I've been wondering about this for years. BTW, I know those giant buses cause traffic problems in town and are mostly empty most of the time. Back when we were trying to restore Cayuga and Aurora as 2 way streets (partial success there), we were told the giant buses were the reason they had to stay one way.
I was given some silly reason for buying the biggest buses possible back when I first pushed for restoring the two-way patter. It was something like "but the feds will pay most of the cost, so we may as well get bigger buses." But maybe there was a better reason. Now that operating costs are higher, maybe the cost-benefit equation will shift towards smaller, more frequent buses. And watch what happens to ridership when buses come every 30 or even 15-20 minutes; just think how popular the 10 minute shuttles are. Thanks to Valorie for asking a key question (and for deleting the previous content so her post doesn't have a "long tail"). Margaret On Oct 21, 2008, at 9:26 AM, Valorie Rockney wrote: > Thanks, Ben, for posting this - it's very useful information. > > Is there any discussion currently about using smaller, more fuel- > efficient buses, at least during non-peak times? . A few years ago, I > heard that such buses weren't eligible for certain kinds of funding - > is that the case now? > > Thanks, everyone, > Valorie > > > > > > On Oct 21, 2008, at 9:18 AM, Ben Heavner wrote: > >> Hi Sustainable Tompkins Folks! >> >> There's been some interesting discussion lately about mass transit >> choices being made right now in the City of Ithaca that I thought I'd >> pass along in hopes of finding some creative solutions to the >> possibility of reduced TCAT service in Ithaca and surrounding areas. >> > > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County > area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
