by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Tuesday evening at the University Park branch library, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority completed its series of four public meetings concerning changes that will be made to several routes effective the first week of September. The changes are based on the results of the study conducted by JTA to determine rider needs and travel patterns.
The meetings were billed as an opportunity for JTA to inform people about the changes and for customers to offer their comments.
Maps detailing the new routes were displayed during a one-hour “open house” and then a 29-page Powerpoint presentation was presented that also explained the modifications and the reasons behind the changes. The new routes have been designed, but there was no information available concerning the schedules or the specific times buses would be at each of the stops on the new routes.
According to JTA Service Planning Manager Fred Haley, who heads the department that designed the route changes, about 10,000 people a day use the routes that will be changing, but he said fewer than 100 riders in total attended the four meetings.
Even fewer people voiced their comments at the meetings, possibly because it was stated more than once during the presentations that while comments were welcome, JTA officials would not answer any questions about the changes. Haley did say that “20 or 30” people had commented via e-mail after the meetings, but that’s not much participation and even less feedback from 10,000 customers.
I won’t presume to speak for everyone, but this reporter does have the benefit of some real-world insight.
On the road with JTA
I was writing a story last January about some issue or other involving mass transit and it occurred to me – in my entire life I had ridden a city bus exactly one time.
If you’re going to write about something, I believe it makes sense to know all you can about the subject, so I decided to become what has become known in the media as an “embedded reporter.” I wasn’t going to join a group of Marines in a Hummer in Iraq, I was going to use JTA to get back and forth to work. The plan was to do it for a week, but that’s not enough time to really get a handle on the subject. After six months, if I haven’t seen it all, I’ve seen most of it.
Granted, my daily JTA journey has to be among the top 10 percent in terms of ease of use since I can get on the bus a block away from my front door in Arlington and get off the same bus about a block from the Daily Record’s front door on Newnan Street. Based on the results of the JTA’s latest rider survey, my experience is consistent with the data provided by most of my fellow commuters system-wide.
One part of the survey evaluated what gets people on the bus and the results of polling thousands of JTA riders confirmed what motivates Jacksonville’s bus riders are the same things that motivate mass transit users all over the country.
Based on what I’ve learned by getting to know my fellow commuters on the P2 Townsend-Cassat/Edgewood route in the past six months, our small group closely matches the results of the JTA survey.
Getting to work is the reason 40 percent of riders get on the bus in the morning. More than half – 52 percent – don’t have to get off the bus they originally boarded until they reach their destination. Having to transfer to another bus or another form of mass transit to get to your final destination is one reason people use their personal vehicles instead of mass transit in any system.
With only a few exceptions, people ride the P2 in the morning to go to work. Some work Downtown while others work either on the Westside or on the way there which makes the route – known as an “interliner” since it makes an Arlington loop and a Westside loop with the FCCJ/Rosa Parks Station in the center – convenient for them because they don’t have to transfer to another bus to get to their destination.
I’m in the minority when it comes to having a car available, since I do while 54 percent of the people who ride the bus do not. People who have no choice but to ride a bus if they need to travel further than they want to walk are what transit planners call “captive riders.” Obviously, transit systems don’t have to do anything to attract those riders, but according to JTA part of the reason several routes including the P2 will be changing next month is an attempt to improve service and make it more convenient so even more people will decide to leave their cars at home and let someone else do the driving.
Most of the people who ride the P2 are like most of the people who filled out a JTA survey form. We ride it because it’s convenient and we don’t have to visit the gas station as often as we would if we drove our cars every day. We can also read a book while stuck in a traffic jam instead of trying to get all the way over to the left lane.
The could-be-better
The other part of the JTA survey determined the things customers feel most need to be improved about their mass transit experience. Like the data gathered about why people ride, the answers to the service questions also mirrored national averages, said Haley.
Making the buses run on time was the issue cited by most of the people surveyed. When you ride the bus to get to work, that’s a critical factor.
The P2 usually runs within 10 minutes of its schedule at 6 a.m. but the outbound trip can be as late as half an hour. One day, the 3:30 p.m. bus to Arlington was so late, the 5 p.m. bus caught up to it on the Arlington Expressway service road.
Many people who ride the P2 connect with other buses at FCCJ Station every morning and to them 10 minutes late can be a lot. One man works at Gateway Mall and when he misses his northbound bus connection, he’s almost an hour late clocking in at work.
Timely arrival is about to become an important issue for even more of us on the route next month because when the new route goes into effect, the bus will drop us off at the FCCJ Station then turn around and head straight back to Arlington instead of continuing on all the way to Edgewood Avenue and Moncrief Road. Eliminating the western part of the route should help the bus stay on schedule but instead of being able to stay on the bus and after a short stop at the station continue riding through Downtown making several stops along the way, it means several of us will be off the bus 14 or more blocks from where we work. Every one of us will be connecting with a second bus or with a trolley for the final leg of the trip, meaning more time as well as another bus fare to complete our commute.
Another often-cited issue in the survey was the need for improvements in the mechanical condition of the buses. JTA is currently replacing much of its fleet with brand-new equipment, which is needed because some of the older rolling stock can make for quite a ride.
On several occasions, the P2 route has included changing buses at FCCJ Station due to broken air conditioners, doors that wouldn’t open and malfunctioning wheelchair ramps. One time – and the only time during my six-month experience – the bus broke down on the Hart Bridge and the route was delayed for an hour before a replacement arrived.
All that being said, I’m still on the P2 bus, along with those of us who have the option to drive to work and back every day. It’s exquisitely cost-effective and so far at least, reasonably convenient.
Taking into account that there hasn’t been a survey conducted to gauge the opinion of the current bus-riding population in regards to what effect the impending changes might have on the mass transit experience, I conducted an unscientific poll of my fellow P2 passengers.
The results were unanimous: We’re just going to have to wait and see.