Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Don't Count On Cab Service

If you have plans for New Year's Eve that involve taking a cab home, be aware that the weather is taking a toll on the local taxi business, in addition to everything else.

Spokane County's Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) program received notification from local cab companies that, due to weather conditions, they are running significantly behind schedule. That means if you're part of the CTR program and need to use the Guaranteed Ride Home program, you may get home either really late, or have to find another way to get there.

I found out about this the hard way last weekend. Trying to be proactive, some friends and I got a ride to a local establishment to celebrate a friend's birthday, planning to take a cab home. When we called for one at 11:30, we were told we couldn't get a ride until at least 2 a.m.! So guess who spent several hours in the bar parking lot on a Friday night waiting for a ride? Never did show up either. We finally got a friend out of bed in the early morning hours to come get us.

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.