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News
Park-n-Ride revenue, ridership info sought : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisPark-n-Ride revenue, ridership info sought
| Oswego officials seeking data from Pace; riders urge continued village funding
| by John Etheredge
| 3/4/2010
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Village of Oswego officials want further clarification from the Pace Suburban Bus Company that the village is receiving its fair share of the proceeds bus fares paid by users of the village's Metra Park-n-Ride facility.
Gary Adams, village administrator, told village board's finance committee last Wednesday evening he would invite Pace to send a representative to the committee's next meeting on Wednesday, March 10 to answer questions about the bus fare proceeds and ridership trends from the facility near the northwest corner of Orchard and Mill Roads.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at village hall.
Adams proposed inviting Pace to send a representative after committee members pointed out some apparent discrepancies between the amount Pace is reimbursing the village in fare proceeds and the number of Metra riders using the facility.
Opened in June 2004, the Park-n-Ride serves as an auxiliary parking lot for area Metra riders who use the Metra station at the Aurora Transportation Center in downtown Aurora. The facility is also designed to accommodate a full-fledged Metra station if and when the service is extended southwest from Aurora.
Pace buses currently make six trips from the Park-n-Ride to the ATC on weekday mornings and six evening return trips. Parking is free in the Park-n-Ride lot and a one-way bus fare is $1.75.
The village used federal transportation grants to underwrite the cost of operating the Park-n-Ride, but Adams advised the committee last month that the grant funds have run out. In addition, Pace has requested a $169,000 subsidy from the village to continue bus services to the Park-n-Ride for the next year.
Citing budget constraints, the committee agreed last month to have Adams contact Pace to determine how much service the agency could provide if the village reduced its subsidy to $85,000.
Adams told the committee that Pace officials have subsequently advised him that bus service would "essentially be cut in half" to the Park-n-Ride in the event the village reduced its funding for the service to $85,000.
The prospect that bus service to the Park-n-Ride might be reduced or even eliminated by the village is a concern for users of the facility, the committee learned.
More people using
facility, board told
Sarah Richardson, an Oswego resident and Park-n-Ride user, said she believes that more Metra riders are using the facility than Pace has been reporting to the village.
In addition, Richardson said recent village police counts of vehicles parked in the lot does not provide an accurate number of people actually boarding buses at the Park-n-Ride.
"Car counting is not accurate as it does not include riders that car pool, walk to the Park-n-Ride or get dropped off," Richardson said. "There are a number of riders that do not drive, so they do not park at the facility."
She added, "The ridership counts provided by Pace appear to be extremely low. I've analyzed the numbers that I have obtained from Gary (Adams) and they simply don't make sense and I have been a regular rider on multiple buses throughout the week and months over the last six years."
Richardson disputed ridership figures reviewed last month by the committee that indicate that there has been a decrease in ridership from the Park-n-Ride from last year to this year.
"There is actually an increase in ridership anywhere from 20 to more than 50 percent from last year to this year-certainly not a decrease," Richardson said.
"A decision cannot be made concerning future funding of the Park-n-Ride without a comprehensive analysis based upon accurate ridership counts and accurate fare data," she said.
In considering the future funding of the Park-n-Ride, Richardson urged committee members to remember that some village residents decided to purchase their homes in the village based upon the presence of the Park-n-Ride.
"Many riders have arranged their work schedules with their employers and make their schedule for their children around the Pace schedule currently in place. Any significant cut in service or discontinuing of the service would have a far reaching impact on many riders," she concluded.
Richardson's husband, Dave, also a Park-n-Ride user, said he and Sarah have lived in the village for the past six years and chose to stay in the village rather than move to another western suburb because of the local Park-n-Ride.
Richardson said the Park-n-Ride is serving as an economic engine for continued business and residential development in the village.
The presence of the Park-n-Ride increases the value of nearby homes, generating additional property tax revenues, while users of the facility shop in local stores like the nearby Jewel and Walgreens, which helps boost village sales tax dollars, Richardson said.
Closing or cutting bus service to the Park-n-Ride would cause an "economic blight" on the village's west side of "major proportion," Richardson said. "Properties values will go down-guaranteed--and businesses will close-guaranteed and that will mean no tax dollars."
Richardson added that more could be done to promote the use of the Park-n-Ride. He suggested additional signs could be put up on local highways and main streets in the village directing people to the facility.
"We have very poor advertising for our Park-n-Ride on the village web site and it's doing a disservice to village residents," he added.
"Finally, the Park-n-Ride is one of the few working economic engines in the community that must not be dismantled or cut because if we let it go, I'm sure another community like Montgomery will recognize it as an economic engine and, by all the newspaper reports I read, they are already have recognized it as being so. So let's not be short-sighted and keep something that is already working."
Responding to the Richardsons' comments, Adams said the whole reason the Park-n-Ride is under review is because of the village's current budget problems.
"No one is saying the Park-n-Ride ride isn't good or it doesn't give good service," he said. "That's not in question. It's a matter of the budgetary problems that the village and just about every other local unit of government are facing."
Committee Chairman Terry Michels said the committee will discuss the Park-n-Ride funding issue further at their next meeting on Wednesday, March 10. The issue could then be placed on the agenda for the village board's March 16 meeting for discussion and a possible vote on the funding issue, Michels said. The March 10 committee will begin at 7 p.m. at village hall, 100 Parkers Mill, and is open to the public.
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