Iowa Public Transit Study goes to Legislature

Public transportation is an important issue for the blind and visually impaired community. The thousands of Iowans with visual impairments severe enough that they cannot drive rely on public transportation to maintain their independent lives.

In response to a recent study on statewide public transit, the Iowa Dept. for the Blind held a public transportation forum on Oct. 31 to bring state transportation officials and the public together to discuss the study’s findings and the state’s transit needs.

The Iowa Dept. of Transportation (DOT) presented the “Statewide Passenger Transportation Funding Study,” which was requested by the state legislature in 2008. DOT officials also fielded questions and comments from the audience. The DOT will present the study to the legislature Dec. 1.
 
The study, which assessed the 19 urban and 16 regional transit systems statewide, concluded that Iowa ranks 27th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in its transit service.
 
While ridership and demand is up, public transit in Iowa is greatly underfunded and dependent on limited local, state and federal funding. Also, 56% of the fleet of vehicles is beyond federal useful life standards.
 
The decline of automobile sales has had an impact on public transit funding. Also, fuel taxes, which help support public transit, are insufficient to provide an expansion of services, and the price of fuel has a large impact on the transit systems’ budgets.
 
The study found that service statewide, even in urban areas, is not adequate enough to meet the public’s needs, and that those dependent on public transit often do not have evening or weekend access.
 
Many who attended the Department for the Blind’s forum said improvements to Iowa’s public transportation system would give greater freedom to their lives. Even using the bus to get around metro Des Moines, some said, was difficult because of the limited schedule.
A downloadable Power Point presentation outlining the study’s findings is available from the Iowa DOT website at http://www.iatransit.com/updates/index.asp?intReleaseID=288