For this week's edition of Growing, Idaho,
we're asking a question for one of our
viewers where's the public transportation?
A single mother in Kuna sent us an e-mail.
She's working hard to provide for her kids,
but her car is on its last legs,
and without that,
it's going to be really hard to
get around in the treasure valley.
That's because, for her,
there are just too few public
transportation options.
3.
What?
Everywhere you look, things are growing.
The population, homes, businesses, traffic.
But what about public transportation to
ease that traffic and move all these
new people around and not so much.
That's something that Stephen Hunt,
the chief development officer at Valley
Regional Transit, admits is true.
We haven't been able to to
keep up with with growth.
If you didn't know Valley Regional Transit,
BRT is the Public transportation
authority for the Treasure Valley.
That includes specialized.
And services, paratransit,
park-and-ride but mostly buses.
So why haven't we seen the number
of buses on the road increase at
the same rate as the population.
As you might have guessed
it comes down to money.
There isn't any direct mechanism that
would provide additional revenue for public
transportation as as the region grows.
So that's the nut we've been trying
to track for the last 20 plus years.
They do have bus fare,
but those fares need to be
very affordable so while.
$2.50 for an all Day Pass is
a great value for riders.
It doesn't really pay
the bills for VRT. It's
not sufficient to cover all the
the operating costs by any means.
And that's that's true for us,
that's true for transit across the country.
So they also rely on federal grants,
advertising revenue and
maybe the biggest source,
cities in the Treasure Valley.
But again, those contributions
have not kept up with growth. We
are dependent on voluntary
contributions from local.
Jurisdictions to grow our operating budget.
And so that means that
when when a city grows,
we would have to go back and ask
the city for additional revenue
for to be able to expand service,
which they've been able to do in some ways.
Meridian is seeing expanded service
along Pine and Fairview, and there
should be more busing options in Eagle
and CUNA soon. But Hunt says it's
much easier to expand service when
cities are developed with public
transportation in mind. That
really starts to matter how
those buildings are constructed.
For instance, people have told him,
hey, you should put a bunch
of bus stops on Eagle Rd.
Fortunately, Eagle Rd, also a highway, really
was not built for bus stops.
So that is. Another
barrier that we face, particularly in
in the valley, is ensuring that the
infrastructure and the development
is done in such a way that makes
transit at least not offensive.
At least it doesn't.
It doesn't assault you when you're trying to.
When you're trying to use it like,
Oh my gosh, I've gotta stand
next to 60 mile an hour traffic.
But if that happens and we see
public transportation expand at
the same rate as our population,
will people actually use it?
People love their cars around here.
Will we see more people willing to
choose a bus over buying and driving a
car to actually make the tax money put
into public transportation worth it?
Hunt says.
It's not about the question of
if there's enough demand.
For public transportation,
but rather will there be an increased
demand on just getting around?
I think you have to ask the question,
well, is there traffic in the valley,
is there transportation demand
that grows in the valley?
And that is clearly, yes, there there is.
There's a lot of traffic and
transportation demand in the valley.
The question is how can public
transportation be used to help
meet some of those needs?
And the only way it's going to meet those
needs is if the service is is available
essentially. VRT builds it.
They will come, hopefully.
Back to the e-mail we got from
the single mother in Kuna.
Now VRT says they are working with
the city of Kuna to expand services
there and will will be sending
out a survey soon asking folks
what sort of public transportation
options they would like to see in
Kuna until more busing options get
out there or wherever you are.
They do have other options like
a volunteer driver program,
and to see all the options around you,
you can go to their website.
We have a link to that in this story
at ktvb.com when it gets posted.
A little later this morning.