Terre Haute city bus system's hours to be extended

Plan says extending schedule is way to improve Vigo transportation

By Howard Greninger

TERRE HAUTE — Extending Terre Haute city bus hours is one way transportation services for the low-income, elderly or disabled can be improved in Vigo County, according to a proposed Coordinated Public Transit Human Services Transportation Plan.

Starting in October, the Terre Haute Transit Utility will extend its evening service hours, said Pat Macke, a transportation planner and chairwoman of a committee drafting a transportation service plan required to be in place by Oct. 1.

Brad Miller, director of the Transit Utility, said an agreement reached earlier this year between the city and Indiana State University would allow for extended bus service.

The city, starting Oct. 1, will have three buses serving three routes for extended hours, which will operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

The extended hour routes would run from downtown and the ISU campus north to Plaza North; south on Seventh Street to Honey Creek Mall and Wal-Mart; and an east Wabash Avenue route that goes through downtown.

The city will continue to use all of its 14 buses on nine routes for its current service of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, Miller said.

To help pay for the service, ISU trustees earlier this year passed a new $15 per semester transportation fee that would be assessed to students enrolled in six or more credit hours. The city also will receive matching federal funds to provide the service, Miller said.

The federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, passed in August 2005, requires that providers of transportation for low-income, elderly or disabled people be part of a coordinated “public transit human services transportation plan.”

It covers transportation provided by government and private agencies, public not-for-profit organizations or commercial operators that receive state or federal funds.

Any agency not included in the plan would not be eligible for federal or state transportation money after Oct. 1, Macke said. The idea is to create unified transit services that eliminate redundancy and maximize transportation service to help the low-income, elderly or disabled maintain productive and independent lives.

“I know that Area 7 [Agency on Aging] transports seniors, the city buses transports seniors and TransCare transports seniors. We need to look if we are all going to the same places. It is really funny to see the city bus, TransCare and Area 7 all pull up to Wal-Mart at 10 o’clock every day dropping off their clients,” Macke told the committee Thursday.

“That is a coordination problem we need to work on. Maybe we should have one agency there on Monday and another on Tuesday and so on,” she said.

The committee met at West Central Indiana Economic Development District’s office at 1718 Wabash Ave. West Central serves as the Terre Haute Metropolitan Planning Organization. Plans from that organization are used to determine federal and state funding for several programs, such as transportation and human services.

Extended bus hours were one deficiency in service identified in the plan. Other deficiencies include a lack of public awareness and vehicles that cannot handle oversized wheelchairs. The committee is working with Hamilton Center to create a brochure that can be placed in banks, public places and businesses to tell people what transportation services are available, the cost and how to obtain the services.

Macke said three grants have been created to provide federal or state money to help with equipment, extended hours or to help eliminate duplication of transport services for providers in the plan.

Danny Wayne Beemer, independent living services coordinator for the Wabash Independent Living and Learning Center Inc., at 4312 S. Seventh St., suggested some grant money be targeted to help lower costs for transportation services for the disabled after 6 p.m. daily.

As an example, TransCare provides transportation 24 hours, seven days a week. The company charges $40 for a one-way trip for a person with a wheelchair. Wayne suggested grants could be used to subsidize that service and lower the individual cost to people seeking that service.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.