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Highlands Today

Discussion starts on possible bus service for county

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: May 28, 2009

SEBRING - Could bus service be launched in Highlands County?

Discussion on that possibility began Wednesday as the steering committee of the Heartland Rural Mobility Plan met at the Bert J. Harris Jr. Agricultural Center for the release of its draft report.

Ten of the 12 suggested projects for the six-county Heartland area are for public bus service, and three are in Highlands County.

One proposal would provide buses running along U.S. 27 from Avon Park to Sebring to Lake Placid and back, with hourly service from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. First-year ridership is estimated at 111,831 bus rides.

Another proposal would provide a "circulator" bus service through Sebring, with connections to the Avon Park to Lake Placid bus line. An estimated 37,277 rides are estimated for the first year.

A third possibility is connecting those two operations with Hardee County, with buses running between Avon Park and Wauchula and Zolfo Springs. First-year ridership is projected at 37,016.

"This is not a small population that could benefit" from bus service, said Lynn Topel, executive director of Florida's Heartland Rural Economic Development Initiative (FHREDI). "It's a large percentage of our population."

Bus service would benefit middle-class families as well as low-income people and the elderly who either don't want to or cannot drive, she said.

"What about the family whose child needs to go somewhere after school but both parents are at their jobs?" Topel said. "What about two-worker households with one car? If dad has to take the car to his job, how is mom going to get to a job?"

Heartland Rural Mobility Plan is a joint project of the Florida Department of Transportation and FHREDI, with the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida serving as consultant.

Along with Highlands, the plan covers Hardee, DeSoto, Okeechobee, Glades and Hendry counties.

Each project is no more than a "suggestion," and would need a local or regional government, a non-profit agency or a private-sector company to take them on, said Richard Shine, public transit administrator for FDOT's District 1.

This summer, the mobility plan's steering committee will take its report to the county commissions of the six counties, to see if there is interest in pursuing any of the projects.

Barbara Stewart, chairwoman of the Highlands County commissioners, attended the meeting and said afterward that there are many options besides bus service that should be explored.

"I think that there are unmet needs out there with regard to transportation and the county will continue to look at all the various options available in order to work towards addressing these unmet needs,"she said.

Stewart said Highlands County officials should seriously look into the plan's suggestion of supporting expansion of existing volunteer and faith-based transportation programs, as well as car- and van-pooling and incentives for employers to provide transportation services.

"There are a whole variety of options," Stewart added. "I would say that the bus fixed (route) system is one option that was identified in this study. So we would have to look at it, and at all other options."

The plan identifies possible sources of state and federal grants to help launch projects and provides estimated costs.

According to the plan, launching a bus line from Avon Park to Lake Placid would cost $600,000 to purchase three buses and $648,926 for yearly operation, for a total start-up cost of $1.2 million.

Estimated price tags for the Sebring circulator system are $150,000 for equipment and $216,309 for annual operations.

Launching the connector bus between Avon Park and Hardee County would cost $200,000 for equipment and $216,309 for yearly operations.

Fares and advertising on buses would offset some of the cost.

Still, at least some local tax revenue would be needed to run each suggested project, in addition to state and federal funding, said Richard Dreyer, a senior project manager with Tindale-Oliver & Associates, a consulting firm working with CUTR.

Dreyer said launching a bus service would take at least one to two years, if a government or private sector agency took on the project.

Rob Gregg, director of transit management and innovation for CUTR, said launching a bus service or any of the other suggested projects has to begin with "taking baby steps."

The best way to start, he said, is by forming a "working group" of officials from the six counties to look into forming a regional transportation agency. The bus lines suggested for Highlands County could be launched and operated by a county or a regional group, he said.

Topel said FHREDI cannot become a transportation provider, but will support further discussions on the suggested pilot projects. To do so, she said FHREDI will host a meeting in September for "decision makers" representing the county commissions and the cities in its six-county region.

Lisa Staes, a planner with CUTR, said improved public transportation not only makes many people's lives better in many ways, but also saves tax money in the long run.

"It is much less expensive to subsidize a person's trip to a job versus subsidizing an unemployed worker," she said.

Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com.

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