C-TRAN is banking on the fact if they build it you will come … and ride the new $53-million Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, The Vine. C-TRAN seems to be using taxpayer money to market BRT rather than addressing legitimate service needs.
On Aug. 19, 2015, The Columbian reported that C-TRAN expects The Vine project to boost ridership along the corridor – by 30 percent its first year. C-TRAN ridership dropped 3 percent January through June 2015. This March, C-TRAN reported there are 6,000 daily trips on Fourth Plain, Routes No. 4 and No. 44. These combined routes will be The Vine’s new Fourth Plain service.
Presuming most people make round trips, that’s approximately 3,000 riders daily. With 15-minute frequency and 20 hours per weekday, that’s 37 new riders every 15 minutes. This number seems high compared to the nearly empty C-TRAN buses driving around. Also, two-thirds or $6.7 million of C-TRAN’s uncommitted capital reserves will be used for this project, $11.2 million for 10 new buses and $421,000 on functional art. Is this really the best way to spend taxpayer money – especially when the citizens voted against BRT measures in 2012 and 2013?
As a former grant writer, I was interested to see the FTA Small Starts Grant description and award for this project. Right away, I noticed the eligibility criteria seemed to match many of the benefits The Vine offers. The grant reads, “… a Small Starts project must either (a)…(b)… or (c) be new corridor-based bus project with all of the following minimum elements: Substantial transit stations, Traffic signal priority/pre-emption, to the extent, if any, that there are traffic signals on the corridor, Low-floor vehicles or level boarding, Branding of the proposed service, and 10 minute peak/15 minute off peak headways or better while operating at least 14 hours per weekday.” It looks like getting the grant drove most of The Vine project elements, versus having a local need for these requirements.
The C-TRAN BRT Grant Project Description reads: “The Clark County Public Transit Benefit Area Authority (C-TRAN) proposes to construct the first bus rapid transit (BRT) line in the Vancouver/Portland region as well as the first BRT line in the Clark County High Capacity Transit (HCT) System Plan.”
Since the CRC Light Rail project is dead, this should be removed. Details on C-TRAN’s grant can be found at http://www.fta.dot.gov/12304_14366.html. All this makes me wonder who C-TRAN is really building The Vine for … us or them?
Vicki Kraft
Vancouver
