A new blueprint for Boise

The City of Boise is getting ready to update its 1997 comprehensive plan, a document that will include how to integrate better transit (and transit-oriented development)into the city's future. City officials want our opinion, and we'll be delivering it via cool keypad technology at two public meetings this week. From a city news release:

Boise residents are encouraged to help shape the City's future by attending one of two public meetings. The meetings will be Wednesday, February 27, at Ameritel Inn, 7499 W. Overland Rd., and Thursday, February 28, at the Holiday Inn, 3300 Vista Ave. Both meetings will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Residents are welcome to attend which ever meeting is most convenient."
Blueprint Boise is the City's future planning tool that will accommodate forecasted growth in a wise and sensible manner," said Tricia Nilsson, Comprehensive Planning Manager. "Obviously, citizen input is the key to successful planning. That's why its important residents attend one of our public meetings."

Participants will be able to view displays of future concepts and discuss planning options with City planners, and give their views on the types of development they prefer for Boise and their neighborhoods, as well as changes they'd like to see over the next 10-20 years.

"Participants will give input via an electronic polling process,"Nilsson said. "This information will be tabulated and will form the foundation that our planning process will be built. So, I can't stress enough how important public participation will be."

Transit update: no update

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I wish I could report that the Idaho Legislature is getting ready to consider a bill offering communities the chance to fund local transit projects. But six weeks into the session, the House Rev & Tax Committee has yet to take up the issue.

Addressing a group of Ada County Democrats this week, state Rep. Nicole LeFavour said that Republican leadership continues to argue that the Idaho Constituion must be amended to allow local option taxation authority - a process that would require a two-thirds vote from the House and Senate to get on the ballot. So far, they've successfully used this stalling tactic to keep the local option issue off the legislature's radar - so it's up to citizens to help press the issue by contacting our legislators and letting them know we support the ability of people to vote on whether or not to fund local projects including transit and roads.

Of course, it's especially important for people who live outside of Boise to make this case, particularly to members of the House Revenue & Taxation Committee. So if you live in any of the Rev & Tax members' districts noted below, call or email them and encourage them to consider local option legislation before this session ends. Make it clear that you believe we do NOT need to amend the Idaho Constitution to grant communities this authority.

If you live in Boise, please do NOT write the legislators - but do all you can to help find friends and family members elsewhere in the state who will.

District 2

Representative Dick Harwood
dharwood@house.idaho.gov
81527 Hwy. 3 S., St. Maries, 83861
Home (208) 245-4446

District 3

Representative Jim Clark
jclark@house.idaho.gov
8798 N. Clarkview Pl., Hayden Lake, 83835
Home (208) 772-5992 Bus (208) 772-5992 FAX (208) 772-7718

Representative Phil Hart
phart@house.idaho.gov
4430 E. Sarah Loop, Athol, 83801
Home (208) 683-0456 Bus (208) 772-2522

District 8

Representative Ken A. Roberts
kroberts@house.idaho.gov
12765 Hwy 55, Donnelly, 83615
Home (208)325-8351 Bus (208) 325-8351 FAX (208)325-8351

District 12

Representative Gary E. Collins
gcollins@house.idaho.gov
2019 E. Massachusetts, Nampa, 83686
Home (208) 466-5460 Bus (208) 466-4787

Representative Robert E. Schaefer
rschaefe@house.idaho.gov
P.O. Box 55, Nampa, 83653
Home (208) 466-3636 Bus (208) 466-3636

District 14

Representative Mike Moyle
mmoyle@house.idaho.gov
480 N. Plummer Rd., Star, 83669
Home (208) 286-7842 Bus (208) 286-7842

District 27

Representative Scott Bedke
sbedke@house.idaho.gov
P.O. Box 89, Oakley, 83346
Home (208) 862-3619 FAX (208) 862-3688

District 34

Representative Dell Raybould
drayboul@house.idaho.gov
3215 N. 2000 W., Rexburg, 83440
Home (208) 356-6837 Bus (208) 356-6837

District 35

Representative JoAn Wood
jawood@house.idaho.gov
3778 E. 500 N., Rigby, 83442
Home (208) 745-7846 FAX (208) 745-8420

Representative Lenore Barrett
lbarrett@house.idaho.gov
(208) 879-2797

Now here's dedication ...

