On Tuesday, August 12, Sioux Falls City Council will vote on approving the Transit Task Force report presented at their informational session on July 8. The report has recommendations that include higher bus fares and “red-lining” Paratransit.
Action: Please ask city council NOT to approve the parts of the report that will make life harder for our low-income residents. In particular, ask them NOT to approve the 3/4 mile limit for people with disabilities or increases in the bus fares.
Background: A task force met for about 7 months to work mostly on reducing the share of the transportation budget that goes to Paratransit. I’m sure they came up with some helpful suggestions, but some recommendations will come down hard on low-income people, and pretty much no one else.
Federal rules require cities to serve people with disabilities within 3/4 mile of the fixed route buses. So far, Sioux Falls has served people with disabilities throughout the city. There is now an agreement to “grandfather” in the folks outside the 3/4 mile line. But woe to people there who become disabled in the future.
Bus fares for seniors, kids over age 5, people with disabilities, single rides, and Paratransit would increase 50%. A monthly pass would go from $25 to $30 (20%) now and then be stepped up to $40. (The day pass stays $3, but the day pass does not help everyone.) If you have encountered low-income people trying to cover basic needs on meager incomes, you know that any increase in bus fares will mean a cut from some other necessity.
Most people who don’t ride the bus don’t realize that Sioux Falls already raised single-ride fares when transfers were ended. Now if you need two buses to get somewhere, you pay twice.
If you look up the report, know that some of the participants DO NOT agree with all the recommendations.
I have asked several questions about the report, so feel free to call me to discuss or compare notes. For example, if Recommendation 3C is confusing to you, as it was to me, I have confirmed the following translation. The report says “Develop a paratransit system that parallels the Sioux Area Metro fixed-route system to ensure transportation services are equally provided to all citizens.” IT MEANS “Limit paratransit to 3/4 mile of the fixed-routes to ensure lack-of-service equally to all citizens, disabled or not, if they are outside the 3/4 mile limit.” Of course, in 5 or 6 years, expanded fixed routes will make more people eligible for Paratransit services.
Do bus riders even know there are proposed increases? Do they know city council is voting next week? I rode the bus on Saturday and did not notice any announcement about City Council voting on higher fares. They don’t know, so I am asking you to speak up for them.
*DL Note; I was astonished to hear that SAM doesn’t have bus transfers. It’s silly. When I visited San Francisco the last time, they do transfers for their entire system (in other words you can hop from a bus to a trolley to the subway, as long as it is within a 1-hour period of time. Also, the rumor is that Para-transit in Sioux Falls doesn’t use a dispatch system. In other words, they don’t maximize their mileage by going from pickups to dropoffs in the field like cab companies do. They return to their base after every drop off for their next assignment.
I’ve noticed crowded buses lately. Taxi service has become unaffordable after the last increase. If para-transit needs are not met, the feds should relax SAM funding in favor of subsidized private (food stamp like) taxi rides.
The new prices sound reasonable. City should also offer half price for those who qualify for food stamps.
Is the Sioux Area Metro Paratransit buses State or County funded?
I can assure you the rumor that “Para-transit in Sioux Falls doesn’t use a dispatch system” is completely bogus. While their dispatch system is mind bogglingly incompetent they certainly don’t “return to their base after every drop off”.
thx Arlo, I figured it was one or the other.
I vote for “dispatch system is mind bogglingly incompetent”
If you want to find out just how “mind bogglingly incompetent” their dispatch system is, just talk to the drivers if you can find one that isn’t afraid of losing their job for speaking out. Sadly, SAM treats their drivers just as bad as they treat their passengers.
I jokingly tell people “my job would be a lot easier if I didn’t have customers” but SAM seems to live by that motto.
The reality is that the city doesn’t want to be in the public transportation business but since they are required by law to provide it, they’re doing everything within their power to drive customers away. They’re systematically trying to push all their paratransit passengers onto the route buses despite the fact that there simply isn’t enough capacity on the route buses to serve all those people who use wheelchairs.
Aside from that one obvious logistical reality they’re also trying to force people who do not have the physical or intellectual capacity to navigate the bus system. Those who have some sort of support system available to help them through the appeals process are generally able to fight that denial of service but those without that support system are s#!t out of luck, they’re left with no viable form of transportation.
How do they sleep?
I repeatedly hear city councilors and members of the transit taskforce say there has NOT been a fare increase in many years.
This is actually false.
