Photo by Mike Brown
MATA becomes focus of effort to train fuel-conscious thinking
By Alex Doniach
The main challenge John Moore faced on his first bus ride to work was figuring out where to park his car.
Moore, president and CEO of the Memphis Regional Chamber, couldn't walk from his Germantown home to the Memphis Area Transit Authority bus stop on Exeter. So he parked his black Acura in the lot near a paint store and arranged for his son to retrieve it later.
Despite the difficulties, Moore's Tuesday morning ride was smooth. He plans to make this 50-minute, $2.25 commute a habit.
"If I cut a net 10 gallons a week out of my commute ... I could save $2,080 a year," Moore said.
As gas prices creep toward $4 a gallon, Shelby County leaders are hoping other residents follow Moore's example.
To encourage use of mass transit, county Mayor AC Wharton, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton and Germantown Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy are working with MATA to reduce some of the hassles associated with bus riding. Some ideas include direct bus routes to shuttle employees to and from work, secure parking lots and even free wireless Internet service.
The benefits, they say, would ease fuel costs on residents -- generating more money for the economy -- and improve air quality by taking more cars off the road.
"We're trying to make transportation by bus more attractive in terms of route patterns, frequency of runs, all those things that could it make it more feasible for individuals to choose the bus," Wharton said recently.
The mayor's fuel-cutting crusade doesn't stop with bus routes. His administration also is considering four-day work weeks for certain county departments and a revised ride-share and carpool program.
Wharton is in Germany this week to study transportation. The trip, organized and funded by the Brookings Institution, an independent research institution, is designed to introduce a group of American leaders and transportation experts to the German way of traveling.
Wharton said that unlike American policymakers, who leave transportation as an afterthought until a fuel crisis hits, the Germans have made mass transit a national priority.
Wharton knows he won't be able to build a European-style light-rail system in the next three years, but he's hopeful that at least within the next few months he'll have direct-access MATA bus routes available for county employees.
The idea is to eliminate the inconvenience of riding the bus by offering secure parking lots where employees could leave their cars, direct routes from convenient locations and free Internet access so employees can work.
Wharton, who is meeting with Herenton and MATA general manager Will Hudson next week to talk through the details, sees this as a pilot program that, if successful, could be adopted by the private sector.
And the program would be strategically designed to maximize use. Officials are mapping out where all county and city officials live to identify direct routes that make the most sense.
Employees will fill out surveys to determine who would take advantage of the program, whether they even want wireless Internet access and if they'd benefit from bike racks, for example.
Independently of Wharton's and Herenton's efforts, Goldsworthy is looking at a similar program for Germantown residents -- designing direct routes from Germantown to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Memphis, for example.
Back on the near-empty bus early Tuesday, Moore said he's optimistic that commuters would opt for bus-riding if some of the annoyances -- such as parking -- were reduced and people were educated about the advantages.
"With appropriate planning," he said, "we could save a lot of money and a whole lot of fuel."
-- Alex Doniach: 529-5231
Saving gas and dollars
Shelby County and Memphis city governments are considering ways to cut down on fuel consumption and ease the burden on employees. Ideas include:
Direct bus routes with MATA to shuttle employees directly from neighborhoods to work and back. Employees would be able to leave cars in secure lots. The buses could also be equipped with perks such as free wireless Internet access and bike racks.
Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton's administration is also considering four-day work weeks for some county departments to cut down fuel use in county cars. The schedule is already in use in the county's roads department.
A new ride-share and carpool program.
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