During peak hours bus traffic at LCC is irritating at best, and hellacious at worst, and the admissions boom isn’t making it easier on travelers, who are facing increasingly crowded buses.
The Lane Transit District would like to change that by adding rapid-transit service to LCC, geographically removed from the heart of Eugene.
EmX is the rapid-transit service implemented in 2007 by LTD, marked by a dedicated lane through 60 percent of its route, it uses higher-capacity hybrid vehicles than older LTD buses. An expansion was completed in January connecting the existing route to Gateway Mall and Riverbend.
In October, LTD received a $750,000 grant from the Federal Transportation Administration to analyze a potential EmX expansion to Lane. The expansion faces opposition from community activist group Our Money Our Transit.
Our Money Our Transit spokesperson Bob Macherione says LTD bases its claims of greater fuel-efficiency among its EmX vehicles on deceptive statistical analysis, and that LTD is funding EmX expansions by cutting traditional bus routes and employee benefits during a recession.
Such protests are valid when applied to the West 11th Ave. expansion, which seems redundant and ill advised considering the existing LTD service and the nature of the businesses along the route, which include a sizeable portion of Eugene’s car-service shops — in other words, businesses that require its patrons to own a car.
More troubling is Our Money Our Transit’s assertion that the West 11th Ave. EmX route is the first step in re-zoning a commercial district to a mixed-residential district, that would displace many locally owned businesses.
However, the validity of Our Money Our Transit’s claims are irrelevant when considering an extension to LCC that will take almost a decade to complete.
By 2020, the economy will have rebounded (hopefully) and hybrid buses will be more fuel-efficient than ever before, appeasing two of its chief concerns. Besides, LTD can only spend grant money from the Federal Transportation Administration on achieving the stated objective.
Improving access to LCC, where students can refine their skills and prepare to face an increasingly Darwinian workforce, is a surefooted step in the right direction for LTD, which has already stumbled through one unnecessary EmX expansion as it brings public transportation into the 22nd century.
