Stop Requested
People Mover Comes To A Crossroads
by Aaron Selbig and Nova Stubbs


    "Public transportation needs to grow", says Bob Kniefel, Anchorage's director of public transit, " ... (it is) a basic service; like police, fire, or the Health Department. Its part of the fabric that makes a good community".  In stark contrast to Mr. Kniefel's philosophy, however, is a looming budget cut from the Municipality that will trim a million dollars (or one-tenth of it's total 2002 budget) from the Department of Public Transit.


 
    The tough decisions required by such a drastic cut have Mr. Kniefel worried.  Raising fares, limiting nighttime and weekend bus service, and cutting certain routes outright are all possibilities.  As Kniefel and his staff know, any decision to reduce bus service in Anchorage will directly affect the lives of those who depend on it.
   
     With 33 trips per day and 40 to 50 passengers per hour, Route 45 (to Mountain View, UAA, the Alaska Native Medical Center, and all points in between) is one of People Mover's busiest routes.     
   
     The origin of Route 45, like the majority of other routes, is downtown at the Transit Center.  High School students, clad in their signature hip-hop clothing, congregate in small clusters here, chatting on cell phones and intermittently glancing down the street, hoping to see  their bus coming.  Elderly women and businesspeople gather by the People Mover office to peruse bus schedules affixed to the wall.  Uniformed Pinkerton security guards roam the area, as well, keeping a watchful eye on everyone.
   
     "We have what we call 'choice' riders and 'dependent' riders", says Kniefel, " ... route 45 probably has more dependent riders".  Choice riders, according to him, are those people who have alternative transportation methods available but, for a variety of reasons (including convenience and concern for air quality), choose to ride the People Mover.  Dependent riders, like most of the 400-plus people who travel route 45 every weekday, rely on the bus completely to get them to work, school, health care, and home.
   
     At 3:20 on a Friday afternoon, the route 45 bus is full as it rumbles noisily away from the Transit Center.  Some folks chat on the benches, some begin to nod off to sleep, but most sit and quietly stare out the large windows.  The bus begins to speak in it's Robbie the Robot voice, " ... route forty-five ... to ... Providence Hospital ... stop requested ... ".  It trails off.     
   
     After a few blocks cruising beneath downtown's towers of steel and glass, the bus turns down Commercial Drive.  It passes the Brother Francis Shelter, Bean's Cafe',  the new Anchorage jail, and heads into a grimy, industrial area whose economic glory days were long ago.
   
     In the 1950's and '60's, private companies attempted to develop the first bus service in Anchorage, according to Bob Kniefel.  When the local population began to grow exponentially during the oil boom years of the 1970's, People Mover began to operate as a comprehensive bus system owned and operated by the city.  At it's peak in the mid-'80's, it ran 70 buses.  Now, People Mover owns 50 buses total (42 of which are on the road during peak weekday hours), employs about 80 drivers, offers 19 routes, and enjoys a ridership of 12,000 passengers a day. 
   
     The boom times in Anchorage are now a memory and, although the city continues to grow, the bus system is feeling an economic crunch.  The Anchorage Department of Public Transit no longer receives any federal funding, laments Kniefel, due to a new law limiting such funding to cities with populations under 200,000 people.  "We receive 70% of our funding from property taxes ... the other 30% is made up of fares ... and advertising", he says.  Overseeing the appropriation of these funds is a 9-member Public Transit Advisory Board whose members are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Assembly.  In the past, local politics and turnover on the Advisory Board have led to erratic shifts in philosophy concerning the city's public transportation.
   
     "What we're asking the Assembly to do is ... come up with some kind of permanent operating solution for the bus system", says Kniefel.  He expresses concern, in the face of a million-dollar budget cut, for People Mover's dependent riders.    
    
     "This is the po' peoples' bus", states an elderly black man who would only identify himself as Fred Smitty (an apparent alias), " ... because its the po' peoples bus, they need to run it later at night. People with no cab money home have to hitchhike".  Smitty clutches a lighter in his hand while a half-smoked cigarette hangs loosely from his lips.  He's traveling from a job downtown to his apartment in Mountain View. 
   
     The route 45 People Mover winds it's way through Mountain View's narrow streets.  Although the old neighborhood may not be aesthetically pleasing to outsiders, it possesses an unmistakable feeling of community.  American flags hang here, from broken porches and yellow tinted windows.  Suddenly, a middle-aged Asian woman begins wagging her finger and screaming at Mr. Smitty from across the aisle, "No Smoking! No Smoking!".  He glares at her silently and pulls the reburn cigarette from his mouth as the Robot pipes up again, "Now approaching ... Northway Mall ... stop requested ...".
   
     Earlier this year, things were looking up for the People Mover.  A private consultant had been hired to conduct rider surveys and help the Public Transit Department come up with a comprehensive plan to re-organize the bus system.  Kniefel says that the plan incorporates the concept of "town centers" in various Anchorage neighborhoods and may move away from the idea of the downtown transit center as the sole hub of the entire system.  A preliminary version of the new plan should be completed next March and People Mover hopes to implement the changes in August before the 2002 school year.  Unfortunately, the planning process must be done in the shadow cast by budget cuts and some recent negative press.
   
     In August, People Mover buses were involved in a series of three accidents that left one person killed and two others seriously injured.  Explains Kniefel, "The third one was our fault ... one of the drivers ran into the side of a cab ... the two passengers had some real major injuries and are still recovering ...".  That driver has been fired and People Mover has been absolved of responsibility in the first two accidents, but the aftermath remains.  Bob Kniefel is quick to point out, however, that this is People Mover's first fatality in 27 years on the road and the organization has an exemplary safety record.
   
     Al Springer, a route 45 regular, disagrees, " ... the bus drivers need to be more careful ... I've noticed I've been on buses where the drivers pulled out in front of cars that had to lock up their brakes".  Springer also takes issue with drivers who sometimes fail to stop for passengers, "One lady, she's really mean ... she saw me runnin' and she wouldn't stop to let me get on the bus ... she just kept goin'.  I threw my Coke can at her one time but it didn't hit the bus."
   
     The route 45 bus carries Al Springer and it's fifteen or so other passengers smoothly through disheveled trailer parks and the fringe of American consumerism at Northway Mall.  It  passes by the Anchorage Daily News compound and a couple of non-descript 24-hour restaurants, picking up and dropping off passengers at every stop. 
   
     Along route 45, the People Mover is a facilitator of lives.  John Sandoval, a 20-year old McDonald's employee, is on his way to work.  Gabriel Ramos is headed home from classes at UAA and says that everyone in his household takes the People Mover.  In the front seat, Abigail Nashookpuk and her friend, Queen Davis, are headed all the way to the end of the line, the Alaska Native Medical Center on Tudor Road.
   
     Just south of Tudor, on Bragaw, sits the conspicuously kooky, ultra-eighties Public Transit building, where Bob Kniefel oversees Anchorage's entire public transportation system.  Kneifel gets excited about public transit to the same degree that his distant relative, daredevil motorcyclist Evel Knievel (it's true), gets pumped for a jump over the Snake River Canyon.  "I like that movie, 'Speed' ... that bus in the movie ... wow!", he confides.  Most Anchorage denizens, whether they're dependent on the People Mover or comfortable in their SUVs, would be hard-pressed to match his enthusiasm.
   
     Next year, our community will begin to see a completely new public transit system.  The transportation budget will be cut by a million dollars and vast changes will be made to bus routes and schedules.  Bob Kniefel hopes that, in the meantime, the City Assembly will be taking testimony from the public. He'd like everyone who truly cares about People Mover  to have the chance to say, "stop requested".