Transit system plans changes

Despite losing tax vote, modifications to move forward

Arkansans board a bus at the River Cities Travel Center in downtown Little Rock on Wednesday. Rock Region Metro officials are planning to improve its services despite voters turning down a sales-tax increase earlier this month to provide transit funding.
Arkansans board a bus at the River Cities Travel Center in downtown Little Rock on Wednesday. Rock Region Metro officials are planning to improve its services despite voters turning down a sales-tax increase earlier this month to provide transit funding.

Rock Region Metro is moving ahead with plans to adopt elements of its strategic plan, including modifying some of its bus routes, even though voters earlier this month rejected a tax that would have paid for improvements.

An official timeline isn't ready yet, but the executive director of Pulaski County's transit agency said any route modifications could be ready to implement by September or October. Jarod Varner said the changes must be done within the transit agency's financial constraints, which will be difficult but not impossible.

"I don't have specifics," Varner said last week. "We are very early in the process."

That process, he added, would include reaching out to bus riders and elected officials who head the agency's funding partners -- Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski County, Sherwood, Maumelle and Jacksonville.

The reset of the agency's priorities is coming after voters rejected a proposed quarter-percentage-point increase in the countywide sales tax to shore up the transit system. The March 1 primary election margins were 57 percent against and 43 percent in favor of the tax increase.

It was to be the county's first tax to be solely dedicated to transit and was projected to raise $18 million annually. Rock Region Metro planned to use the proceeds to expand regular bus service, increase the frequency of stops on its busiest routes, tailor other routes to better serve riders, and establish some routes using larger buses on traffic lanes reserved for them.

"The key message is we have developed a really solid base for transit -- 43 percent in an election with record turnout," Varner told the agency's board of directors last week.

The agency is using its Moving Central Arkansas strategic plan as a guide for its modified transit changes. That plan identified heavily used routes that need more frequent service and areas that need expansion of service.

Varner specifically mentioned routes that are eligible for bus rapid transit. Rapid transit is higher-frequency service that uses bigger buses and sometimes special bus lanes. In the place of bus stops it uses platform stations that supporters say would serve as magnets to attract development.

Two rapid-transit routes that were identified were along West Markham Street, and Kanis Road and South University Avenue in Little Rock. But those revisions in routes were linked to Rock Region Metro's partners agreeing to continue their annual contributions at the same levels and voters approving the tax increase.

Now any adjustments will have to be made within current funding, which is determined by a formula that apportions route miles in Little Rock, North Little Rock and the county on the basis of what each partner pays. Any changes will have to retain the same number of miles or require an adjustment in what each partner pays.

The county and participating cities contribute a total of about $12.5 million annually to the agency. Other funds, including federal aid and ticket revenue, raised the agency's annual operating budget to about $16 million for this year.

Varner said he doubts that routes will be added or dropped from the transit system now.

"There's not a yes or no answer," he said. "It's possible we realign routes. A route number could go away, but the stops will remain. It may be more about increasing the frequency of existing routes."

The agency has an additional tool for mining data -- its real-time passenger information system now allows agency staff members to measure route use and use of bus stops. But it will take time to begin harvesting that data.

"We should have some really good information by May," Varner said. "We should have a good understanding of what the data is telling us."

The work on the route modifications will require approval by the Rock Region Metro board's strategic planning committee, said Allie Freeman, board chairman. The committee members are Lawrence Finn, Art Kinnaman, Jimmy Moses, Bentley Wallace and Matt Lindsey.

"The goal is to be as efficient as possible and increase ridership and modify the system within our cost constraints," Varner said.

Metro on 03/28/2016

Upcoming Events