Pierce Transit making big service cuts
LAKEWOOD, Wash. -- Thanks to the failure of controversial Prop 1, Pierce Transit will soon cut its service by a whopping 34 percent.
The Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Monday night directing staff to implement the service reductions at the end of September.
The massive cuts come after voters narrowly defeated Prop 1. Pierce Transit had asked voters to pitch in 3 cents for every $10 spent for a new tax that would keep buses rolling at night and on weekends. The proposition failed by 704 votes.
"We understand these reductions will deeply impact thousands in our communities," Tacoma Mayor and Pierce Transit Board Chair Marilyn Strickland said in a Monday night news release. "This was a difficult decision. Reducing service in September allows our riders time to make plans in advance and the agency to provide stable service."
Monday's vote means Pierce Transit will cut 142,000 of its current 417,000 annual service hours. Elements of the reduction plan include the elimination of weekend and holiday service, as well as cutting route 62 in northeast Tacoma. Weekday service will also be reduced in the evenings and midday.
The full plan will be released to the public soon, according to the board.
The Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Monday night directing staff to implement the service reductions at the end of September.
The massive cuts come after voters narrowly defeated Prop 1. Pierce Transit had asked voters to pitch in 3 cents for every $10 spent for a new tax that would keep buses rolling at night and on weekends. The proposition failed by 704 votes.
"We understand these reductions will deeply impact thousands in our communities," Tacoma Mayor and Pierce Transit Board Chair Marilyn Strickland said in a Monday night news release. "This was a difficult decision. Reducing service in September allows our riders time to make plans in advance and the agency to provide stable service."
Monday's vote means Pierce Transit will cut 142,000 of its current 417,000 annual service hours. Elements of the reduction plan include the elimination of weekend and holiday service, as well as cutting route 62 in northeast Tacoma. Weekday service will also be reduced in the evenings and midday.
The full plan will be released to the public soon, according to the board.
I hope the "no" voters get hit by a bus.
CHTtalker 19 pts
@Alex Clayton no doubt it cost like 4 bucks to come from fed way to puyallup south hill..  Really that is way cheaper than 3.30 a gallon and the wear and tear and ins. on a vehicle.
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So make the fare $8.00 and they can have the bussed back.
for all you "no" voters reading and posting here. a lot of seniors and others living on fixed incomes to name a few, rely on public transportation. I am truly sorry for the unemployed who have few if any options. The US is way behind the rest of the civilized world with regard to public transportation.  if not now, when? how can folks get to the employment agency? social security? medical appts? work? school?  not one of us would have noticed the slight increase and it would have provided much for many.  I am all for strict budgets, but to me transportation is as basic a need as there is.  It opens the door for so many opportunities to better one's life.
 @jennieb The physically fit and able will have the alternative of cycling to get around. others few other options.I did vote yes personally.though I don't use the public transit buses often.
I voted "no". Having lost my job in 2009 - with no new job despite years of looking - NOBODY gets any new funds until I get some income going again. NOBODY. If I have to go years trying to figure out how to make ends meet with no income, so does Pierce Transit.
@AlP right on brother.Â
So raise the damn fares enough to pay for it. People who do not want to have a car can foot the bill. I used to use it all the time until they cut off service to my street years ago. After that my Orca card gathered dust and I voted NO.
@Alex Clayton no doubt it cost like 4 bucks to come from fed way to puyallup south hill..  Really that is way cheaper than 3.30 a gallon and the wear and tear and ins. on a vehicle.
I voted YES in hope of saving PT however it didn't pass, and with this severity of cuts, we can't simply live and function with having no weekend or evenings service on weekdays, this is a doomsday for the PT agency as a whole. It is a truly a sad day for the pierce county riders. No hope at all. How is it possible for anyone to survive at all. Not even for workers who rely on buses
@Joel Sibert yea thats why you see the buses mostly empty now tell me is it really feasable? it cost more to transport 1 person than what they taking in on fares.
I voted no for this and am ECSTATIC it didn't pass. I am so tired of throwing my money at wasteful programs, ESPECIALLY Pierce Transit. The people who ride it should be the ones to pay for it. Plain and simple.Â
@Tattooed_Angel yea raise there rates..the other folks are getting there fares paid for by gov anyway its like flipping the bill twice.
