Tell Me You Don't Ride the Bus Without Telling Me

    At the end of 2021 consulting firm Nelson Nygaard published a report on public transportation within Dutchess County. This report was commissioned by the Dutchess County Transportation Council and made recommendations for service improvements, and route modifications.

    Being a self-described transportation geek I read the report with interest, and it was one of those reads where I just kept asking myself, "am I missing something?" 

    The stated purpose of this study was "to recommend strategies that better address public transportation needs where service is provided..." According to the report, "...the study was led by Dutchess County Public Transit with support from its contractor, bus operators that participated in interviews, and staff from Dutchess County, including the Dutchess County Transportation Council. Others participated via meetings and through the rider survey, as discussed in Section 4." 

    Now, I don't want to dissect language, but this paragraph inspires some questions:

How frequently do staff members of  Dutchess County use Dutchess County Public Transit?

How frequently do members of the Dutchess County Transportation Council use DCPT?

Why didn't all bus operators participate in interviews?

I also have issues with the rider survey:

* It was an online survey using SurveyMonkey; were riders able to access this survey if they did not have smart phones and data/internet?  

*It was "promoted through a press release, printed flyers on all DCPT vehicles, and e-blast to known contacts (what does that mean?), and an announcement through County social media." They also let passengers know about the survey through a notification in the DCPT rider app. But if riders did not have access to a smart phone and data/internet how did they access the survey?

*The survey was live for less than 30 days, from March 8-March 31. 

    404 people submitted a survey response, and the report specifically mentions that 9 out 10 respondents have a smartphone. I mean, obviously. Since this was an online survey, not a hardcopy, or a conversation with a team member while waiting for, or riding on a bus, and the survey was probably accessible via a QR code on the fliers. What other revelations did Nygaard come to? That 10 out of 10 respondents have data plans? 

    Nygaard Nelson doesn't mention how the 404 responses compare with actual ridership numbers and I find that weird, since it's data that can easily be harvested. Am I to understand that only 404 people in a county with a population of slightly less than 300,00, and 3 different high education campuses in unique spaces of the county, rode the bus in about 30 days? That comes out to about 13 passengers per day across 12 routes. That’s a pretty damning indication of the bus system function right from the start.

    Nygaard Nelson front loads their conclusions, like a  TL;DR: their recommendations "will save $1.25 million annually.

Ah, so that's the priority.

    Not a functioning public transit system that helps to connect communities, make amenities more accessible, and promote independence and sociability for population groups such as seniors and minors, to say nothing of bolstering local and independent businesses in the county, or encouraging visitors from locations like NYC and other metropolitan areas, who may not own a car and/or have a driver's license, to visit our fair county spending tourist dollars. Bah, who wants that?

    I don’t believe transit systems actually need a consulting firm to figure out how public transportation could be doing better. You could just pay the $1.75 bus fare (in cash, cards are not accepted by the Dutchess County Bus service), and try to live your life for, oh, 5-10 business days, with that as the only method for getting around. Be sure to count how many times it is 1) necessary to walk the remaining distance from the point of origin to the final destination, and 2) if it's actually faster and more direct to walk than take the bus.

    This kind of consultation, research, and reporting, I have to say is infuriating. Obviously I, and other users of public transportation, were never intended to read this; even if it was made available to us. This report was written for members of the local government to justify reducing service, and that’s so goddamn frustrating.

    So, members of the Dutchess County legislature who will make decisions affecting the bus service based on this report, I need y’all to understand something: Public transportation is a public good. Like the postal service, and medical care, it is not meant to generate a profit. There are people who depend on the function of these buses to procure income, food, health care, and also just to boost their mental health by getting out of the house and interacting in society. There are people in this county whose lives could be boosted quite measurably if they didn’t have the financial albatross of vehicle ownership hanging around their neck.

    But Nelson Nygaard will never be commissioned to write a report incorporating these perspectives. It’s in their existential interest to use survey feedback, statistics, and dollar amounts to tell the organizations paying them what they want to hear. It’s written permission, complete with charts, and graphs, as well as some stock photos that yeah, bud, it’s okay to switch fixed-route service to dial-a-ride, you’ll save so much money! 

    Will they, though? Or will this actually cost the county more, just over a longer period of time? Obviously I’m biased, but I think the reduction of public services is, overall, more expensive than investing in them. Consider it like spending money on car accessories instead of car maintenance. Sure, you can keep putting off the oil changes, and get a rearview mirror disco ball instead. Until you can’t. 
    

    And when you can’t it suddenly becomes very expensive all at once.

    Meanwhile, the threshold for a passenger bus to be more fuel and spatially efficient than a private car is low. Like the-bar-is-on-the-ground low. As most trips taken by private vehicles have only one occupant, the driver, a bus only needs 3-4 passengers to be a better use of space than a car.

    So, it doesn’t matter if ridership isn’t turning a profit for the service, or at least it shouldn’t matter. Because this service is providing a public good that cannot be valued in dollars (I mean, it can, I just don’t feel like doing the research right now). And because this is a public service that should exist, and fully function because we live in a society, lawmakers that say things like “we need to run this country like a well-operating business,” will have zero interest in it, but will be fine paying the money they could be paying into the service into a consulting firm that publishes a report like this one.