The MT Position

By Kim Krushell

In 1996, Allan Bolstad, a city councilor in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, came up with an idea: on New Year’s Eve, when public transit in Edmonton is free, buses could collect donations in their fare boxes, with the money collected purchasing transit tickets for Edmontonians in need. From this one gesture, Donate-a-Ride was born.

Donate-a-Ride, an award-winning program and Edmonton’s only city council-created charity, is a community fundraising initiative providing transit tickets to charitable agencies to assist clients in crisis on a short-term basis. Without transportation access, people can miss out on everything from work and educational opportunities to medical treatments and access to basic services. In 2009, 59 charitable agencies received more than 88,000 transit tickets, which in turn served thousands of needy Edmontonians.

Funds for Donate-a-Ride are raised through sponsorship from corporations, public sector organizations and unions, the support of the city of Edmonton, and through donations from private citizens. Every year, we launch our annual fundraising drive in late December. From New Year’s Eve through the end of January, collection boxes are available on all city buses. Our program and sponsor list continue to grow; during last year’s campaign, we passed the $1 million mark in the value of tickets we have distributed to participating agencies since the start of the program.

Since my election to Edmonton City Council in 2004, I have had the privilege of serving as chair of the Donate-a-Ride Steering Committee. Working with City Council, and representatives from our city transit department and our major sponsors, we have continued to promote and to grow the program in recent years. I have been especially happy to see the continued support of our long time sponsors and partners through the recent economic downturn. They have continued to support it in spite of challenges they may face in their own businesses and organizations. This is important, because economic downturns often exacerbate the need for a program such as this one. That our program has continued to go ahead relatively unaffected speaks to our strong community spirit.

I take a lot of pride in the good work this program has done in Edmonton, but I’d also love to see this program — or similar ones — take root in other communities. I was given the opportunity to present on ‘How to Create a Donate-a-Ride Program in Your City’ at the June meeting of the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) in Whistler, British Columbia. We have also created a section on the Donate-a-Ride Web site outlining how to create a similar program in your city. We hold no proprietary rights over the program or the name; if you do start your own program, we’d appreciate knowing so we can recognize it and link to it from our Web site. We are also happy to provide advice or support (especially in the form of templates for sponsorship forms, brochures, etc.) to the best of our ability.

If you would like to sponsor Donate-a-Ride, are interested in how to create your own program, or would simply like to learn more, please visit our Web site, call me at (780) 496-8136, or email me.

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season,

Kim Krushell
City Councillor
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit editor

So what did you wish for this year from Santa Claus? A bright, shiny, new hybrid bus? Your own train line to play with? More operational funding? How about peace in Congress and goodwill toward a transportation funding bill?

I love Christmas. I love everything about it. I love setting up the Christmas tree with the family (despite my three-year-old taking the ornaments and ‘hanging’ them all over the house). I love Christmas carols. I even love giving presents more than getting them (don’t kid yourself, I still love getting them).

But what I love the most is how people just generally are nicer this time of year. Sure there are Scrooges who pop up every year, but for the most part everyone’s spirits are lifted during the holiday season.

In that vein, instead of my usual rant, I’d like to thank all of our cover agencies this year for letting us visit their systems and making us feel welcome. So thank you to everyone at:

• Madison Metro
• Houston Metro
• King County Metro
• Chicago Transit Authority
• Big Blue Bus
• Rail Runner
• Dallas Area Rapid Transit

Also thank you to everyone who helped make this one of the best years in my time here at Mass Transit. Congratulations to all of our 2009 Top 40 Under 40 winners — I can’t wait to see the nominees for next year’s class. And most of all, thank you to everyone in the public transportation industry for doing everything you do to keep the buses and trains moving.

This is the last blog for 2009, so check back in 2010 for even more of everything you love from Mass Transit as we add Tuesdays to our repertoire and take the newsletter daily!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit editor

Remember this time last year? I do. This time last year we were talking about auto industry bail outs and what the new administration would be bringing to transit with hopeful baited breath. This year it’s us waiting with baited breath to see where the FRA is going to spend its $8 billion while we shake our heads as Congress plays Scrooge with a new transportation funding bill.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand there are a lot of issues going on, but SAFETEA-LU expired at the end of September. Since then federal transportation funding has dropped by $1 billion … a month.

A month.

Let that sink in a minute. That is $3 billion dollars already. In the larger scheme of things is that a lot? Yes. That is nearly half of the FRA funding dollars people are falling all over themselves about. Give it until the end of January and it will be half. By the time that APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference rolls around it will nearly be the whole amount.

Meanwhile people are still out of work. You can argue the efficacy of the term “shovel ready” all you want, but an extra $3 billion funding for transportation funding will put some people back to work and keep others in their current positions.

So if the president, the House and the Senate all agree that increased funding for transportation is not just desired, but required, then what is holding it up from happening?

As always it comes down to who gets stuck with the bill. Well, that’s not entirely true. We know who is going to be stuck with the bill, you and me. What is holding it up is the federal government’s version of Cerberus guarding funding deciding what is the most palatable way for it to take money out of our pockets.

 Are we going to have an increased gas tax? A new vehicle-miles-traveled fee? Tolling? Public-private partnerships? How about selling naming rights to our highways?

Just take I-Verizon to Highway Microsoft and turn left on Aetna Boulevard.

The federal government is fiddling while the United States transportation network is burning. Transit agencies are cutting service and raising fares despite surges in ridership. Our infrastructure is in such a dilapidated state it’s laughable. And at a time when we desperately need to get people back to work, we’re worrying about which way to pay a bill rather than just doing it.

Figure it out already. Public transportation won’t get any better while the federal government dithers while the perfect storm of unemployment, infrastructure collapse and lack of funding tears through our country.

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit editor

One of transit’s biggest challenges is overcoming the stigma of who is riding its buses and trains and how it may not necessarily be the safest way for people to get from one place to another. Unfortunately, lately it seems that this myth about transit being unsafe is truer than we would want to believe.

Posting news everyday for the Mass Transit Web site, I see a lot of what is going on in transit across the country. There is a lot of news that we don’t post because, well, I could spend my entire day, every day, doing that. I try to put up stories that I feel that our audience wants to see. And from the number of hits on our news stories, we’re doing a pretty good job.

Of course, sometimes I feel like we only report on bad news. Transit has a lot going for it, but what makes the newspapers are the bad things. Take for example the story about the girls in Stamford attacking a conductor or the guy in Edmonton who attacked a bus driver.

Both of these are huge stories and will get a lot of attention, but both of them give the impression that transit isn’t safe. And reading them, I would be a little nervous the next time some unruly passenger gets on board my train or bus. Of course, I’m probably perfectly safe.

See, transit is unsafe — for the agency employees. It’s rare that you see stories about passengers getting attacked, but you see stories about bus drivers getting beat up on a regular basis. Rail workers seem to be a little safer, but don’t say that to the conductor in Stamford.

Frankly, as a passenger I would be worried about riding transit. And why not? If we can’t protect our own employees, how can we be expected to protect our passengers?

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!