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so with the massive budget cuts in Pierce Transit, what's the point of taking the bus anyway? It's getting faster to drive in that county now rather than take a bus.
@BlueJedi IF you have a car and money for gas.......sure
 @DISPATCH911  @BlueJedi I don't have money for gas and car insurance, but if I took the bus 100% of the time, thanks to recent cuts and now these upcoming cuts, a 45 minute round trip would take about 3 1/2 hours. I don't have that kind of time to spare. A 35 minute drive to work, via bus, thanks to recent cuts, if I took the bus would take me little under 2 hours. One way. I'm giving up other stuff to keep my car.
@DISPATCH911 but a good lawyer will trust me i know ha ha ha
 @DISPATCH911 I do have insurance-just what state law requires me to have. Wish I could afford full coverage though. It sucks that service is being cut even more
@BlueJedi Ok but remember this "I don't have the time... wont get you out of a $450.00 ticket for "no insurance"Â
Good, I won't have to pass so many empty buses.
 @mstipton during "rush hour" traffic the best I see is half filled buses. Other times when I"m in that area, I'm lucky to see maybe 2 or 3 people per bus
With that "cut of services report"Â Id like a list of ALL the administration wondering around the campus there and their annual wage please..Â
Tacoma sees a rise in children bike theft"Â its happpening!!!!!
 @futhi151 And children do a lot of the bicycle stealing too especially the gang/thug children.
34 per cent cut to drivers, zero per cent cut to bureaucracy and administrators.
Why not of passed it! The federal government gets A big chunk of our money with that new fiscal cliff tax. At least this would have been closer to home.
Many people say they choose to take the bus and not have a car because of the enviroment. Pierce Transit should raise the fares to better cover for the cost of the service, People that don't have cars have all that extra money from no car payment, maint, gas or insurance. Yes I know there are lower income people that ride the bus, but they should live in the city where the services they need are within walking distants, or learn to be social and friendly to people in thier Neighborhood that could give them a ride.
 @slyderwso Public transit systems are never designed to run from ticket revenue alone, by design.  They're a public good which is always subsidized by everyone in order to make the city more livable. Â
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And living in the city is expensive, so poor people can't afford to "move closer to the services". Â They live in poor neighborhoods where there's a shortage of people to give them rides in the cars they can't afford to own.
@slyderwso You are obviously not a bus taker. many take the bus because 1) they cannot drive due to disability 2)they cannot afford the car and all that goes with it 3) lower income people should just move to the city? really? do you have any idea how much a move costs? 4) social and friendly to people in their neighborhood? many lower income folks do not have the social skills you may have. i had originally thought your posting was sarcasm - if not, we would all like to be you.
Maybe Pierce Co. should implement the same fees that were added onto my drivers renewal fees this year.Â
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http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/localfees.html
Let me guess the cuts will mainly occur in the areas that voted no this time around.
And rather the upper management take a drastic pay cut out of their 6 figure salary and change up the routes so that they make economical sense, they want to take away that much more income to put in their pockets via sick pay, vacation pay, personal days, holiday pay, and who knows what else.  It's always gonna be the same, the rich get filthier and the poor have to live in the dirt.
Those voters who wouldn't support transit can give some rides on weekends to people who need to get places. I am sure this will happen because they are such awesome people who care about their neighbors. (sarcasm)Â
I actually would do that, however, I also believe in Pierce County Transit figuring out how to BUDGET their money without costing us taxpayers more money!
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 @Biggg Donnn  @Citizen#3457899654 I got rid of my car for several reasons.I could save several hundred dollars per month by not doing so,I could get into better physical shape and lose weight by riding a bicycle on my commute and instead of emitting  an average of (now) 6.5 tons of carbon emissions yearly into the atmosphere by using a passenger car or light truck I release far less.If you drive a car it's a environmentally unsustainable form of transportation and is harmful to life on Earth.
 @Biggg Donnn  @Citizen#3457899654 Likely is but I almost died last year from the Whooping Cough I got from a sick cow (super fat woman) on the public transit bus.I'll still ride it occasionally but more often I cycle and being by myself I can't get sick from a flu from riding by myself.
