Consultant offers city three options for area public transport

A transit consultant has singled out three options for improving public transportation in Cape Girardeau. Two of them center on establishing a fixed-route passenger van service.

But Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson said any major upgrade to the city's taxi coupon program or establishment of a bus system would be costly and require voters to approve a tax to fund it.

It's uncertain if the council would even submit such a tax to voters.

Knudtson said buying the necessary vehicles isn't the major expense. "It is on-going operating expenses which have served to be the nail in the coffin for a lot of fixed-route transit systems because they won't pay for themselves," he said.

But the mayor said the council would be willing to look at the various transit options.

The United Way of Southeast Missouri for years has singled out public transportation as the area's top problem.

In Cape Girardeau, the only public transit programs are the subsidized taxi-coupon program, the Southeast Missourian State University shuttle bus system, and van services for disabled residents.

The Missouri Department of Transportation last year awarded a $225,000 contract to a Virginia consulting firm, BMI-SG, to find solutions to the area's public transit problems.

Transit consultant Frank Spielberg has spent the past year identifying the transportation problems and devising possible solutions.

Spielberg suggests three options for improving public transportation:

* Restructure the taxi voucher program.

* Establish a fixed-route van system and eliminate the taxi-coupon program.

* Establish a fixed-route system and also maintain the taxi-coupon program.

Spielberg will present those options to the public at open-house-style meetings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 3 to 7 p.m.

The first meeting will be held at the Salvation Army building in Cape Girardeau. The second at the Missouri Extension center in Jackson and the third at the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau.

Spielberg plans to make formal presentations at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. during each of those meetings.

He expects to present his final recommendations to MoDOT by January.

But any final funding decisions about transit services in Cape Girardeau would rest with the city council.

A fixed-route system in Cape Girardeau could cost $650,000 a year or more than double the current cost of the subsidized taxi service, Spielberg said. That estimate assumes the city drops the taxi-voucher program.

Keeping the taxi-coupon program and adding a fixed-route van service would cost an estimated $760,000 a year, the consultant said.

As for restructuring the taxi-coupon program, Spielberg said the city could require the Kelley Taxi Co., the community's only taxi service, to pick up voucher passengers within a certain amount of time. The company would receive less of a reimbursement from the city if it failed to meet that condition, Spielberg said.

Customers currently can't pre-schedule taxi rides. That's inconvenient for those who want to take a taxi to work every day or take other scheduled trips.

Spielberg suggested that the taxi company could accommodate standing requests for rides provided that customers have accounts with the firm so they can be charged in the event that the customer is a no-show.

Another possibility, he said, would be to allow customers to get exclusive rides in taxis for an added expense.

That way customers can get to their destinations quicker because there won't be other passengers in the taxi and other stops along the way, Spielberg said.

But the added cost of exclusive rides likely would have to be borne by the riders. "I wouldn't think the voucher system would pay for that," he said.

As for a fixed-route system, Spielberg said it would be best to start with a single route.

He envisions it would start in south Cape Girardeau near the county's public health center and proceed north on Sprigg Street. It would go west on Broadway to Southeast Missouri Hospital and then proceed to Schnucks. The route then proceed west on William Street, with stops at Saint Francis Medical Center and the mall. The van then would travel to Doctors' Park and to Wal-Mart before making the return trip.

Spielberg said the entire round-trip could take an hour.

The city could contract with the Cape County Transit Authority to operate the van service. The transit authority, funded largely with tax dollars, currently operates a point-to-point subsidized van service in Jackson and the rural areas of Cape Girardeau County.

A fixed-route service in the city of Cape Girardeau, he suggested, could operate from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It likely wouldn't run on Sunday.

The system would need two or three, 20-passenger vans, he said.

Spielberg said many of the Cape Girardeau residents who use the taxi-voucher service live on the city's south side, along the William Street corridor and in the Red Star neighborhood in the northeast part of the city.

Any fixed-route system legally must provide point-to-point transportation for handicapped persons who live within three-fourths of a mile from the bus route.

"If somebody can't walk to the route, you have to provide a cab service to pick them up and take them where they want to go," Spielberg said.

A fixed-route fare for riders could be as low as $1, he said. Federal, state and local tax money would have to pay the bulk of the cost.

On a fixed-route system, the subsidy typically amounts to $5 for every dollar paid by riders, Spielberg said.

Local governments typically pay about 50 percent of the cost of transit services, he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123