With Barack Obama coming to Boise this Saturday (hopefully on a bus line venue!), campaign supporter Mike Armand explains to KTVB how he takes THREE buses to get to Obama's headquarters on the Bench. Watch the video.

The Ada County Democratic Caucuses are next Tuesday, February 5, at Qwest Arena. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the caucus starts at 7. Outstanding support for better public transit is one of many reasons I will be standing up for Obama at the caucus.

Update: Obama's Stand for Change Rally is Saturday morning (February 2) at the Taco Bell Arena at BSU. Doors open at 7 a.m., way before the Saturday buses start running. So plan to carpool!

Car-free living in sprawl valley?

Two items in yesterday's Idaho Statesman caught my eye. One was a blurb for the Idaho Earth Institute's program this Friday night on car-free living. The event - slated at Wright Congregational Church, 4821 W Franklin Road - starts with a potluck at 6:30 followed by a 7 p.m. presentation based on the books Divorce Your Car by Katie Alvord and How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Ballish.

I'll be there. I plan to drive my car. My friend Jonna Moore tells me that several people will be riding their bikes - in the dark, in the snow - to attend, and I say good on 'em, but that's not an option for most of us mere mortals.

The problem with the concept of car-free living in Boise was ably pointed out in an op-ed - also in yesterday's paper - by Martin Johncox. He wrote:

While I support local-option taxation and transit, there's been little discussion if cities have been preparing their built environment to support transit. ... Transit lacks point-to-point flexibility. To make up for that, people must bridge, on foot or bike, the distance between the transit stop and their destination. To get people to do this, you must build a human-scaled environment, where buildings come right to the sidewalk; things are stacked on top of each other to conserve distance; and homes, offices, shopping centers, schools and other destinations are directly connected with sidewalks. ...

But we've built just the opposite in the past 50 years. Giant parking lots, absent of sidewalks, encourage people to drive from one parking lot to the next; subdivisions are fenced from each other and neighboring shopping centers; and very long blocks and cul-de-sacs lengthen pedestrian trips. ...

To be fair, it's been less than 15 years since Boise and other cities awoke to the need to build for transit. ... Yet in those past 15 years there's been precious little progress toward enforcing transit-friendly development.


He's right, of course. People who live in or near downtown Boise can probably make do without cars, but there's almost nowhere else in the valley where that's the case. That's especially true if you have children active in sports or music, or if you like to go out at night, or if you want to go to church on Sunday, or if you simply don't feel safe bicycling or walking in the winter or after dark (or both).

We can do better. We can build developments - not just in downtown but in nearby neighborhoods, as well as in the center of other Treasure Valley towns - that are close to schools, stores, workplaces, and entertainment venues. We can extend bus hours into the evenings and offer Sunday service so people could get around at night, as well as ride the bus seven days a week. If these changes happen, people will use transit more, and there will eventually be an increased appetite for housing close to transit.

For now, let's not worry so much about going car-free as much as reducing our dependency on vehicles. I've drastically cut my driving and I'd someday love to live car-free, but I don't see it happening in Boise: not while I have a daughter in school, not while the buses won't run when and where I need them to run.

Mega transit thread at the Guardian

As Dave noted in the comments for a previous post, there was a lively conversation on transit topics at his Boise Guardian blog last week. Check it out when you have some time to read the 50+ comments.

'The quarter cent was huge'

Last week, I wrote, quoting a Dan Popkey column:

that Rep. Bob Schaefer "might support a tax that's capped at 0.25 percent." (That's awfully low, if the money would be used to fund both highway projects and transit. If people want to vote for half a cent, why can't we?)

