Integrated transit in Tahoe far from reality
Tahoe City’s transit center is an integral component of the North Shore bus system. Photo/Provided
By Kathryn Reed
Free, integrated regional transit in the Lake Tahoe Basin is the ultimate goal of those who are in the business of getting people out of their vehicles and those who are involved with tourism.
Money is the hurdle that still needs to be cleared in order for that dream to become a reality.
That was the message from a panel of four who spoke Nov. 18 during the monthly Tahoe Talks Brown Bag Lunch Series at Lake Tahoe Community College. George Fink with Tahoe Transportation District, Sandy Evans-Hall of North Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, Tom Fortune from Heavenly Mountain Resort and Jaime Wright with the Truckee-North Tahoe Transit Management Association touched on a range of transit issues during the discussion.
Heavenly provides free transit for skiers and employees when they are working. The bus is also free to anyone who gets on those particular buses.
Fortune said a future goal is to use the 1,200 spaces at California Lodge in the summer as a park and ride, with buses then going to Heavenly Village where guests would take the gondola up to the resort’s rope courses and other amenities.
The North Shore and Truckee are combining their resources. TART now stands for Truckee Tahoe Area Regional Transit. Buses are painted the same for the most part, with the Truckee ones having a little more green to embrace the town’s green initiative and Tahoe buses having blue to recognize keeping the lake blue. One phone number will be used.
This all eliminates confusion for riders who don’t understand the geographic boundaries of towns and states.
Panelists reiterated the need for a seamless system.
Joanne Marchetta, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, said that will be hard to do with one city, five counties and two states. It was pointed out how ski resorts can’t even figure out how to cooperate to get riders to the various resorts using shared transit.
Evans-Hall said it is time to look at transit as an amenity. She said that is what other resort destinations are doing – and it’s paying off. People are parking once and not getting in their vehicles until their vacation is over.
South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Austin Sass, who is also on the TTD board, said, “We are a parking deficient town. The long-term solution to get people out of their cars is to have parking.”
To pay for free transit in places like Park City, Vail and Steamboat a variety of taxes have been put in place. They range from hotel to recreation to lift ticket to sales taxes.
Placer County is looking at raising its transient occupancy and sales taxes.
When TOT is raised it can be done so with 50 percent plus one voter passing it. If the funds were to be earmarked for something specific, like transit, it then requires a two-thirds majority. How some jurisdictions are getting around this is to put the TOT to a vote and having a secondary question asking voters to prioritize where the money goes.
North Shore did a study that says it would cost $7.2 million to run a free transit system with buses stopping every 30 minutes. The bus system today has a budget of $4.5 million. The consultants said it is likely the difference would be made up in the first year based on the increase of people coming to the area and spending money.
Evans-Hall and her people are moving in that direction, with the goal of having free bus service in five years.
The South Shore isn’t anywhere close to doing the same.
Fink said the goals on this end of the lake with BlueGo are to have buses go to Meyers and into neighborhoods.
The most expensive homeless shelter/bus stop I have ever seen.
How are people going to get to the bus stop?
Should have spent the money to increase service or reduce fares.
More people visiting Tahoe because of better bus service?? Are you kidding me? Sounds like another plan from crazy Carl.
I tried to purchase a ticket at the train depot in Truckee a couple of weeks ago. They looked at me like I was from Mars.
PS
We’re NOT Colorado. People fly to Colorado resorts.
The consultants claim that a difference of nearly $3 million will be made up in the first year by an increase in visitors? Really?
I’ve never once made my decision about where to travel based on their bus system. Never. How on earth do they guarantee that kind of an increase in tax revenue?
Nice! The homeless druggies are gonna love this new bus stop/warming shelter. I know the first thing I do when planning travel is check the cities public bus routes!…. Oh wait. No, I don’t.
If you have the money for travel, you’re not going to use public transportation. You rent a car or you drive your own. The daily idiocracy from people in this town is mind boggling.
We are not Park City, Utah! Period! We are Tahoe! Enough of these studies, trips and comparisons to Park City.
The taxpayers have plenty of money to waste so what’s the problem. The fat cats at TTD need a raise also.
Why doesn’t TTD release the total passenger miles and what it cost? Too scary for taxpayers to swallow?
yesterday you said that Blue Go was broke, money being stolen daily.
this article is another pipe dream just like Tahoe Air.
I’m glad that the Government Yahoo’s are keeping their jobs by dreaming up more Krap to change our town.
drive to Heavenly’s worn out parking lot to ride the nifty=fifty trolly to ride the Gondola to get swindled.
It is doubtful that people who value their time would wait 30 minutes for the next bus, in addition to the hassle of getting to and from the bus stop at each end of a trip. What percentage of expenses are recovered at the fare box? Likely cheaper and more efficient for government to simply supply each bus rider with their own car.
Remember these are some of the same people who came up with the figures for the LOOPY ROAD.
They would never lie. Remember the clouds and blue sky that were going to reflect off the Harvey’s tower,the convention center, public beach at Edgewood, the Olympics?
Holy crap!.. Someone actually mentioned Meyers other than me?!
If you tax the tourists hard enough, you might be able to get them on the buses, but if and only if there is a place to leave their cars and a dependable schedule that does not require waiting more than about 10 minutes for the next bus. And it must be available until midnight, in my opinion.
These taxes must not apply to the residents of Tahoe…who already barely make a living unless they are retired, work for the county, Barton, the City, STPUD or the Federal govt.
TTD just plays bus system…they do not have the money, the expertise or the number of dependable riders to make it fly in a self supporting way.
At the end of the day…Austin Sass is right, parking is the big issue. There is no transit system equipped to bring people to Tahoe except by private car or rental car. And once you drive a car to Tahoe, the convenience and flexibility of having your own wheels is an incentive that has no equal.
Public transit in not just for visitors but also for many low income locals who need it to get to work. You can build a transit system that people will use it will require frequency, routes and being free to the user. Hard core locals probably won’t use it but the next generation will. The challenge will be the difference between what that system will cost and the funds that are available.i don’t think there is a self supporting system in the country. Make no mistake people will use the rightt transit system they always do. Hundreds of thousands of riders already use some form of public transit in South Shore and if you build a better system more will probably use it. We will see.
Hundreds of thousands on south shore?
We can’t even get the GREEN kids to ride a school bus to the green high school.
I wonder if they will tear down the new homeless shelter when they reroute the traffic from Fanny Bridge.