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Hernando Today

Give THE Bus A Rest For Now

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JOHN HERBERT From Where I Sit

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 22, 2008

Use it or lose it. The 160,000 people in Hernando County seem to have voted with their feet. Less than 1 percent of county residents use THE Bus. The average nationwide sage is 5 percent. Conclusion: Park THE Bus, at least for the next few years.

At a time when Hernando County officials must count every penny, there doesn't seem to be any sound financial reason for keeping more than $600,000 a year in Brooksville's budget to operate THE Bus. The county is looking for savings on next year's budget; shelving THE Bus is a no-brainer.

And there certainly was no reason to burden an already strapped county budget with the $20,000 invoice to tell us what we already should have already learned by reading the newspaper.

We are spending $600,000 a year to give around 600 passengers a day a heavily subsidized ride to work, to the doctor, to a shopping center or to matinee movies.

Out of the 600-a-day ridership figure, maybe 100 to 150 of the passengers are on their way to or from an appointment with a doctor or dentist, a blood test or X-ray.

What would it cost Hernando County to provide van or taxi service just for the medically needy? Those figures have yet to be produced. Could we get federal support? We do, to the annual tune of about $1.4 million. The feds would protest an additional expense, most likely, but anything's possible in an election year.

There's never any harm in asking, and zero chance of achieving anything if you don't at least try.

Pending the price tag, a van or taxi seems to be an immediate answer to a bus replacement. It works elsewhere, even where a viable public transport alternative exists. To keep expenses in check, something like a doctor's prescription would probably be in order to gain access to a free ride.

What about the 20 percent of riders who use THE Bus to get to and from work or a job interview? Friends, neighbors and work colleagues can do wonders with car-pooling.

One of the most frustrating alternative proposals is to cut THE Bus timetables from five to four days a week. Which day would be cut?

Bus fares were recently doubled. Why should anyone pay twice as much for a product that's 20 percent subpar?

From where I sit, it looks like THE Bus has only been a half-hearted attempt to provide Hernando County with a minimum of scheduled public transportation. No wonder there doesn't seem to be much of a demand at this point, except for a handful of hardcore advocates.

My suggestion would be to shut down THE Bus until the county has enough residents to muster viable public transport numbers - maybe twice as many as now, in another generation or so. The county maintains a rolling long-range general plan; make THE Bus part of that plan.

Whenever bus service can be resurrected, we should make a real commitment to public transport. A minor tweaking of current routes might be motivated, but there's lots more that can be done.

First of all, ensure that Hernando County's network hooks up regularly with bus terminals in neighboring counties. Institute some long-haul, nonstop routes that would only be operated in commuter rush hours, Brooksville-Tampa and Spring Hill-St. Pete, for example. It's going to be decades before a commuter train network is built; let express buses do the job in the meantime.

Today's hourly bus services are essentially worthless. If you are relying on public transport, you want a schedule that's frequent. There are probably hundreds of potential passengers who shy away from ever using THE Bus because it means long waits in the blazing sun, the tropical humidity and hurricane-season downpours. Run THE Bus on a 15- to 20-minute schedule, at least in traffic peaks.

The county shouldn't be throwing good money after bad, especially when there's far too little tax revenue to throw around in the first place. Give THE Bus a rest for now, and come back with a vengeance when the demand in really there.

A regular columnist for Hernando Today, John Herbert lives in Spring Hill.

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