Tucson Region

City's $75M mass transit question

City officials want to know whether Tucsonans would use a new type of mass transit between Downtown and the UA, and if so what kind of vehicle and route they'd prefer. There's $75 million riding on what residents say. That's the amount the Federal Transit Administration is offering to qualifying cities that can demonstrate a high level of resident interest in mass transit. They also must have a plan to build such a system, said Jim Glock, director of the Tucson Transportation Department. The city could use the federal funds along with money from local sources to launch a new type of transit system over the next few years that would move people quickly between two of the city's biggest centers of activity. The system would use a type of bus or trolley and would provide rapid expresslike transport between the Arizona Health Sciences Center, the University of Arizona and the Rio Nuevo District just west of Downtown. A transit service that would provide a quick ride to and from classes sounds good to Delicia Smiley, 42, who attends classes and works as a reading tutor at Pima Community College's Downtown campus. "If it would be faster than the bus I used to ride, that would be an excellent idea," said Smiley, who until recently - when she got a car - rode the Route 4 bus from her home on the East Side to the Downtown campus almost every day. Glock said the initial system could "provide a foundation for expansion in the future." "While we're limiting this particular effort to the UA-Downtown connection, no doubt we'll be looking" for ways the system could be expanded to provide service to more parts of the city, he said. For now, city officials and community representatives involved in what the city is calling the Transit on the Move program are studying whether the new transit system would be appropriate for the area bounded roughly by the Arizona Health Sciences Center, just north of the main UA campus, and the Rio Nuevo district, just west of Downtown. Mass transit is especially needed around the UA, said David Duffy, director of campus and facilities planning. University officials are committed to "holding the line" on the number of vehicle trips to and from the main campus, Duffy said. That is because UA officials already are hard-pressed to accommodate the 50,000 people - students, faculty and staff members and others - who travel to and from the campus every day while classes are in session. Mass transit is one solution to UA-area traffic congestion, according to a campus development plan approved last year by the Arizona Board of Regents. "Rather than more traffic capacity, the emerging vision calls for different approaches to travel," the 2003 Comprehensive Campus Plan says. It cites other ways of getting around campus, such as walking, transit and bicycling. If the Federal Transit Administration approves the city's application, it would provide a grant of up to $75 million that the city would have to match, Glock said. The city may include that request in its part of a plan that the newly formed Regional Transportation Authority is putting together, he said. Meanwhile, Glock said, members of Transit on the Move want to solicit more ideas from the public about the proposal. Transportation Department officials also are tallying 5,000 responses to a weeklong survey of Sun Tran bus riders conducted in October. The survey was "very successful," Glock said.