Chattanooga: Routes, riders and high fuel

The lowest ridership of 14 fixed bus routes examined by the Chattanooga Times Free Press came on the Cromwell Road/North Brainerd route — which combines with the Eastdale route on Saturdays — and East Brainerd lines. The two Brainerd routes are “dial-a-ride” services, in which smaller vehicles take riders to their destinations after they’ve called CARTA to schedule a pickup time.

CARTA Executive Director Tom Dugan said last week that there is a link between the level of service for a specific route and the number of riders who use that bus line.

“It’s not an issue of cutting routes that have small ridership,” he said. “It’s an issue of increasing the service of those routes so that they become larger ridership areas.”

shuttle: a downtown fixture

As officials look at the options for balancing the budget, they say they would hate to end the free electric shuttle service that has helped bring conventions and events to downtown Chattanooga and has kept people from having to use cars to get around downtown and the popular North Shore, which added shuttle service in August.

“It’s a hallmark of this community,” said Bob Doak, president and chief executive officer of the Chattanooga Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We were a green, sustainable development community before everyone else.”

The shuttle — operating since the early- to mid-1990s — is something that is used to attract events to the city, he said. A shuttle shutdown would mean the costly task of making new promotional material — such as travel brochures and videos — that currently include the electric vehicles.

Maria Noel, a CARTA board member and Alton Park resident, said the shuttle has been very valuable for encouraging downtown economic development and helping transport urban workers and tourists.

The free shuttle service also has convinced people to use CARTA’s other mass-transit buses, she said.

“That has brought people on to public transportation that probably never would have participated,” she said.

the necessity of buses

On CARTA’s fixed routes, the greatest ridership between June 2007 and May 2008 was on the Eastgate/Hamilton Place, East Chattanooga and the Alton Park routes, according to CARTA figures. East Chattanooga had 297,998 riders, and Alton Park carried 239,003, according to CARTA.

Ms. Noel said many of her fellow community members rely on buses to get to work, to medical services and to shops.

“For some of them, that’s the only way they can get anywhere,” she said.

City Councilman Manny Rico, whose district includes St. Elmo and Alton Park, said service cuts — even on nights, Saturdays and Sundays — would hurt people who work late or on the weekend, as well as those who just need the bus to access different services.

“You’re talking about a district that’s low income, and that’s the only transportation they have,” he said.

Jill Veron, CARTA’s director of planning, said she is worried about potentially changing the service levels of strong-performing bus lines such as the Eastgate/Hamilton Place services. She said changes could turn good routes into less appealing routes.

“It’s just a difficult decision,” she said, “because you’re going to hurt people no matter what you do.”

ROLLING FORWARD in TOUGH TIMES

CARTA officials also have talked about trying to raise additional revenue through business sponsorships, advertising and more parking revenue. But agency leaders have warned that these ideas probably can’t make enough to fill the financial gap.

Mayor Ron Littlefield said this week that he is hopeful the agency can make more money. One way, he said, is if the City Council would reverse the city’s prohibition on bus-shelter advertising.

CARTA also may be able to get funding from a downtown benefit district in which businesses could chip in through additional property taxes or other means, he said.

“We’re just going to have to tap our creative minds and energies to try to help CARTA work their way through this current year,” Mr. Littlefield said.