I have used the SF bus system since I was a child (50+ years). In order to reach your destination, most rides require a transfer. Up until several years ago, the transfer was built into the initial a cost of the ride. Now, each transfer costs a full fare.
So, if you need one transfer to reach your destination (not uncommon), instead of paying $1 you pay $2, a cost increase of 100%!!!!
Fares aside, you have a system that based on a 2011 rate analysis wasn’t even selling 200 single-fare tickets a month in the dead of winter and could barely crack 600 monthly passes. And the monthly riders – full-fare and reduced – were barely generating $10k a month in operating revenue.
With those kinds of numbers you might as well just make ridership free and try to use that as a selling point to encourage use.
“In the first quarter of 2012 the ridership on fixed-route has averaged 3,419…” (from the rate analysis)
12 routes running all day to serve an average of 284 rides per route… man that’s so inefficient. I could buy 75 cars and do 45 rides a day and provide point-to-point service for all these riders. Based on rough costs of full-sized cars and transit buses I can buy those 75 cars for what it costs to buy 5-6 buses. I can also outsource the maintenance to the private sector.
Would it be easier to just shut it down altogether and go to some kind of arranged-ride system with income-based subsidies? Arlo’s right – public transit is a joke in Sioux Falls and you’re never going to get buy-in from the general public because there’s no incentive for them to use it. Roads are abundant, parking is easy and cheap, and traffic is almost non-existent. All the taxpayers south of 229 are pumping money into this rabbit hole and have zero access to the system.
You couldn’t make the present system worse if you tried.
The new prices sound reasonable. City should also offer half price for those who qualify for food stamps.
Great idea…in theory. Problem is, according to the last market research study by SAM, 16 out of 20 transit users come from household incomes under $30,000 a year. 3 in 20 between users between $30,001 and $60,000. 1 in 20 over 60k. That’s one hell of a lot of half price tickets. Not exactly what this mayor and council has in mind. After all…we have a shiny new tin can to subsidize.
As far as bus fares go, Paratransit fares have been $2.00 each way since at least the late 90s. I started riding in 1998 and voluntarily quit in February, 2014 because of the stiffer recertification process. They might know if a person is elderly and has mobility problems, along with the disabled people, they aren’t going to get better every three years. Since I quit riding my budget gets really skimpy when I have a medical appointment. Basically being I have to go to the lab a week or two before the actual appointment that means $25.00-$30.00 round trip for just one trip and in the two week time frame, just double that. Because of mobility problems I can only get into certain types of private vehicles, and can no longer do steps so the last few years that I rode Paratransit I used the lift even though I am ambulatory. For some of the people that made remarks about the dispatchers, I do have to agree, but I have to add the fact that I think a lot of the problem when they complain about the increasing ridership, a lot of the problem was due to extremely poor scheduling. The years that I used the service, most of the drivers were really good. There was one male that was just plain obnoxious, I guess he quit about a year ago because he couldn’t handle the attitude of some of the riders, and there was a woman that had the personality of piranha. From what I have heard she is still there. My opinion is that to be a driver for that service it takes a special type of person to deal with the different personalities that they might come across on their route. I am really quite bitter about the whole situation, mainly because of some of the riders that I saw use the buses. I won’t say any more because I don’t want to get in trouble.
The buses are very tiny inside,when I was young
buses held like 40-50 people not counting standees.
These things are near standee only just carrying 18 people.
All the folks I know don’t even pay for rides they get free monthly passes.
In Art and Labor and SF brand of freebie/Moochiness
OBG
The government completed a study on poverty a last year and found the cost transportation as the leading cause of quality job placement. Now I believe laziness is the leading cause of joblessness but there must be some validity to these findings.
I suppose a very small percentage can be attributed to laziness. But mostly it is due to something else entirely.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/poverty-stories_n_5481017.html
I retired several years ago. I was lucky enough to retire from a relatively good paying job that had the 3 legs of the stool needed to do so.
1. Pension plan
2. 401k
3. Future Social Security benefits.
Most in this town do not. A few years ago I took on a part time job in a retirement community. You’d be surprised at how many, in their golden years, still NEED to work. And by that I mean well below the federal poverty rates. There are some there that had to give up their jobs because of the SAM cuts and rate increases. Much like the way Joan’s daughter did. Seniors and handicapped do want to be independent…not lazy.
That’s nothing more than a neo-con talking point out of their echo chamber.