SPRINGDALE -- Northwest Arkansas's transit system is going in a new, perhaps more successful direction thanks to the advice of experts and transit leaders from around the country, officials said Wednesday.
The Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission and Walton Family Foundation held the fourth and last of a series of talks on improving the ways to get around a growing region. Officials from Tulsa, Okla., Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., spoke on their own transit systems and urged the audience to keep pushing for more transportation options, even if it takes years of incremental improvements.
Web watch
Find more information about Ozark Regional Transit and its fares and routes at www.ozark.org.
Those improvements have already begun, said Tim Conklin, assistant director for the regional planning commission.
Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas Razorback Transit and Ozark Regional Transit systems are working together to simplify bus routes, speed up service and make rides free for city residents through the end of the year, for example. And software that can map out travel times and help cities plan transit routes is available for the area's cities through the commission.
Don Marr, who's chief of staff for the Fayetteville mayor and a board member for Ozark Regional, said the changes stemmed from information in the mobility series. One key thing he learned: Don't wait for other cities to get in the game.
"You can always pull everyone else in as you go," he said. Taking steps in a more focused area can give tangible successes and momentum for remaking the regional system, he said, citing points from previous talks. Ozark Regional has long struggled with slow routes in a broad service area that were meant to build local support but have prompted criticism and occasional freezes or drops in local government payments.
Those lackluster results haven't quenched interest in transit, especially people moving in from other cities with effective systems, Marr said.
The mobility series began in November with Jarrett Walker, an author and transit consultant from Oregon who said Northwest Arkansas must choose between far-flung routes trying to cover as much ground as possible, as it has now, and direct, shorter, faster routes that lots of people will use. He also introduced the commission to the travel-time mapping software it licensed for the use of interested cities, Conklin said.
The following talks brought in an urban planning expert, who advised focusing on walkability rather than letting the car be the only convenient transportation option, and transportation officials from North Carolina, Indiana and, as of Wednesday, states closer to home.
The transportation officials widely agreed overhauling or creating local transit systems requires lots of ingredients, including time and patience, support from a variety of groups and perspectives, a source of money and a focus on the good that transit can bring even to those who don't use it. Wide use of transit can decrease traffic congestion and pollution, spark development or help lower-income families get to jobs and schools, for instance.
"In Tulsa, if you can fix the streets, you can win the day," Dawn Warrick, the Tulsa planning director, said Wednesday, referring to how coupling transit with street repair helped clinch taxpayer support in recent years.
Several officials said Northwest Arkansas should look beyond transit and attend to residents' ability to walk or bike to and from bus stops or streetcar stations as well. The Kansas City area is working on building what it calls mobility hubs, places where buses, bike-share programs and carpoolers can gather or trade off, said Laura Machala, transportation planner at the Mid-America Regional Council.
The Walton Foundation has explored the possibility of a more robust, region-wide transit system such as those around Raleigh, N.C., or around Kansas City. It supported a recent study estimating a bus rapid transit system on U.S. 71B could run for about $3 million a year and would need several times that amount upfront. Ozark Regional Transit's annual budget is a little more than $3 million.
Despite the improvement in Fayetteville, a regional project still needs the cooperation of multiple city governments and the public at large, speakers said Wednesday. And it might take several years of discussions and elections.
"Keep at it," said Ted Rieck, general manager of Tulsa Transit. "You might not make it the first time, or even the second or third time, but you will eventually make it."
NW News on 08/09/2018