Boyd Tinsley, a Charlottesville native and acclaimed violinist with the Dave Matthews Band, addresses the 2007 Valedictory Exercises at the University of Virginia.

MPO Board receives public comment during meeting on May 16, 2007

A fare free system for the Charlottesville Transit Service took one small step towards becoming a reality during a recent meeting of the Policy Board of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Members unanimously passed an informal resolution to direct consultants working on the creation of a regional transit authority to "look hard" at the option. That study is being undertaken by the firm VHB.

Kellem Emanuele, the MPO’s Transportation Program Coordinator, delivered a report (.PDF) that examined other communities’ transitions from paid to free systems and weighed financial and other impacts.

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"If you reduce the fare, you see an increase in ridership," Emanuele told the board, citing a 1994 report from the Washington State Transportation Commission. In some cases, the increase can be as much as thirty percent. "But the caution [the researchers] give is that before you entertain that, you define what your goals are in reducing the fare."

For instance, increased ridership does not necessarily mean a corresponding decrease in congestion or single occupancy vehicles on the roads. Research shows that people who have other transportation options have answers they want answered before they’ll consider taking public transit. How on time is the service? Where do the routes go? How clean are the vehicles?

And, transit planners would also need to consider the kind of rider that a free fare system would attract. When Austin went fare free, buses were filled with school truants and drunks.

"What happened was their loyal riders were driven away because the experience was less pleasant," said Emanuele. But, she said fare free experiments usually work best in small to medium-sized communities where it’s easier to keep the peace. MPO members discounted this notion, and said it was unlikely to be a problem in Charlottesville.

Bill Watterson, Director of the Charlottesville Transit Service, said he is not opposed to making the system fare-free, as long as the revenue could be made up elsewhere.

"We are getting ten percent of our cost covered, though, and ten percent is not ninety percent, but if ten percent goes away, we have to figure out a way to get that ten percent or we’ll have to cut service by ten percent."

Watterson also said the experiment of offering free rides to University students and employees is paying off. An additional six hundred riders used CTS during April, a 6.6 percent increase. CTS will be fare-free until the end of the fiscal year, and an extension will be considered depending on the CTS budget for next year.

Albemarle Supervisor and MPO Policy Board Chair David Slutzky made a motion for the MPO board to go on record with a "statement of enthusiasm" to encourage consultants to keep it in mind as they design a proposed regional transit authority that would include the County. He also suggested a move to fare-free could complement the region’s attempts to provide more affordable living choices. But, he cautioned eliminating fares would have to make financial sense.

"If the numbers don’t crunch, they don’t crunch, and we’ll have good reason to continue charging fares."

Sean Tubbs

On the morning of Memorial Day, May 27, 1968, dozens of family members of the crew of the USS Scorpion gathered at Pier 22 at the Norfolk Naval Station awaiting the 1pm arrival of the submarine returning from a routine three-month deployment to the Mediterranean. The families waited for hours in the wind and rain clutching umbrellas and comforting shivering children. But unbeknownst to them, the Scorpion had sunk five days earlier, killing all ninety-nine men onboard.

What veteran military reporter Ed Offley has found out decades later is that the Navy already knew the Scorpion’s fate on that morning but hid the facts from family members, the press, and the public. To this day, family members and the public remain in the dark about what one American admiral has called “one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era.”

Ed Offley is a Military Reporter for The News Herald in Panama City, Florida. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia (’69) and served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. His new book is Scorpion DownGuv,!vDjkjSunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion.

City transportation activist Peter Kleeman is collecting petition signatures to get on the November 2007 ballot as an independent candidate for Charlottesville City Council.  Kleeman last ran for Council in 2000 on the "Democrats for Change" slate with Maurice Cox and Kevin Lynch, both of whom went on to win seats on Council.  According to former City Democratic Party Chairman Lloyd Snook, Kleeman "came within a whisker of getting nominated instead of [Meredith] Richards."

When asked today why he is considering a run for Council, Kleeman said, "I want to be more involved in the process.  As a citizen, it is very difficult to get the information I need from City staff and VDOT. As a result, it is hard to feel like I am participating as a fully involved citizen.  Part of the reason I am running is to see more opennesses for the public."

An area resident since 1981, Kleeman has been an independent transportation consultant since 1997 specializing in air quality, noise, and energy modeling and analysis relating to transportation activities. Before becoming a consultant, he worked for three years as an engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Kleeman is a long standing opponent of the Meadowcreek Parkway and has lobbied City and County government to consider alternatives and to conduct a broader review of the environmental issues related to the road project.  He is on the Board of the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation (ACCT) and has spoken in favor of public transportation as an alternative to new road construction.  He is also a frequent defender of open government and public involvement policies before local government boards and commissions.

Kleeman expressed frustration that other candidates were not in the race, including Republicans.  "I am disappointed the Republicans have not brought forward a candidate," said Kleeman. "I think we would have a better discussion of the issues with more candidates in the race."  When asked why he was not seeking the Democratic party’s nomination, Kleeman responded, "My feeling is the elections are more about issues and the community than the political party." 

"The party doesn’t stand behind issues, they stand behind people.  We need to have a broader community discussion about the issues, and not just those perceived to be important to a subset of people in the party," said Kleeman.  While not yet an official candidate, Kleeman says he has collected 50 of the 125 signatures he needs to have before the June 12th filing deadline.  If he gets on the ballot, he will face at least three fellow Democrats vying for three seats on City Council.  The Democratic nominating caucus is being held June 2nd.

Brian Wheeler

Hat tip: Sean McCord

Starting this week in bean town The Drop one hour radio program is unleashed to the world. I’m really excited about this. WBOS HD2 has launched a new station, Radio You Boston and it’s a real nice fit with THE DROP. Aimed at college students and hipsters alike Radio You is hitting the ground running. THE DROP will be [part of the Monday evening lineup – here it is:

3pm-7pm: RadioYou Rock Block with Chris Douglass
7pm-8pm: The Drop with Dan Portnoy
8pm-9pm: Intercoursing

So give a listen to the show here at 7PM Eastern I had to use Safari or IE to listen – Firefox kept crashing.

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Logan Coleman, daughter of Jonathan Coleman, joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to describe how she’s helping to raise awareness for the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

“Since 2003, millions of people have been driven from their homes in Darfur by the government-backed militia,” says Coleman. “Innocent have been raped and killed, and people need to be aware.”

Coleman says she’s raising money for the cause by selling lemonade, and suggests others can take similar steps.

Nature sound expert Lang Elliot joins Coy Barefoot to describe The Songs of Insects on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now. This book, co-written by Wil Hershberger explains what katydids, crickets and seventy-five other kinds of bugs mean when they chirp, and includes a companion CD.