Make Transit Needs Known

Need a ride? The Ventura County Transportation Commission has $8 million to spend on improving public transportation systems. It has just opened its annual comment period for residents to speak out about which bus routes, shuttle services or rail lines need to be added, expanded or otherwise improved.

If the commission hears about needs that aren’t being met, it has the legal and moral obligation to spend that money meeting them.

If it determines that public transit in Ventura County is already as convenient, frequent, efficient and clean as it can possibly be, then the law allows it to turn any extra money over to local public works departments to build and repair more roads.

Incredibly, this is what it tends to do--year after year. Money specifically allocated for public transportation gets added to the road-maintenance fund while those county residents who are disabled, too poor, too young, too old or too environmentally conscious to drive cars everywhere are left standing on the curb.

The result: Too many area residents are trapped at home or are forced to add more cars to our already-clogged streets and freeways. Transit systems that could offer efficient, attractive alternatives to driving remain minimal.

Building and maintaining roads are important functions of government, but money for those is available from many sources. Far fewer funds are earmarked specifically for public transit; they should be spent as intended.

If you are aware of any public transit need that isn’t being met, you have until Feb. 21 to call it to the commission’s attention via phone, mail, e-mail or in person. Public hearings are scheduled for Feb. 14 and 21.

“I think public transit is critical to the health of the community, and this gives people the opportunity to request service where it doesn’t exist,” Maureen Hooper Lopez, a Transportation Commission official who oversees bus service, told The Times last week.

We agree--but we have attended hearings in past years where few of the panelists showed up to listen to the heartfelt pleas of transit users--and the long list of complaints and requests apparently fell on deaf ears.

We encourage those who use public transportation--or who might if buses and trains ran more often and more reliably--to take this opportunity to speak up by sending e-mail to mlopez@goventura.org, by calling (800) 438-1112 or by sending letters to VCTC Unmet Transit Needs, 950 Country Square Drive, Suite 207, Ventura CA 93003.

And we challenge the Ventura County Transportation Commission to heed those comments and spend this money as it was intended to be spent.