Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation

Eight Reason You Need a Bus Riders Union, by Jackie Green

Jul 27, 2001

Why is there a need for a bus-riders union? Consider these facts:

1) The last bus from Shelbyville Road and Sears Avenue on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays leaves at 6:42 p.m. - a de facto curfew on the transit dependent which would not be tolerated by others.

2) Forty-two percent of the randomly selected households from central Louisville do not have a vehicle. (KIPDA Household Travel Survey, April 2001)

3) Thirty-six percent of the randomly selected households from central Louisville do not use private vehicles to get to the doctor. (KIPDA Household Travel Survey, April 2001)

4) TARC has 6,500 bus stops and only 170 bus shelters (135 of which belong to an ad agency). Next time it rains, think about the young, the old, the poor, the disabled, those who have lost driving priveleges, those who do not drive because they are medicated, those who should not drive, all of them either standing in the rain or stranded somewhere indoors.

5) In the past 20 years Kentuckiana programmed transportation funds as follows:
$12,308,488,497.00 - 92% - Roadways *
$ 938,138,702.00 - 7% - Transit
$ 98,159,868.00 - 1% - Alternative
(Distribution of KIPDA TIP Funds, 1980 - 1999)

6) A family of four falls below the poverty line with an annual income of $16,276.00 or less. (Courier-Journal, 22 Nov 2000)
The average annual cost to operate an auto in Louisville is $6,758.00. (Courier-Journal, 4 Sept 2000)

7) "People often think that public transport is the only transport good that is subsidized. Road transport is perhaps even more heavily subsidized - at least $2,300.00 per car per year - despite the license fees, gasoline taxes, & any other user fees that are paid." ("The North American City", Maurice Yeates, 1998, [Indiana University Urban Geography text book] p 475)

8) With the same budget alotted to TARC 27 years ago, 1974, when voters approved a .02% occupational tax to support public transportation, TARC today is expected to serve an area bloated by suburban sprawl, while meeting requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Today, paratransit alone accounts for somewhere around 13% of TARC's expenses.

Jackie Green
CART Executive Director