JTA Bus System Lowly #70 of 100 in U.S.

[stjr]

Lousy bus system.  Lousy Skyway.  Wasted money pushing urban sprawl roads.  Millions and millions spent with nothing but headaches to show for it.  What is JTA good at?

Jacksonville's transit system grades below average, policy group says
JTA: Too much city, not enough funds.
Posted: May 12, 2011 - 12:00am

The Brookings report was not kind to Florida and Georgia, with no metropolitan areas in the two states ranking in the top 50.

Honolulu ranked first; among others in the top 10 were Tuscon, Ariz.; Fresno, Calif.; Denver; and Salt Lake City. New York, Boston and Philadelphia, which are seen as having top-notch transit systems, graded lower than expected because they didn't offer very good service out to the suburbs.

By Larry Hannan

Kelly Shipman has never ridden a Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus and probably never will.

Frustrated with high gas prices, the 39-year-old Northside resident looked into the possibility of taking the bus to her job off Butler Boulevard a few weeks ago. Studying the bus schedules, Shipman realized that to arrive by 9 a.m. she would have to leave her house before 6 a.m. and ride three different buses. It would also take her about three hours to get home at night.

"It actually saves me both time and money to drive my car," she said.

Shipman isn't the only one finding fault with the bus system. Today, a Washington-based nonprofit public policy organization is releasing a report grading the JTA bus system as below average compared with other transit systems in the country.

City ranks No. 70

The Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution ranked the transit systems in the 100 largest metro areas in the country, and Jacksonville ranked 70th. The report found that only 58 percent of the city's working-age residents live near a transit stop (the national average was 69 percent), the average wait for a bus is 15.2 minutes (national average was 10.1 minutes) and 23 percent of jobs in Jacksonville can be reached by bus within 90 minutes (average was 30 percent).

"If you're looking for a job in Jacksonville," said Adie Tomer, a senior research analyst at Brookings, "relying on the bus system is probably not a good idea."

The city suffers from urban sprawl: About 37 percent of the available jobs are 10 miles away from the bus system.

"With unemployment high, we hope some of the cities in the study take a look at this report," Tomer said, "and ask if there's a way to make the bus system more friendly toward employees and businesses."

Candace Moody, spokeswoman for WorkSource, a state-funded agency that matches job-seekers with employers, said the bus system doesn't help the unemployed, or people who need to ride the bus to keep their job. All the city's bus routes go into the downtown area, so cross-town trips can take hours, Moody said.

"I think this is a ranking we deserve," she said.

JTA spokeswoman Shannon Eller said the report doesn't account for unique conditions in each city or metro area.

She defended JTA by citing Jacksonville's large land area and low tax rate. The lack of revenue and the spread-out nature of the population make it harder for JTA to offer service to everyone, she said.

"Transit systems that connect people to jobs," Eller said, "are far more effective when the city has a strong employment center based downtown," and Jacksonville doesn't.

JTA also is working with a budget that doesn't grow and ridership that has increased by 8 percent this year, Eller said. Ridership is up because of the recession and high gas prices.

WorkSource estimates 60,000 jobs in the region have been lost since the recession began in 2008.

A JTA origin and destination study from 2006 showed that nearly 60 percent of JTA riders don't have a working vehicle in their household, and 79 percent of riders use the bus to travel to and from work.

Patient passengers

On Wednesday, people who ride the bus more or less agreed with the report.

Bonnie Kilgore, 43, who lives off Beach and University boulevards, said the JTA bus system is inferior to systems she's used as a resident of Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta. (The Brookings report ranked Atlanta below Jacksonville.)

The buses don't run often enough in Jacksonville, Kilgore said, with a bus coming only once an hour in some places. Most bus stops also lack protection from heat and rain, and it takes too long to get anywhere on the buses, she said.

Marvin Levin left his house off Beach Boulevard at 8 a.m. Wednesday. At 11 a.m. he was ready to board the fourth and final bus that would take him from Regency Square to his doctor off Hodges Boulevard.

