Riders Wanted : With Few Users and Little Funding, County Public Transit Is Strapped

Whenever Mimi Chuntz leaves her Camarillo home to go to the market, to the doctor or to visit friends, she gets there by means unfamiliar to most Ventura County residents.

Chuntz, 72, takes the bus.

“I grew up in New York, where everybody took public transit,” Chuntz said. “It’s safe and it’s cheap. I love it.”

But county leaders with a nervous eye to the future worry that there aren’t enough transit riders such as Mimi Chuntz to keep buses and trains running.

Less than 10% of Ventura County residents use public transit.

Unless more residents are coaxed out of their cars and into buses, trains and car pools, the county stands to lose millions of dollars in much-needed federal transportation funds tied to improving air quality.

Federal gas tax funds account for up to half the $64 million the county and its 10 cities receive from the state and federal government for transportation each year.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, the county by 2005 must reduce the number of days when the air is considered unhealthful to no more than three in a three-year period.

From 1991 to 1993, pollution levels in Ventura County exceeded the federal health standard on 56 days, leading the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate the county’s air quality problem as severe, a category surpassed only by the extreme rating assigned to the Los Angeles Basin.

Even so, the county’s air quality has improved dramatically in the past 20 years. In 1974, pollution levels for ozone soared above federal standards on 122 days.

Public transit is crucial to further improving air quality and complying with the federal mandates, said Chris Stephens, a planner with the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

“Our biggest, most important challenge in cutting down on pollution is getting people out of their cars,” Stephens said. “That is not going to be easy.”

From 1980 to 1990, vehicle miles traveled on state-run roadways in Ventura County rose more than 60%, according to Caltrans. By 2010, Caltrans predicts the number of miles traveled will increase another 30%.

Hoping to prove that prediction wrong, Transportation Commission staff members have been pushing the panel to improve public transit throughout the county.

In 1992, the commission approved Metrolink commuter train service to Simi Valley and Moorpark. Earlier this year that service was extended temporarily to Camarillo and Oxnard to ease congestion on freeways damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake.

And in response to complaints from residents about the difficulty in traveling on public transit within the county, a countywide bus service designed to link most of the county’s cities is scheduled to begin service July 5.

Painful Process

But critics say the public transit projects are too expensive and could force cities to sacrifice already scarce dollars they now spend on roads.

They also argue that a shortage of funding for the public transit programs may pit longtime city bus services against the new commuter trains and countywide bus programs.

“Running these extra services is all fine and well, but if you’re taking money away from the cities, what good is that?” Ventura Traffic Engineer Nazir Lalani said. “You’re hurting more than you’re helping.”

But cities may be forced to tighten their belts, because getting cars off the road is essential to improving air quality, said Scott Johnson, planning manager for the county’s Air Pollution Control District.

“Because of our population growth and our proclivity to drive, drive, drive, we are jeopardizing funding for roads and a score of other programs,’ Johnson said. “If we want to improve our air and hang onto funding, it is going to be painful.”

Until now, businesses and government agencies have borne the brunt of the pollution reduction burden.

The county’s strict trip-reduction ordinance, called Rule 210, requires businesses and agencies employing 100 or more people to provide incentives to reduce the number of people driving alone to work. Businesses with 50 to 99 employees will face the same mandate starting in 1997.

And in February, the Board of Supervisors agreed to require county workers to car pool, ride a bus or find another way to get to work other than driving solo at least one day a week.

Ventura County’s severe air quality rating has prompted intervention by the EPA. The agency has drawn up a Federal Implementation Plan with stiff control measures, aimed at businesses, to further rid the air of ozone.

Among them is a proposal to require industry to reduce emissions by 25% by 2005, regardless of whether the business has already cut emissions by installing modern pollution controls.

As more and more companies are compelled to conform to these mandates, county transportation officials expect the demand for public transit to increase.

“This is actually a really great time for us because we are seeing our transit programs expand, and if everything goes right, demand will increase as well,” said Mary Travis, transit program manager for the Transportation Commission. “With these new programs, we will be ready.”

Car pools and city buses are currently the only options for residents cutting down on car use. While each city in the county provides some sort of public transit, most buses run once an hour on limited routes and provide no way to get from one city to another.

Only Interconnect, a commuter bus that runs from the county government center in Ventura to The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks, provides cross-county service.

Even a die-hard public transit fan like Chuntz is quick to criticize the current system.

“It’s a mess,” Chuntz said. “You’ve really got to know what you’re doing.”