Well, I'm just back from the City Club of Boise transit forum, where Lane Beattie of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce explained how the SLC business community rallied folks to pass - by a two-thirds majority, "in arguably the West's most conservative state" - a proposal that raised taxes by a quarter-cent to help fund improved roads and a transit system that has far surpassed ridership expectations. "The quarter cent was huge," Beattie said, in giving the Utah Transit Authority a sustainable funding source and bonding ability for improvements and maintenance. It's worth noting here that Beattie is a conservative Republican who slashed taxes as president of the Utah Senate.

Before the vote even took place, transit backers had to convince a governor who said he'd never allow a special session on transit funding to do exactly that. Beattie noted that, in many cases, proponents had to sit down one-on-one with tax-averse lawmakers to make the case that good transit is good for business, and that the cost of waiting would be more than the state could bear. For rural lawmakers, Salt Lake transit supporters urged a big-picture, statewide view, noting that "if you get gridlock in Davis County, you stop economic development in Moab." And yes, they said candidly: "Light rail doesn't pay for itself. That's true, but neither do highways."

Granted, Salt Lakers have some things going for them that we don't, namely a metro population nearly four times our size and development patterns that - so far - have been very linear along the Wasatch Front. Also, a quarter-cent tax increase no doubt buys a lot more in a region that attracts big tourism, including Japanese visitors who spend as much as $600 a day to ski and ride "the greatest snow on Earth."

"I can't tell you whether (transit) is needed in your community," Beattie said. But if it is, he added, he urged the business community to take the lead in making the case that gridlock and poor air quality are bad for businesss - and that, as the Utah ad campaign noted, when it comes to committing to adequate transit funding, "the longer we wait ... the longer we wait."

Transit is focus at City Club

The City Club of Boise will focus on public transit at its meeting this Thursday (January 24). Kelli Fairless of Valley Regional Transit and Lane Beattie of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce will keynote a panel titled "Public Transit: First Horses, Then Cars - What Now?" Here's a description from the City Club website:

City planners from Portland to Denver favor public transportation for its economic and air-quality benefits, but they hit roadblocks convincing Westerners to leave their cars. What will it take for Idahoans to embrace buses and trains? Will politicians ever raise taxes to pay for them? Salt Lake City overcame similar obstacles and now boasts one of the nation’s best public transit systems. Learn how it happened from developer Lane Beattie, initially a skeptic and now a leading advocate. Then hear an update on Treasure Valley transit by Kelli Fairless.

The session is set from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at The Grove Hotel, or you can catch it on BSU Radio after the fact. The cost to attend in person is $14 for members, $19 for non-members, or $5 without lunch. Reserve a seat through the City Club website.

Update: I just read about another public forum that will include transit among its topics. "Emerging Issues in a Growing Idaho" is set for 1:30 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 30, in the Hoff Building's Crystal Ballroom. Cost is $10 for sponsors or $20 for non-sponsors. For more info or to reserve a seat, email ief@givenspursely.com.

Transit open house Jan. 17

Bikeboy already wrote about this last week, but don't miss the open house set for 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. this Thursday (January 17) to have a look at plans for a multi-modal center in downtown Boise. The project would include a downtown circulator and regional high-capacity transit for the Treasure Valley.

In other transit news, Idaho Statesman columnist Dan Popkey is bullish on the chances of local option authority legislation passing this year. Unfortunately, Rep. Mike Moyle wants to delay action for another year by requiring a constitutional amendment, and Rep. Bob Schaefer "might support a tax that's capped at 0.25 percent." (That's awfully low, if the money would be used to fund both highway projects and transit. If people want to vote for half a cent, why can't we?)

Meanwhile, did anyone else notice that Nampa Mayor Tom Dale failed to mention transit in his op-ed in Sunday's paper? At least Sen. David Langhorst made a solid case for local option. Not only that, several recent letter writers have bemoaned the lack of local bus service and sung the praises of excellent transit available in other cities.

Massive multi-modal transit center for Boise?

[Guest post by bikeboy]

There was an interesting story on KTVB's news yesterday - "Public transit plan now ready for public review." (Click here to read the online version.)

I expected it to be reporting progress in improving transportation modes - a new bus grid proposal, or more service between Boise and the outlying areas.

