University of Oregon students pay LTD over $1 million per year through ASUO fees. In return, students can ride any LTD bus fare-free. Transit Tomorrow, a proposed redesign of the LTD system, could impact many students’ daily commutes: some students may benefit from faster commutes and less crowded busses, while others may lose access to their neighborhood bus stop.
City Council candidate for Ward 2, south Eugene, Kate Davidson held a press conference Monday to raise awareness about the Transit Tomorrow initiative. The press conference took place in Eugene’s Southeast Neighbors neighborhood at a stop for route 28, one of the routes that will be affected if LTD adopts the current Transit Tomorrow proposal. Davidson spoke to address what she saw as a lack of “real” outreach and a proposed system that “doesn’t reflect our values.”
The Transit Tomorrow proposal would prioritize routes with higher rates of ridership, according to the Transit Tomorrow website. In other words, Transit Tomorrow would shift resources to bus routes with more riders and reduce, remove or combine routes with fewer riders. The LTD Strategic Planning Committee announced on Nov. 5, 2019 that if Transit Tomorrow goes through in its current form, high-ridership routes would receive 50% of LTD resources, an increase from their current 17%.
RELATED: LTD plans changes to services with Transit Tomorrow
LTD developed the current Transit Tomorrow plan after engaging in public outreach throughout Eugene and Springfield. That outreach included tabling at several locations across the area, a public listening session and online advertisements according to LTD documents. Those documents say that LTD’s outreach efforts engaged more than 62,000 people, however, that figure includes measurements such as two Facebook videos that LTD reported had a “reach” of 27,452 but only got 5,415 views.
In Davidson’s prepared remarks she said that, though LTD performed surveys that asked whether LTD users would prefer more neighborhood bus routes or greater frequency, Davidson didn’t think the trade-off was made clear enough. “Never did they ask people, ‘Would you like more service, more frequent service, by the way at the expense of other people in the city not having service at all.’”
Russel Brink, a resident of south Eugene and route 28 rider, brought up the additional costs he’ll incur having to use taxis or rideshare services if his bus stop is no longer serviced. “We’re just hoping LTD will take another look,” he said.
In response to Davidson’s press conference, LTD Assistant General Manager Mark Johnson commented, “Did we go door-knocking to every neighbor in South Eugene? No. But we did talk to bus riders in South Eugene.” He also said that Transit Tomorrow is still in its planning phase and that the current proposal is still subject to revision based on community feedback.
LTD will meet March 18 to present another option for what Transit Tomorrow could look like. After that meeting, there will be several months open for public comment before the board makes its final decision on June 17.
