Comments on Tacoma Tomorrow: Post-Portland Transit Trauma (PPTT)

Nick, I hear you, but a full on municipal transit ...

2011-10-03T15:21:03.071-07:00

Nick, I hear you, but a full on municipal transit system would be difficult to pull off without more authority from the State to raise operating funds. Right now, all we pretty much have to do that is a small amount of sales tax authority and some vehicle license fees.

What I think the City should do, and it can do, is to raise some funds for blocks of trips that would run within the City proper only. Route 1 running only within the City (or to Parkland) would take significantly less time, which means you get more frequency per service hour. We could fund a few late night trips to make sure that people don't get stranded when they get off the 594.

Tacoma should lead the way on this, though. Our people are willing to pay for more service. We can serve as a collaborative example for the rest of the county.

I wish this blog had a physical manifestation that...

2011-10-03T15:06:57.547-07:00

I wish this blog had a physical manifestation that one could hit people over the head with.

I liked today's post alot. I've been at y...

2011-10-03T12:21:41.390-07:00

I liked today's post alot. I've been at your steps 1-4 many a times. Unfortanately, with hour headways and my route ending at 7, I've resigned myself to use my car more than I want to.

When I send an email to the board, should send it everyone or just the ones in my voting district?

So I'm conflicted about this whole thing. I to...

2011-10-03T10:14:31.466-07:00

So I'm conflicted about this whole thing. I totally get that rural Pierce County basically kills any chance of getting PT the funding that it needs. But I also feel like if we trim too much of the county away, PT ceases to be a county-wide transit authority. At that point, should we really still call it Pierce Transit when most of its routes begin and end within Tacoma city limits?

To me, PT should be just that: a RTA that interconnects the county. A limited number of routes that connect significant parts of the county to each other. That being the case, a part of me thinks that what we really need is a *municipal* transit authority. That, or Pierce Transit needs to create transit districts that operate on he same principle as Sound Transit's sub-area equity.

Creating a muni transit agency could mean a lot of things: an operator for a city-wide streetcar network, a more targeted method for funding transit where it is needed most, and it would naturally allocate votes from the most transit-friendly portion of our county.