It takes Chuntz an hour by bus to get to Camarillo City Hall from her home in Leisure Village. By car, the trip takes about 10 minutes.

To visit her children in the San Fernando Valley, Chuntz uses a complicated system of buses, taxis and airport shuttles that she devised herself.

“The only way you can get around is if you plan days in advance,” Chuntz said. “And don’t even think of going anywhere on Sunday, unless you feel like walking. It’s a system only a true fan of public transit could love.”

Hopes for VISTA

Transit officials are hoping the new countywide bus service called Ventura Intercity Service Transit Authority, or VISTA, will fill in some of the gaps and prompt more residents to take the bus.

VISTA is meant to supplement city bus services by providing buses that will link cities throughout the county, either with hourly scheduled service or Dial-A-Ride programs that pick up residents at their homes and take them to the nearest bus stop.

Four VISTA routes will connect every city in the county except Ojai. VISTA will provide bus service for the first time to Point Mugu Naval Air Station, Camarillo State Hospital and business parks in Camarillo, Newbury Park and Simi Valley.

The service, which will cost an estimated $600,000 a year, will be funded for the first two years with a special federal grant for pilot projects. After that, if VISTA is successful, the cities and the county will have to come up with the money to continue the service.

The Transportation Commission estimates that VISTA will attract 600 riders a day system-wide.

But some city and county leaders wonder whether anyone will actually use the service.

Among the skeptics is county Supervisor Vicky Howard, chairwoman of the Transportation Commission. Howard voted in favor of VISTA, but said she does not think it will lure drivers from their cars.

“I’m not optimistic about it,” Howard said. “What may happen is that people who aren’t able to get around now will be able to get around, but I don’t see people giving up their cars for the bus.”

Indeed, if an underused, 3-month-old temporary shuttle service from Thousand Oaks to the Moorpark Metrolink station is any indication, transit officials are facing an uphill battle.

After the Jan. 17 earthquake, the Thousand Oaks City Council received federal funding to run a temporary shuttle from The Oaks Mall to the Moorpark Metrolink station, a route that will be taken over by VISTA in July.

Fewer than 10 passengers a day ride the full-size coach, which makes two round trips in the morning and two in the evening.

But Travis, the commission transit manager, insists that VISTA will be different. The commission is planning an aggressive marketing campaign, complete with discounts and free rides, to familiarize residents with the service and encourage them to use it.

“A big part of the problem is that people who aren’t used to taking the bus don’t even know the service exists,” Travis said. “We’re really going to try to let people know it’s here, it’s convenient and it’s easy to use.”

City leaders, however, say they are nervous that they will be forced to pick up the cost of continuing VISTA service after the federal money runs out.

They point to a recent decision by the transportation commission to continue Metrolink service to Oxnard and Camarillo at least until the summer of 1995--nine months after federal funding ends.

The commission agreed to start the service to help ease congestion after the earthquake, believing it could be discontinued in October, when funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency runs out.

But at the May commission meeting, Executive Director Ginger Gherardi told the panel that the county is obligated to continue Metrolink service to Oxnard and Camarillo because the service is taking in enough money to meet state requirements.

The county and the cities of Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Oxnard challenged that decision.

But at a meeting earlier this month, the commission reaffirmed its plan, after Gherardi told them that for the first year of service, the county would only be required to pay a fraction of the actual cost of service to the two stations.

Rising Rail Cost

In the meantime, the commission will borrow the $1.6 million needed to pay for Metrolink service for the next fiscal year, including stops in Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard. The money will come from the county’s emergency highway call-box program.

“We are robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo, who also serves on the commission. “It’s no way to run a transportation program.”

Schillo and other commissioners are also concerned about the rising cost of Metrolink service.

Metrolink operates in an area composed of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Every year, representatives from each county, acting as the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, determine how much each county pays for Metrolink service.

This year, the authority decided to double Ventura County’s share, from $800,000 to $1.6 million. They also agreed that the county has not been paying its fair share for service for the past two years, and decided to levy an additional $1.6 million for services rendered.

Simi Valley Councilman Bill Davis, who represents Ventura County on the rail authority, is negotiating to reduce the county’s share.

The commission is also joining with several other counties in asking for an audit of the authority.

“We really feel these numbers are inflated,” said Davis, said who also sits on the Transportation Commission. “But the fact of the matter is, Metrolink is going to cost a whole lot more than we thought.”

As the cost for Metrolink service soars, no new transportation money is available to pay for the trains.

So Metrolink backers are looking to fuel the costly commuter rail service with the same pot of dollars cities use to run local bus lines and make road repairs.

