Public Transportation Busted

Ozark Regional Transit’s ridership on its bus routes is up 22.4% over last year on the nine fixed routes it operates in Springdale, Rogers, Fayetteville, Lowell and Bentonville. Yet, the organization is facing a $167,000 budget shortfall, so the board of directors approved a 2008 budget that calls for the elimination of two bus routes and four jobs because of shrinking federal funding. Executive Director Philip Pumphrey said, "We will hold public meetings when we decide what routes to cut.”

Now would be a good time to hold public meetings and ask Congressman John Boozman about his opposition to mass transit and a light rail system in Northwest Arkansas. Ozark Regional Transit will see a $220,000 reduction in federal money next year. Boozman and local Chamber boosters don’t seem to care; they want more money for multi-lane highways that will serve the trucking industry and its poultry and retail clients. They know who votes and who gives campaign contributions, and it is not folks who depend on the bus.

Poor people who cannot afford a car and the elderly and disabled who cannot drive will get shafted by a transportation system that starves mass transit and feeds more highway construction. A good local blogger explains that “ORT is primarily used by citizens who are not very mobile on their own, or who don’t have the means to purchase a vehicle. That is the same group of people who are least likely to vote in any given election. The reason being a lack of mobility, and inability to take time off from work and family to go to the polls. This, of course, proves the very reason that we need a service like ORT, to provide all our residents with opportunity.”