Ben McCall/Sun Photo
On Monday, his second time using the bus, Robert McLaughlin, Overland Park, secures his bicycle, to be used as transportation when he arrives downtown, to the bike rack on the front of The JO, which leaves twice weekday mornings from Blue Valley Baptist Church, 151st Street and Antioch Road.
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No more empty buses on county's JO line
By: Chuck Kurtz, Staff Writer
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Not long ago, many people considered The JO a joke.
When Johnson County began its public transportation system to the downtown Kansas City metropolitan centers of Kansas and Missouri in 1980, many people laughed and shook their heads as they watched empty buses drive past.
No one is laughing these days.
With the price of gasoline hovering at $4 a gallon and expected to go higher, those once-empty buses have become the place to be for early morning and late-afternoon commuters.
In fact, many of the buses leaving from the park-and-ride locations are standing-room only. Drivers, who used to strategize the best time to leave home to beat rush-hour traffic on the highway, now adjust their departure in order to jockey a good seat on The JO.
Two buses depart from the Blue Valley Baptist Church parking lot, 151st Street and Antioch Road weekday mornings; one at 6:30 and the other at 7 a.m. Both are nonstop to downtown Kansas City, Mo.
As commuters stood in line Monday morning waiting for the 6:30 JO to arrive, Tom Tinsley, Overland Park, stood first in line ahead of the 17 riders that climbed on board. He is a three-year veteran rider of The JO.
“I began riding because I didn’t like driving through the Power & Light District with all the construction going on,” he said. “The bus is convenient; that’s why I began riding the bus. But now, it’s all about the gas.”
Tinsley said he has seen a big increase in the number of riders, especially in the past six months.
“The bus used to basically be empty,” he said. “Now, almost every seat is filled and that’s good.”
One of those new riders is Bryan Wood, Overland Park. He began riding The JO when the price of gas rose above $3 a gallon.
“It would cost me $12 a day to drive my Jeep downtown and back,” Wood said. “Compare that to $28 a month to ride the bus.”
He shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows.
“That’s a no-brainer,” he said. “This is a good value and the company I work for pays for half of the bus fare.”
More than 30 riders climbed aboard the 7 a.m. JO, including Robert McLaughlin, Overland Park, who rode in on his bicycle. He works near downtown Kansas City, Mo.
“This is only my second time to ride the bus,” he said, removing his helmet and taking off his backpack.
McLaughlin said the bus routes are not “perfect,” but when you look at the cost of a gallon of gas and the number of cars on the road at any given time of day, it makes sense and cents to take advantage of mass transit.
“I’m saving $8 a day in gas when I ride the bus,” he said. “It costs me $3.75 a day to ride the bus. That’s part of the reason I ride. By riding the bus, I take a car off the street; I hate cars.”
For the past two years, Molly Riggs has driven U.S. Highway 69 from LaCygne to the 151st and Antioch park-and-ride lot. She works for the law firm Shook, Hardy and Bacon. When the firm closed its Corporate Woods office, Riggs began riding The JO.
“I would have to drive 69 Highway all the way in and I just can’t drive it, I’m not that good of a driver,” she admitted. “And then add the cost of gas, the cost of parking, the wear and tear on the car, and the stress.
“I’m spending $500 a month now on gas and if I had to drive all the way into the city, I would be spending $1,000 a month on fuel and parking. I could not go to work if there wasn’t a bus.”
Riggs said ridership has increased in the past six months.
“There have been times when fellows had to stand, when there were eight to 10 people standing,” she said. “Taking the bus really takes the stress off of you. People sleep, read books, visit, and look out the window.”
Riggs had one suggestion for The JO: Start a route that begins farther south on U.S. 69.
“I would like to see them pick up people maybe around 199th Street,” she said. “There are a lot of people that go into the city to work who live further south.”
When the 6:30 a.m. bus pulled out of the parking lot, 17 people had boarded and 13 cars had been left behind. With the departure of the 7 a.m. bus, more than 30 people sat on board and the parking lot contained more than 40 cars.
Chuck Ferguson, deputy transportation director for The JO, said fixed-route ridership in the first six months of this year, was up 40,000 to 45,000 “rides” and “riders” compared to the same time last year. A “rider” is defined as a round-trip passenger. A “ride” is defined as a passenger traveling one way.
The main reason for the increase, he said, is the high gasoline prices.
“When it got to be $3 a gallon, I think people figured they would ride the bus a couple of times a week,” Ferguson said. “Now, they have become three-, four-, even five-day riders.
“I think a lot of people tried the bus, thought it wasn’t bad, and decided to stick with it. And I think we have a fair number of riders who don’t ride just for the economic reasons, but also for the environmental reasons: Number one, they are saving on fuel and number two, they have made the choice to go green, which is the trendy thing right now.”
Ferguson said he has every available bus in service.
“We’re looking right now into ordering more buses,” he said. “There was a time when we could send a second bus or a bigger bus when it was needed to pick up people. Now, we can’t react as quickly as we used to because all our buses already are on the streets.
“Next year, we hope to have five to eight new transit coaches. Outside of that, we would need a monumental budget increase to take us to a place where we see substantial growth.”
The JO has 40 transit coaches, 45 cutaway buses and 16 smaller vehicles used mainly for the elderly and disabled passengers. The department’s total budget is $11 million.
Johnson County Commissioner John Segale is a member of the Transportation Cooperation Council Charter Committee charged with representing the county’s communities in working with the Mid-America Regional Council and the Kansas Department of Transportation in the planning and coordination of transportation systems within the county.
The Transportation Council oversees the county’s bus system. He said The JO, as well as the transit system in the metropolitan area, is at a critical juncture, not only in capacity, but also financially.
“Based on the increased ridership, there’s definitely a demand for more service,” Segale said. “Bus ridership began spiking when gas was $2.50 a gallon. Transit is an area that needs to be improved.
“But we need more money to make it better. The County Commission could raise taxes or we can look for federal and state money, and a partnership has to be created with the cities.
“And I think part of that money needs to come from an increase in fares so riders pay for part of the cost as well.”
Contact Chuck Kurtz at chuckkurtz@npgco.com or 385-6009.
Comments on "No more empty buses on county's JO line"
Comments are limited to 200 words or less.M. Patterson wrote on Jul 2, 2008 12:01 PM:
" I very happy to read that more people are using the the JO. I am also envious of the folks that are able to take the bus to and from work in downtown. Now, what about those of us that live and work in Johnson County? Why is there such a complete lack of usable routes going east and west to the county's largest industrial park in Lenexa? If you live in close proximity of the I35 corridor then you might have limited access to the JO. If you live east of Antioch or south of 87 ST then you are out of luck. In 10 or 15 years I can retire and will no longer need their services to get to work. "