Starting in July, 1995, the cities of Oxnard and Ventura, which have the largest bus-riding populations in the county, may be forced to cough up part of the cost for Metrolink by dipping into their bus funds or competing with other city services for general fund money.

“Ventura County, like many other counties, is going to have to face the very basic question of buses versus rail,” says William Fulton, an independent researcher and urban planner based in Ventura.

“Unless the funding picture changes dramatically, there are going to be some awful fights over whether money goes to poor people who ride the bus or rich people who ride the train.”

The biggest loser could be South Coast Area Transit, or SCAT, the county’s largest provider of city bus service. SCAT serves Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula and Ojai.

The 21-year-old agency recorded more than 2.8 million passenger boardings last year, said Maureen Hooper Lopez, director of planning and marketing. Seven smaller city bus companies provide service in the rest of the county, picking up an additional 1 million passengers a year.

By comparison, a year of Metrolink service, including the Camarillo and Oxnard stations, provides about 145,000 passenger rides in Ventura County.

“With trains and countywide buses going for a piece of the funding pie, it’s going to be more and more difficult for us to get our share,” Lopez said. “There are going to have to be some major policy decisions about what is truly effective in cutting pollution and moving passengers.”

Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for Metrolink, said ridership on the trains needs time to grow.

“History has shown that as time goes on, more people become aware of and interested in Metrolink service,” Hidalgo said. “After a while you see families moving to places that are near the train and planning their lives around the train.”

Half-Cent Tax Proposal

Others are critical of the priority given to Metrolink, a suburban rail service that caters to white-collar commuters at the expense of city bus services whose riders mainly are poor, elderly or disabled.

According to a survey conducted by the rail authority, the typical Metrolink rider is a white, 40-year-old professional with an annual income of more than $60,000. The average SCAT rider is nonwhite, over age 50 and makes less than $15,000 a year, Lopez said.

Government subsides pay about $1.46 per SCAT rider, Lopez said. Metrolink estimates its per-rider subsidy at $6.80.

Ventura City Manager John Baker, who is leaving his post in July, told the commissioners at their May meeting that continued funding for Metrolink could jeopardize city services.

“The question my successor and the city of Ventura will be faced with is whether to pay for police and fire or the bus,” Baker said. “Because that is where it will come from if you continue to fund Metrolink.”

Hoping to attack the funding problem, the commission later this month will consider recommending to the Board of Supervisors that a half-cent sales tax measure for transportation be placed on the November ballot.

A similar initiative put before the voters four years ago and touted as a way to bring Metrolink to Ventura County failed by a 2-to-1 margin. The tax would have raised more than $630 million in tax revenue and matching funds to pay for Metrolink, road repair and other transportation projects.

Without new funding, county officials agree that decisions about where to put limited resources are only going to get harder.

“All the transportation people are plugging the dike with their fingers and toes and it is barely holding,” said Johnson, of the county’s pollution control district. “The bottom line is that we are running out of money.”

Wednesday: The battle over how to resolve the transportation funding crisis.

County Ridership: Buses vs. Trains Bus Service: SCAT* Annual riders: 2,835,000 Fares: $1,258,000 Operating cost: $6,284,000 *Bus Service: Simi Valley Transit Annual riders: 365,000 Fares: 237,000 Operating cost: 1,354,000 *Bus Service: Camarillo Transit System Annual riders: 21,750 Fares: 29,000 Operating cost: 230,000 *Bus Service: Thousand Oaks Transit Annual riders: 100,000 Fares: 71,000 Operating cost: 318,000 *Bus Service: Moorpark City Transit Annual riders: 12,000 Fares: 6,000 Operating cost: 101,000 *Bus Service: FATCO** Annual riders: 60,000 Fares: 30,000 Operating cost: 262,000 *Bus Service: County Interconnect Annual riders: 33,000 Fares: 25,000 Operating cost: 190,000 *Bus Service: Oijai Trolley Annual riders: 39,240 Fares: 9,000 Operating cost: 85,384 *Bus Service: Total Annual riders: 3,465,990 Fares: $1,665,000 Operating cost: $8,824,384 *Train Service: Metrolink Annual riders: 145,000 Fares: $661,000 Operating cost: $2,661,000 * South Coast Transit (serves Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Oijai and Port Hueneme): **Fillmore Area Transit Company Note: Bus figures are for 1993. Metrolink information is an estimate for a full year of service at all four Ventura County stops, based on figures for April, 1994. Source: Ventura County Transportation Commission