Transit agency to keep stops in NLR

Rock Region Metro board revises 14 routes, OKs service in Dixie Addition

The transit agency for Pulaski County is going forward with plans to tweak more than half the system's regular routes, but it backed off on one change after representatives of a North Little Rock neighborhood protested.

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The Rock Region Metro board of directors on Tuesday voted to approve the adjustments to 14 of the agency's 26 regular bus routes that are set to take effect in late October.

The vote came only after the board adopted an amendment by Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore to restore Route 18 service to the Dixie Addition, a small neighborhood east of Interstate 30 and off Broadway in North Little Rock.

The amendment was spurred by protests led by state Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-North Little Rock, and a former state senator, Tracy Steele, who now is a member of the North Little Rock School Board.

Rock Region officials also had met with about 20 members from the community on Monday night, and Chesterfield, Steele and others addressed the board at Tuesday's meeting.

Donna Bowers, operations director for the agency, told the board that the Route 18 bus was rerouted from entering the neighborhood in the name of efficiency and "reducing unnecessary stops."

Route 18 goes on a loop between the McAlmont community and the River Cities Travel Center in downtown Little Rock, mainly via Broadway. The Dixie Addition neighborhood would still have access to Route 18 service on Broadway.

Rock Region automated passenger counts show the Route 18 bus picking up 14 of its 449 daily passengers at stops in the neighborhood, including on Dixie Street and on Sam Evans Drive.

Not having to go into the neighborhood would save several minutes and reduce delays on other parts of the route, such as Rose City, where residents have complained that the buses run late.

But Chesterfield and others implored the board to reconsider.

Chesterfield said the neighborhood already is boxed in on three sides with only one way out and one way in from Broadway, and that's only after crossing three railroad tracks. The neighborhood is largely low-income seniors, and Chesterfield said few of them have vehicles.

"You will preclude access to these citizens and box them in further," she said. "Transit is supposed to be about opening up access. I ask you to look at alternatives and not limit access."

Steele said Dixie Addition depends on public transit.

"Public transportation in our community is not an option," he said. "It's our last resort."

The community pledged to make efforts to promote transit use.

The route adjustments were part of Rock Region Metro's annual service review, but officials call them low-cost or no-cost improvements they can implement within the agency's fiscal and geographical limitations. A more ambitious initiative to expand service failed to materialize when voters in March rejected a 0.25 percentage-point increase in the countywide sales tax that would have paid for it.

Proceeds from a sales tax dedicated to transit would have given Rock Region more latitude to improve service. The 1986 agreement that created the agency limits what adjustments the agency can make because it requires that any service miles within the system must stay within the jurisdiction funding them.

Restoring service to the Dixie Addition wouldn't have an appreciable impact on the share the cities now pay, agency officials said.

Metro on 08/31/2016

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