Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Editorial Calls For Scaling Back Spokane Transit's Central City Line

Spokane Transit Authority directors vote tomorrow (Thursday) on a plan aimed at boosting
revenue and service throughout Spokane County by 30 percent and launching a new central city line that would shuttle passengers from Browne’s Addition to Spokane Community College.

Most of the funding to implement it would come from federal and state grants.To help cover all of the projected $160 million though, the local sales tax would be raised 0.3 percent, or 3 cents per $10 purchase.

An editorial in today's Spokesman-Review says the plan is too ambitious and a scaled-down plan and smaller tax increase should be undertaken first. While the piece credits much of the plan for being needed additions to the transit system, it names the downtown STA Plaza as the plans' weakest link and says, "Some (people), unfortunately, also pursue a life around the Plaza that has little or nothing to do with transportation."

You can read the entire editorial here.

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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.