Cape County transit woes get evaluation

The United Way of Southeast Missouri knows the problem. The Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority knows the problem.

Nip Kelley Transportation, Southeast Missouri Alliance for Disabilities Independence and anyone who doesn't have a car and needs a ride to work in Cape Girardeau knows the problem.

Frank Spielberg? He doesn't yet know the extent of the public transportation woes in Cape Girardeau County.

But he's beginning to find out.

Spielberg, a public transportation problem-solver, has been talking to transportation officials since Wednesday, kicking off a long-awaited study aimed at assessing and forming a plan to combine several transit services scattered around the county.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will fund the study.

Spielberg said he is in the early stages of gathering data, a process that will include public input.

So far, Spielberg has found many of the same transportation complaints made here as in other cities.

He said there aren't as many agencies here as there have been in some other cities he's studied, but added there seems to be a lack of information available to the public, creating confusion among riders. He also said that Cape Girardeau may have outgrown its taxi-coupon program, which was established in the 1980s.

Spielberg said his company will conduct telephone surveys, set up information booths and different retail areas throughout the city and organize more formal, announced public meetings.

After completing a round of data collection sometime this fall, BMI-SG will formulate a strategy, bring it back for more public comment and then issue a recommendation to MoDOT sometime next spring.

As for now, he said he's talking to three types of groups: the agencies that provide transportation, the agencies that purchase transportation and the clients that need transportation.

Conducting an inventory

"I'm just conducting an inventory right now," Spielberg said. "Who do you carry? How many do you serve? What do you charge? Things like that. On the other side, I'm looking at how they're funding transportation."

Public transportation was cited as the area's No. 1 problem in a comprehensive study conducted by the United Way of Southeast Missouri in the spring.

"Between all the agencies, there are 300,000 transit trips annually, and it still remains one of the biggest problems in the county," said transit authority executive director Jeff Brune. "This study could've gone anywhere in the state, but the state decided we needed it most."

BMI-SG has done several such studies, Spielberg said.

"We have a pretty good idea of what other cities like Cape Girardeau have done," he said. "But every city is different. Some might think Cape Girardeau is a small area, but it's pretty spread out."

Brune said he's excited now that the study has begun.

"We have no idea what the study will come out and say," he said. "There will be different types of options to pursue. It won't be 'This is what the study says and this is what we have to do.' It'll help put the pieces together and show us how to be the most cost-effective and efficient system in the state, or at least one of them."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635