But no!

It appears to be a big downtown hub facility that is envisioned by the Capital City Development Corporation.

Big - and estimated to cost $78 million.

Now, I'm just an interested outside observer, and no expert. (I'm probably interested enough to go take a look at their Open House - Thursday 1/17 from 10am to 7pm at 213 N. 9th Street.)

But my initial reactions are:

- The CCDC's focus and perspective is on downtown Boise, and so that's where their interest lies. And a big, attractive downtown facility would certainly enhance downtown, to some degree.

- If we've got $78 million available for improved transportation in the area, is the best use of that money to build a big fancy downtown hub? How about pumping it into the bus SYSTEM first? How about more routes, or more buses running those routes? How about evening or Sunday service? How about we get buses transporting more people (downtown and elsewhere), and let the improved ridership justify the need for the hub center? Rather than assuming, "If we build it, they will come..."

"Transit Center of Dreams."

In any case, go see their open house, and make your opinions heard!

Commuter-in-chief let us down

In his State of the State message yesterday, Gov. Butch Otter expressed his support for local-option legislation that would allow voters to subsidize road improvements - but he didn't say anything about transit.

Was it merely a sin of omission? Reports in the Statesman today indicated that may be the case. But that's curious, given Otter's admission last year that the area has a transit problem and his statement that he would sign a local-option bill aimed only at transit.

What will it be, governor? Are you going to lead on this issue, or not?

Too late for resolutions?

Naaaah! It's never too late to resolve to drive less and use transit more. If you intend to drive less in 2008, please post your resolution in the comments.

Mine is short and sweet: I will live car-free at least 100 days in 2008. Every three or four days (at least!), I will either walk, take the bus, or bike to get wherever I need to go. That's probably pretty close to what I managed in 2007, but this year, I want to make it official.

If that seems too drastic to you, consider leaving your car at home one day a week - or even one day a MONTH. Every little bit helps - but the more you can do, the better

Legislature begins - transit chances murky

The Idaho Legislature will open its 2008 session this week. Transportation is widely seen as one of the top issues, but many lawmakers seem fixated more on widening roads and building new highways than on any meaningful reform to the Treasure Valley's mediocre public transit system. Today's Idaho Statesman includes several articles that highlight the difficulty transit advocates will face in getting the legislature to act on long-overdue improvements.

Some area lawmakers have seen the light. In an op-ed in today's Statesman, Rep. Darrell Bolz (R-Caldwell) wrote, "Tied to the improvement of I-84 has to be better public transportation." But Bolz doesn't sit on the House Rev & Tax Committee, which was responsible for trashing last year's local-option bill to fund public transit. Rep. Gary Collins (R-Nampa), co-chair of that panel, told the Statesman he's still not sold on local option, even though the legislation proposed for 2008 now includes the ability for local governments to ask voters to approve a local-option sales tax not just for transit, but for highways, too. Even John McGee (R-Nampa), chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and a supporter of better transit, told the newspaper he hasn't seen "many people warming up to the idea."

But the biggest hurdle may be overcoming a sentiment voiced by Rep. Max Black, one of the few remaining Boise Republicans, who told the newspaper that "We just plain don't have the population base to prevent (mass transit) from being a subsidy." The fact is, mass transit is heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars all across the United States - but then so are our military, police and fire protection, schools, libraries, and ... oh yes ... roads.

We're caught in the same Catch-22 we were last session. Lawmakers complain about empty buses, but they are unwilling to let voters decide on a small tax increase that would vastly improve bus service and help transit become a more workable option for Treasure Valley residents. They also conveniently ignore the very popular intercounty services that are helping to show that there's a market for people who want to ditch their cars and take the bus - or better yet, light rail - to their far-flung jobs.

Update 1/08/08 - John Miller of the Associated Press is reporting that "tax-hawk Republicans suggested they would only allow the (local option taxation) measure past the House Revenue and Taxation Committee if it was first put to a statewide vote next November as a constitutional amendment. That raises the stakes considerably, since the measure would require two-thirds House and Senate approval to get on the ballot."