"I'm new to riding the bus," said Levin, 80. "So I'm not sure if this was the best way to do it."

Levin recently decided to start riding the bus system to save money, and admits to being mystified by the bus schedule.

"I'm not complaining because I don't have to pay," he said. "But it does take a long time to get anywhere."

larry.hannan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4470

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-05-12/story/jacksonvilles-transit-system-grades-below-average-policy-group-says-0#ixzz1MBsdVKdp

[tufsu1]

there was another thread on this topic earlier today...but noiw I can't find it

In case anyone wants to read the report, it can be found here

http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2011/0512_jobs_and_transit.aspx

[danem]

With all the bus routes are truly going to the downtown area, it sounds like the route planning is one geared towards a smaller city! It seems like it'd be a complex undertaking to do it right. Perhaps divide the city into regions and give each region a "hub" that all the routes can go to?

[Coolyfett]

At least Jax has a Football team.

[Coolyfett]

With all the bus routes are truly going to the downtown area, it sounds like the route planning is one geared towards a smaller city! It seems like it'd be a complex undertaking to do it right. Perhaps divide the city into regions and give each region a "hub" that all the routes can go to?

YES!!! We have a winner!!!

Jax needs 4 Rosa Park Stations. 2 on Southside 1 on Northside, 1 on Westside connect them via rail...used the Rosa Park property for something else.

[Doctor_K]

With all the bus routes are truly going to the downtown area, it sounds like the route planning is one geared towards a smaller city! It seems like it'd be a complex undertaking to do it right. Perhaps divide the city into regions and give each region a "hub" that all the routes can go to?

YES!!! We have a winner!!!

Jax needs 4 Rosa Park Stations. 2 on Southside 1 on Northside, 1 on Westside connect them via rail...used the Rosa Park property for something else.

Brilliant!  +1!

[Jason]

JTA: Too much city, not enough funds.

Soooo who built the roads further sprawling the city?

[tufsu1]

At least Jax has a Football team.

careful...Atlanta ranked #94

[Garden guy]

I have'nt seen the list but is there a conservative southern city on the top ten?

[Doctor_K]

I have'nt seen the list but is there a conservative southern city on the top ten?

No.  the only conservative city in the top ten is Salt Lake City, UT.

[thelakelander]

Salt Lake City is pretty progressive when it comes to mass transit and promoting urban infill. In the last decade they've built LRT, commuter rail, SJTC style retail in downtown as TOD and are now moving forward with a modern streetcar line. Did I mention that the metro is smaller in population than Jax's?

[exnewsman]

Didn't SLC get all that rolling when they were hosting the Winter Olympics?

[tufsu1]

Didn't SLC get all that rolling when they were hosting the Winter Olympics?

yes

[thelakelander]

Yes, SLC opened the door when opportunity knocked. Houston did as well, using hosting the super bowl as a way to move forward with their LRT project.  In the last decade, we ran away from the door of opportunity a couple of times. The BJP $100 million and the super bowl were two blown opportunities.

[peestandingup]

JTA: Too much city, not enough funds.

Soooo who built the roads further sprawling the city?

Decades of lack of leadership, vision & focus. Sprinkled on top with good ol boy mentality & the ignorant notion that expansion = always a good thing, and here we are.

JTA does suck, but they're also dealing with a sucky situation that is basically unmanageable. I honestly don't know how you fix something like this. Because it's easy to expand & swell out, but almost impossible to undo the damage when it's to such an insane degree as we have done here.

They'd pretty much have to stop transit in a huge chunk of Jax, which at this point might not be a terrible idea, but then you've got all those developments & neighborhoods that have already been established with people in them that rely on transit, so you'd be screwing them completely. They're part of the "city of Jacksonville" after all.

But hey, you could always just wait until you get someone like Mike Hogan in office who wants to keep this train wreck mentality of unsustainable outward expansion going & just sit back & wait until it all comes crashing down.