City seeks ideas for public transportation

For several years there has been a growing concern that Cape Girardeau needs to find a way to provide public transportation for workers, shoppers, medical patients, the elderly and others who, for one reason or another, don't own an automobile or don't drive.

The city's taxi-coupon program provides about 60,000 rides a year. But Kelly Transportation Co., which has the contract to provide services to riders using city-subsidized coupons, is hard-strapped to keep up with the demand for point-to-point service. The riders using coupons tend to want to get from here to there -- and back again -- at the same times of the day and on the same days of the week.

Cape Girardeau officials have long shied away from even considering a fixed-route system that would have buses traveling back and forth on the same streets even if there were no passengers. The city's last full-fledged bus service ended in 1969 when it became financially unsound to continue.

America's dependence on personal vehicles has pretty much put an end to public transportation everywhere, except in high-population areas. Passenger service on trains in the middle of the country is mostly a novelty. Long-distance bus travel has declined dramatically. And the remaining city transportation systems in all but the largest cities are heavily subsidized and tend to be a huge drain on struggling budgets.

But the need for public transportation still exists. Some of the push comes from an aging population that is more dependent on others to get to grocery stores, doctor visits and church.

Cape Girardeau County has delved into the transportation issue in recent years, resulting in the creation of a county transit authority that provides service outside of Cape Girardeau. The idea is to coordinate the many small shuttle services provided by agencies that are federally and state funded. Finding efficiencies and eliminating duplication are among the authority's aims.

There is no shortage of vehicles to provide shuttle services in our area. The list includes shuttle buses used by a variety of agencies, churches, schools and the university.

The question facing Cape Girardeau officials is whether or not a more formal transportation system would be more effective and more affordable that the current taxi-coupon system. And would it eliminate the growing chorus of complaints about long waits for taxis.

This is a good time to be exploring those questions. With the construction of the River Campus, Southeast Missouri State University is looking at ways to get students back and forth to the main campus. Identifying where city residents live who would most likely use public transportation, where they need to go and when they need to be there would give the city some idea of the scope of the situation.

There already have been some limited programs that target specific needs, such as shuttling workers to factories, that have been successful.

There are a lot of creative ways to provide transportation without saddling the city with the enormous expense of a fixed-route system that would, no doubt, be criticized for running empty shuttles here and there.

Let's hope the city's call for help from the county transit authority will result in some good ideas.