The following is a report from one of our members who has been participating in the Downtown Street Closure Task Force meetings. We will be talking more about this at the next meeting, so bring good ideas that we can pass along to the task force.

From SG:

The following is what I said to the Task Force concerning the downtown special events:

The below piece was in the Los Angeles Times. It describes a scenario that could easily happen in Austin given Metro's current tack.
Metro, with its decades long obsession with rail, has failed to increase per capita ridership since re-instituting fares in 1990. Last year they matched 1990 levels for the first time. The double whammy fare hikes will knock ridership back down so that per capita ridership in 2010 will be lower than 20 years prior.

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The MTA's train wreck

By pouring money into rail projects, the agency is pushing riders off the buses.

buses are free in steamboat springs, co.

After many discussions about the worst bus stops in Austin, a contest is in order. We will accept nominations for the worst stops in town for a month or so, and reveal the top ten at a Capital Metro Board meeting prior to passage of the budget for 2009, which purportedly contains funding for bus stop improvements.

Today (6/27/08) 4 out of the 7 member Capital Metro board of directors held a public hearing about raising base bus fares 100% over the next 15 months. Metro staff is also proposing an 11,000% increase for disabled riders and fares for senior citizens for the first time. This comes a day after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed at LOWERING FARES:

We Bus Riders know that buses can do anything a train ( be it commuter, heavy, light, or ultra-light) can do with better flexibility at a fraction of the cost. Capital Metro's own study, which can be found on the All Systems Go website shows a circulator using buses costs one-eighth of one using streetcars.
A few other more sensible alternatives are "floating" around town. Check out this one posted on Ben Wears blog: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/traffic/e...

The Editors of the Daily Bruin, the UCLA student newspaper wrote this editorial supporting fare-free buses for Los Angeles:
http://dailybruin.com/news/2007/apr/30/editorial_farefree_transit_feasib...

We will make transit free in Austin. That will make daypasses obsolete.
In the meantime share your day passes. If you are done with it pass it along to someone waiting at the stop when you get off. If you don't need it until later or tomorrow let someone borrow it. It is paid for, so get the most value for your buck.
In addition to saving each other precious pennies, we can also build community by sharing and talking.
Don't forget to mention our campaign to make the buses fare free!