. Bettman asked if LTD received assurance from the City that it would receive a lane on Coburg Road. She said that BRT was a commuter system, which meant that stops are less frequent than regular service, and she was concerned that the Coburg route would succeed by displacing the existing successful service. Regarding the employment figures, she said that to make transit work, the population base must be linked with employment. Merely recirculating people around an employment area would not increase ridership or decrease congestion. She said that the connector system would better serve the Highway 99 corridor, giving that population base of 21,000 people access to the BRT system and then to the core, as opposed to 9,000 people living along Coburg Road. In addition, the people in Bethel were of lower income and much more likely to ride the bus to commute to work than Coburg residents. She opposed the motion. In response to Ms. Bettman, Ms. Hocken said that LTD did not have an assurance from City staff about the use of the road, but she anticipated that, given the council's strong interest in a dedicated right-of-way, it would direct staff to work with LTD to achieve that objective. Ms. Nathanson asked why LTD did not support the Highway 99 route over the Coburg route given the disparity in connector bus population per mile. Mr. Viggiano said that the reason the figures for the Highway 99 were higher was because the area was quite a bit larger and because of the extensive nature of the connector system. He added that the connector bus system design would be done in conjunction with the route design process, and the projections were to some degree just guesses at this point. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 25, 2002 Page 11 Work Session