Council needs to hear support for buses

By ROBERT G. LIMING - Guest Columnist

Richland County faces a critical transportation crossroads this month, and each of us must stand up and be counted, or we’ll miss the bus!

For nearly a year and half, a 39-member volunteer Richland County Transportation Commission has wrestled with concerns ranging from sadly inadequate bus service to nerve-jarring traffic jams on Hard Scrabble Road to the width of bike paths in Shandon. The panel’s objective: Develop a comprehensive plan to fund and meet the county’s transportation needs for generations yet unborn.

Later this month, the commission will present its findings to the 11 elected members of Richland County Council, who will then confront the crisis head-on. What they do with the report, and particularly the portion dealing with public transit funding, depends entirely on each of us. If we don’t speak out forcefully in support of our system, we just might see bus service disappear.

Last year, our bus system provided 2.6 million individual trips, and a survey conducted by the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority showed 76 percent of riders were commuting to jobs in hospitals, restaurants, schools, hotels and service industries. Some 36 percent identified themselves as senior citizens headed to grocery stores, church, essential medical appointments or even work, and many are simply the neediest in our community, with no hope of finding other means of transportation.

It takes more than $12 million a year to operate our woefully underfunded bus system. But the commission will strongly recommend major improvements in service quality, route structure and service frequency on all existing and future bus lines. This will require about $14 million annually over the next eight years.

The commission developed a master plan identifying more than $3.8 billion in vital transportation needs throughout the county during the next 25 years. It will recommend that $450 million worth of these improvements be phased in over an eight-year initial cycle, with the vast majority, $270 million, dedicated to essential road projects, and $112.5 million going toward operating and enhancing countywide bus services.

Forced to consider all options, from the unpopular motor vehicle registration fee to increasing recently rolled back property taxes or eliminating vital services, the commission is compelled to advocate a one-penny dedicated transportation sales tax. It’s the only revenue source that can produce sufficient dollars and impact each citizen equally.

No politician who retains his sanity wants to recommend a sales tax increase, especially in these tight economic times, and like you I don’t want to pay one penny more each time I get my dry cleaning or groceries or buy a hot dog. Yet, if we want to keep buses rolling, avoid traffic jams and prevent being forced to walk along a muddy roadside drainage ditch because there are no sidewalks, we have no other choice.

Two years ago, our transit system was on financial life-support, doomed to certain death. Then a coalition of concerned citizens — rich and poor, black and white, Republican, Democrat and independent — united with one voice and begged County Council to rescue our bus system.

Like heroes in a John Wayne epic, a courageous bipartisan cavalry charge by a majority of County Council galloped to the cliff and saved the buses.

It’s time again to tell them we must have their help to secure permanent funding for a bus system that truly serves and helps all of our citizens.

Hate it, rant about it, and scream from the rooftops — hey, even form your own protest group — but have the courage to face reality. If you want Richland County to grow and prosper, if you want safe streets and sidewalks for your toddler and your grandmother, if you want to get to work in a few minutes rather than hours, if you want to take your grandkids to Riverbanks Zoo or EdVenture by bus, then you and I will have to pay for it.

Mr. Liming is chairman of the Save Our Buses coalition and serves on the Richland County Transportation Commission’s transit subcommittee.