I'll stick with what I wrote yesterday: Transit supporters need to make the case that quality transit fits in the same box with other subsidized amenities that most urban areas take for granted. Even tax-averse Republicans admit that we need to use tax dollars for police, fire, and roads. Why not transit - especially when transit would help alleviate so many other pressing issues, including air quality and congested roads.

The other point that must remain clear: Quality public transit is a key factor that companies consider when deciding whether to relocate a business. If lawmakers are serious about keeping Idaho competitive for business, they will pass the local-option bill for transportation needs, and they will do it this session.

The cost of transportation

(Guest post by Bikeboy. This is very similar to a post I put on my "Bike Nazi" blog. I'm also posting it here, because I'm confident it's of interest to public transit advocates.)

We got the memo at the office last Friday. It reads like this:

Effective January 1, 2008, the mileage reimbursement rate for the use of personal cars in conjunction with company business will be increased to 50.5¢ per mile, up from the current 48.5¢. The new rate is consistent with the maximum standard mileage rate currently authorized by the IRS.

Of course, the cost for using your car for personal business is about the same, but you don't get reimbursed. You just write out the checks... for gas, and for car payments, tires, repair expenses, parking, insurance, etc., etc. (It's easy to just consider the cost of fuel, since it comes up the most regularly.)

The IRS allowance is probably a somewhat-accurate indicator of what the actual cost is, to operate a motor vehicle. Could you save money by leaving the car home and taking the bus? There's a good chance of it. (ValleyRide just released their 2008 fare schedule - a local trip remains flat at $1.)

Passing judgment, again

Boy, Valley Ride sure doesn't make it easy to help the needy during the holidays.

I picked a card off the Giving Tree on the Grove in downtown Boise, on which the Women's and Children's Alliance specifies needs for their clients who are facing family crises. My card requested adult bus passes, youth bus passes, and umbrellas.

It's easy enough to buy adult bus passes in downtown Boise, where they are available at Boise City Hall and Winco. But if you're looking for a youth bus pass? You need to drive to Valley Ride's Meridian HQ. As I've reported in the past, a trip to Meridian is also necessary for those of us who want to buy long-term bus passes.
Why can't Valley Ride sell youth passes at Boise City Hall - at least during the holidays, when the WCA is requesting them?

Congratulations to COMPASS

COMPASS - the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho - has scooped up two national awards in recent months. The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) has picked the "Communities in Motion: Regional Long-Range Transportation Plan 2030" as a 2007 Project of the Year Merit Award winner, acknowledging COMPASS for its "use of innovative public participation techniques and for successfully involving the public in the planning process." The award was given November 15 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Earlier this fall, COMPASS' Communities in Motion plan also won the National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning from the Association for Metropolitan Planning Organizations. That award was presented in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 4 during the AMPO Annual Conference.

Way to go, COMPASS. Now if we can start bringing that long-range plan to fruition!

Reminder: air summit today

Just a reminder that Boise City Council plans a town hall meeting at 7 tonight (Tuesday November 27) at City Hall to discuss the area's declining air quality. The meeting will also air live and taped on Channel 24/7 several times over the next few days. Click here for more details.

It's a TRAIN! No... it's a BUS! No...

[Guest post by bikeboy.]

Japan Rail, the company that operates passenger trains on the islands of Japan, has just completed testing on a vehicle they call the Dual Mode Vehicle (DMV).

It looks like a bus. But it runs on rails... OR on the street! An informational web brochure about the vehicle can be found by clicking here.

The visionaries in Treasure Valley like to imagine that light rail from Caldwell to Boise might someday be feasible. A few years back, Mayor Brent even spent thousands bringing in a "Regional Sprinter" train from Germany for a demo.

One of the obstacles is, once the train arrives at the Boise Depot, most folks are still quite a distance from their ultimate destinations. Well, imagine if the train, upon arriving at the Depot, could retract its rail-wheels, and continue on down the road to downtown Boise, where people could catch a bus. Huh? Huh?!!