 @m9078jk3  @Citizen#3457899654 Actually, BigggDonnn has a Senior Discount card and takes the KC Metro bus often, when it's convenient.  Getting too dangerous to drive anymore with all the cellphoning/texting/pot-smoking drivers out there now.  But we always take a shower immediately when arriving home to wash off the residue from the TB-Spewing and Disease-Bearing homeless/illegals/ etc. one is forced to ride with......
I don't have a car, nor am I on section 8 or living on the street. I choose not to buy a car for several reasons (not the least of which being that they are expensive to purchase, fuel, and maintain, and not really all that good for the environment).
 @harborgal  @spacegoddess You know the Scott Pierson Bike trail (in Tacoma) goes right across the Narrows Bridge.
Here is an alternative to a city car for those whom could later on afford it initially.It's a Organic Transit ELF as it is just being produced.It's fairly fast a human hybrid electric dual propulsion Velomobile (classified as a bicycle in the state of Washington and by Federal Laws.Has a 750 watt (one horsepower) motor,gets 1,800 MPGe (amazing)..Here is a video of it in traffic It's about four thousand dollars though but little other expense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtW_MWFMZ7w
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An alternative would be to get an electric motorized bicycle if the range is not too far when you later can afford it or perhaps a gasoline scooter..
@spacegoddess same here. ive never owned a car and cant afford one. this makes my finding a job even harder. i live in gig harbor. im way out in the sticks. no bus on weekends makes have a way to get around on weekends even harder and now im going to have to move
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 @Biggg Donnn That's pretty harsh. I take bus most of the time, get this because... I WANT TO and not because I am a "loozer (seriously, even in leet speak you are writing it wrong), section 8 (no underscore) or street scum" as you so eloquently put it. I have a car but choose when to use it and when to take the bus. Clearly you are some spoon-fed who thinks his snit don't stink and that it warrants such comments but of course you are wrong.Â
 @PrairieDawn Public Transit is the enabling technology that has trashed polite suburbs by allowing low-income housing to flourish in areas where it never previously could.  Public transit should be permitted only in near-downtown cores.
Stinks that the people who voted that down, probably never took a bus in their lives. Â How nice that they screwed over their neighbors and the community who count on the buses to get to work and doctors appointments. Â There are people in Pierce County who cannot afford a car, who can no longer drive because of age or medical conditions. But the greedy people were unwilling to pay a few cents more to help them. Â I know.. cigarettes are almost 8 bucks a pack, and liquor has gone up dramatically! Â You need that extra money for the trips to Hawaii during Christmas, to go skiing this winter, and to your lake house. Â Who cares about the people who desperately need the busses... right?Â
@DT Why should we continue to throw money at Pierce Transit when all they are doing is WASTING what funds they have now and not making the changes it needs to maintain service? I'll be damned if I am going to pay a single penny more so someone else can waste it. If anyone is going to waste my money it is going to be me!
So Its OUR Fault that Pierce Transit can't budget their money?? And Cut Spending?? NOT! Lets have the HIGHEST sales tax in the country just so PIERCE transit can FUNCTION? Yeah not so much.
 @DT HEY!! Hawaii is very fun during Christmas!!Â
 @DT DT, how much is enough?  New taxes are continually added, old ones never go away.  Seems to me it's you who is greedy, not the people who voted the tax down.  They EARNED that money, you want to STEAL it under color of your own idea of morality.
@DT
And there it is...the now default argument for income redistribution in the Peoples Republic of America. âI need your money more than you need your money; therefore you had better give me your money!â
 @alexwildstar  @DT It's the principle that every family operates under: the people who earn money support those who don't.
 @DT I pay enough in taxes heres an idea you use it you pay for. do not spend my money so you can feel good
 @DT Then by all means since you seem to have so much disposable income...you pay for it!
 @DT I've rode the bus on and off for the last 10 years, you just don't get it. The transit company's take in plenty of money they just blow it all on middle management and other nonsense. Doesn't ridership go up every year but they still cut routs and increase fares? How many times if you really ride the bus have you seen transit supervisors(every agency) sitting in there van's doing nothing? Wasted money? They are just a microcosm of what's going on with this country in the big picture, government is bloated and out of control and they refuse to get spending in check.
@hinterland @DT Fares only take in about 20% of the operating revenue. The remainder is on advertising & sales tax (most on sales tax).Â