Juneau’s Public Works Department recently proposed a new Capital Transit bus plan that’s already facing opposition from the community. The changes could eliminate service into the downtown core and onto the University of Alaska Southeast campus.
Capital Transit buses haven’t run on a reliable schedule for years due to increased traffic lights, congestion and road construction. Juneau Public Works Director Kirk Duncan says proposed changes will fix that, partly by shortening some routes.
“We’re not running the bus all the way to the end in Douglas to St. Ann’s Avenue. We’re turning around in Savikko Park – saves about four minutes. We’re not going through downtown. That saves about six minutes,” Duncan says. “We’re moving the transfer point from the Nugget Mall to the (Pipeline) Skate Park and that saves about two minutes on each side of the Back Loop Road. So, all those things put time back into the schedule.”
Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl is not happy about the change to downtown service. Instead of making a loop of Franklin, Fourth and Main Streets, buses will just go to the Downtown Transit Center.
Kiehl says that goes against some of the Juneau Assembly’s goals.
“One is to address the downtown parking problem and by cutting off the downtown loop, you make the downtown parking problem worse, not better. By cutting off the downtown loop, you cut off bus service to two of the three highest density developments in the borough. And then another, of course, is to be a great capital city and if you can’t take Capital Transit to the Capitol Building in the capital city, I’m not sure what we’re doing,” Kiehl says.
Kyan Reeve joined Capital Transit last week as the transportation service’s new superintendent. Reeve is currently transit manager for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. While he transitions from that job, he’s in Juneau part-time until January.
Reeve graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in community planning. He replaces former transit superintendent John Kern who retired in May after 37 years with the city.
Public works director Kirk Duncan has been serving as interim superintendent. Duncan will be overseeing the December public meetings on the proposed changes to bus service.
Duncan says running a bus through downtown presents safety issues. He says the transit center is within a half mile walk of current downtown stops, including the Capitol.
“In the wintertime it’s tough to get buses up there because the snow tends to pinch in, the street narrows. In the summertime, you got a lot of summer tourists on Franklin Street,” Duncan says. “So from our standpoint, we feel uncomfortable running 102-inch-wide buses up Franklin in some of the conditions we encounter.”
Another big change is no longer going onto the University of Alaska Southeast campus. Instead, riders will have to catch the bus on Back Loop Road, about a third of a mile away accessed by a new walking path. Currently, the bus picks up and drops off between 35 and 70 people each day at UAS.
The campus advisory council decided on Monday to write a resolution asking the city to reconsider eliminating service to UAS.
Council chair Walter Majoros says having bus access at the university is important to students, faculty and staff, as well as the larger Juneau community that lives out the road.
“The issue was brought up about students with disabilities and their need to be able to have more direct access to bus transportation,” he says.
Majoros says he’ll work with UAS Chancellor John Pugh to draft the resolution and forward it to the Assembly this month.
The proposed plan also adds new service on Riverside Drive giving riders access to Dimond Park facilities.
Capital Transit driver Greg McLaughlin thinks service on Riverside is good, but he says the proposed plan would put a bus there every 20 minutes, meaning less service for other stops. He’s worried about reduced access to Bartlett Regional Hospital and other health centers, as well as high use stops along the transit line.
“I think we could provide some level of services on Riverside Drive. I just don’t think it’s three times as important as Switzer Village or Fred Meyer or Walmart or any of those other places,” McLaughlin says.
McLaughlin says other drivers aren’t happy with the proposed plan and think aspects of it will do a disservice to riders. He says the current schedule could use some tweaking, but there’s no need for the major changes proposed by the city and transit consultants Nelson/Nygaard.
“If we could sit down – a group of drivers, with Nelson/Nygaard, with the city – we could hammer out a plan in 15 minutes. But we’re not included in this discussion and that’s probably our biggest challenge at this point. We feel like we’re not being heard,” McLaughlin says.
Duncan says the changes will save Capital Transit about $115,000 a year, meeting a target set by Assembly budget cuts. The bus service has a total annual budget of about $6.6 million.
If implemented, the changes would take effect in the spring. The city is holding a series of seven public meetings during the first week of December to get feedback from the community.
For full disclosure, Kirk Duncan serves on KTOO’s Board of Directors and KTOO General Manager Bill Legere is on the UAS Juneau campus advisory council.