This visionary is imagining a half-dozen of these DMVs loading up passengers at various park-and-rides, etc., around Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian, and then getting on the tracks (with all track-traffic eastbound in the morning). They take the tracks - blowing past that Interstate bumper-to-bumper - to the Boise (train) Depot, where they hop onto the pavement and proceed downtown, depositing the passengers at a downtown Boise multi-mode transit depot. Once downtown, passengers could catch a real bus or taxi, or maybe even walk. (Or, the DMVs could deploy directly from the Depot to various destinations around the city. Throw on some bike racks, and they would be even more flexible.) Then, in the afternoon, those half-dozen DMVs load up their passengers at the same downtown depot, drive to the train Depot and hop the rail... which is all-westbound in the afternoon. They speed, unimpeded by rush-hour traffic, to their various destinations in west Treasure Valley.

Toot! Toot!

A bit more about the author: I personally lean toward bicycles-as-alternative-transportation, but realize the 2-wheeler isn't practical for everybody. I share Julie's enthusiasm about public transit, and appreciate her allowing me "guest poster" privileges. As a native Boisean, I am deeply concerned about the current direction (L.A.-style sprawl) that my home town is headed.

Just the facts

Here are some interesting statistics distributed at the recent Idaho Transit Summit:

Miles of bus transit
Oregon 2,970
Utah 1,612
Idaho 217

Miles of light rail transit
Oregon 77
Utah 30
Idaho 0

Transit passenger miles/2005
Oregon 486,880,700
Utah 174,424,500
Idaho 6,900,000

Miles of public road
Oregon 66,902
Idaho 46,456
Utah 41,852

Population/2006
Oregon 3,620,771
Utah 2,507,417
Idaho 1,432,664

And here are a few more eye-opening statistics from the Idaho Statesman's November 18 editorial on air quality:

2007 good air quality days (to November 14): 181
2007 days with air-quality alerts: 139

2001-2006 average good air quality days: 269.7
2001-2006 average air-quality alert days: 95.5

(Space here to draw your own conclusions ... )

By the way, the Boise City Council will hold an air quality summit at 7 p.m. next Tuesday, November 27, at City Hall.

Draft legislation available

The Valley Regional Transit website has links to the proposed legislation that would allow voters to decide on local option taxes to fund construction and maintenance of public transportation and highways. Public comments are welcome through November 29.

As I write this, I'm sitting in Spokane, a city that is almost exactly the same as Boise in land mass and population. Somehow, Spokane manages to have at least twice as much transit as we do: more routes, longer hours, evening and Sunday service, you name it. Three years ago, more than two-thirds of Spokane residents voted to double their local transit sales tax from three-tenths to six-tenths of a cent to make up for lost state funds.

It saddens me greatly that in Idaho, we have to make road-building part of the package if we want to get better transit. But hey, we're Idaho, where the legislature is still run by ruralites who don't give a damn about Ada and Canyon counties, and - let's be frank - a few urban legislators who still haven't come around to the fact that traffic is killing our valley. The Boise Bus Blog will probably support the proposed legislation because it appears like the only way to improve what has to be the worst transit system for a metro area of our size anywhere in the United States.

Bus baby arrives; Seattle votes

I'm a big fan of Seattle's Bus Chick, whom I learned about via the Transit Blog Aggregator. Bus Chick Carla and her husband Adam (a.k.a. Bus Nerd, whom she met on the bus, of course) rode two buses to the hospital to give birth to their new baby. Her name is Rosa, after the "original bus chick," Carla writes. Read more here.

Meanwhile in Seattle, voters will decide Tuesday whether or not to pass a Roads and Transit package (Proposition 1), which would fund both a 50-mile light rail extension and more roads and bridges in the Puget Sound area. Many environmentalists are torn over Prop 1 because it would mean a lot of new roads in addition to new transit. In a preview of what we may face here in the Treasure Valley (where transit proponents are now backing a local option tax that would allow money to be used for roads and transit), Michael at Carless in Seattle genuinely agonized over his vote and finally voted yes. Read his deliberations here.