Bus Blues

I've been to Hanover County Board of Supervisors and city of Richmond City Council meetings as an employee or reporter numerous times. I am well familiar with the battles of public hearings, where a few vocal opponents rage a ground war of words to persuade a ruling body that has already made up its mind to change its mind.

Still, the first time I attended an Henrico County Board of Supervisors meeting to rail against a cut in GRTC bus service, I was startled by the finality of the decision, even though from experience I should have known it was inevitable.

Henrico livestreams its meetings over the Internet, which I assume is the reason it doesn't have a time limitation on how long a citizen can speak during public comment periods. Because Richmond televises its meetings live, they are practically forced to gong people off the mic. Even so, there's a cast of regulars who will line up to speak at any and all public hearings. They even know where in the auditorium to sit so the camera is on them most of the time.

So I was surprised to find some people in Henrico had brought typed essays to read like they had all the time in the world. No buzzer, no flashing lights to get the long-winded off? One person read from what was easily three pages of single-spaced text and told a long, rambling story of the lives of the Parham 26 riders and how their existence would be disrupted if there were fewer #26 trips. The reading of his speech so lulled the Board and audience into a stupor that there wasn't even a small twitter of a laugh at any of the carefully crafted jokes he had inserted into his oration.

It's better to speak from the heart without notes and be brief. Everyone pays more attention. And if you ad-lib a joke, it might actually get a laugh.

The bus routes marked for death were clearly underutilized. There were statistics to prove not more than 20 people would be inconvenienced by the discontinuation of those routes, but those were the people at the hearing. Even though they only used the bus occasionally, they wanted to know it was there. Even if they had alternate ways home, they wanted to have this option.

I spoke toward the end, and by that time I was aggravated by the selfishness of people who wanted an express route to the Parham park and ride, and if it stops at Glenside first, then it isn't an express route. It's a circulator, and what's so bad about that? I would rather have all circulator routes in the afternoon because it makes no sense to wait 20 minutes for the Glenside bus and watch three Parhams and a Gaskins go by, each with less than 5 people on them -- sometimes nobody! All these buses are getting on 64 West. Why can't they just pick up and drop off everyone who's going to west end park and rides? That's what the #25 does, twice during the day and once after 6 p.m., which is often my last chance to get out of downtown. But #25 is on the hit list.

It turned out many of the people at the hearing were dependent on #25 not for a daily ride but just to be there for emergencies. The two mid-day runs got people home early if they had appointments or had to pick up the kids after school. The late bus was the salvation of several workers like me who don't like to walk out in the middle of a project at work just because it's 5 p.m.

I thought my proposal was ingenious, to have fewer afternoon buses, but all of them circulators, and after 6 p.m., have the Pemberton route take side trips off Broad to stop at the park and rides. I don't know where the Gaskins lot is, but Parham and Glenside are less than six blocks off Broad. It wouldn't be that much of a deal, and the safety net would be there. The Board made no comment on my suggestions after the hearing, but burned up at least another 30 minutes of time asking GRTC why they couldn't use smaller buses on the underutilized routes as some people had suggested.

GRTC laboriously explained that smaller buses don't produce appreciative savings. The bus driver still makes the same money. The bus still covers the same number of miles, no matter what size it is. The fuel savings is marginal. But still we had to discuss it and discuss it. After the meeting, a man in the audience congratulated me on my proposed solution, so at least I knew I had spoken out loud. Between stage fright and aggravation at some of the ridiculous arguments presented, I felt I had made shrill, whistling noises instead of words.

The ridiculous arguments were centered around the needs of the few, and ever since "Star Trek: Wrath of Khan," we have known that the needs of the few have to bow in front of the needs of the many. The buses are there to make money, or at least not lose money, and although there is much to be said about taking care of the poor among us in Henrico, underutilized bus routes costing in excess of $700,000 a year to run -- the county would be ahead to underwrite taxi rides for the few and occasional riders who have no alternatives!

These are trying financial times. We are lucky to have a bus, considering how high gas prices get, especially in the summer, and especially now when most of the gas seems to be pouring into the Gulf of Mexico to kill pelicans. That's why I kept flipping out when speakers tried to blackmail the Board. "If you don't keep these buses running, then I'll just drive to work, adding to the traffic and polluting the air! Take that!" Oh, please. The reality is you will do no such thing because gas is expensive, a daily commute raises your auto insurance premium, and parking downtown is anywhere from $80 to $120 a month! You can buy a new computer every year for that. You can buy an Apple computer for that!! You will change your schedule to adjust to the new bus schedule, that's what you'll do.

That's why I thought my work-around was the ultimate problem solver and the audience and Board would fall out in gratification and wonderment at having a workable resolution presented to them, but I had not considered that the Henrico Department of Public Works had labored eight months to arrive at their route-cutting proposal, and that was the only proposal before the Board, and it was either thumbs up or thumbs down. No time or room for modification. There is no try, as Yoda says.