HomeMy WebLinkAbout032226 email - Transit Board_ ideas to increase ridershipALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Hello,
To start, we would like to thank you for the work that you have done and continue to do to support public transportation in our communities. Please accept our apologies for missing
the feedback deadline of March 17. The time of your meetings is during the work day and we normally cannot attend.
We use public transport because we believe in it and because we consider our carbon footprint when making decisions. We can drive, we have a car, and we can cycle and walk as needed.
Therefore, we don't strictly need a bus service. We do, however, value it and it was the key factor when we purchased our home on Cook Avenue. Bus number three stops one block away.
Our goal is to use our car no more than once each week, and the bus has allowed us to meet this goal most weeks. We take it to medical appointments, shopping, out for a meal or to
meet friends, and to the ferry in Port T and in Kingston. It is an important part of our lives in Port Townsend.
Bus number three has little ridership and it makes sense that it is not financially viable. However, we do think that there is more that could be done to attract riders, and some of
our ideas come from communities around the country which actively worked to increase public transport use. If we consider why people who value the earth do not take the bus, one reason
may be habit or something of an addiction. In order to help people break a habit, the transit board could consider options like:
1. City or county wide challenge: give up driving one day each week and replace this with walking, cycling, and public transport. Offer prizes, perhaps. After a 6 month period, encourage
giving up the car twice each week, and so on.
2. School challenge: same thing for school age children, including the massage school
3. Employer challenge: same thing
4. Actively advertise at the Port T and Keystone ferry terminals. We have suggested this in the past. There is no information about local transit in either location.
5. Actively market to lodging facilities: even Fort Worden lacks information about our transit system, and so do the local hotels and motels. Do visitors know that they can walk off
the ferry in Port Townsend and two buses later spend an hour at Wilderbee Farm? Or get off at the fairgrounds? Play golf? Shop at Habitat or Goodwill?
6. Continue to put up paper schedules at stops and businesses. This certainly cannot be too costly, and many people in the area do not have smart phones or prefer to go out without
them. We have suggested this numerous times, to no avail. We often wonder if the bus system prefers to be a secret, because it is not well-marketed.
Sometimes it takes a lot of encouragement or enticement to change habits, and we hope that the transit board will consider these ideas.
Kind regards,
Terri & Keith Taylor
Cook Ave
Port Townse