From: Chris Rall (cjr16 «at» humboldt.edu)
Date: 16 January 2007 3:21:21 PM PST
To: hcaog «at» pacbell.net, Virginia Bass (virginia «at» ci.eureka.ca.gov), bonnie.neely «at» co.humboldt.ca.us, cwlin «at» humboldt1.com, harmonygroves «at» gmail.com
Cc: lglass «at» ci.eureka.ca.gov, pendert «at» ci.eureka.ca.gov, jleonard «at» ci.eureka.ca.gov, kerrigan «at» ci.eureka.ca.gov, mjones «at» ci.eureka.ca.gov, mmachi «at» arcatacityhall.org, ppitino «at» arcatacityhall.org, alexnacv «at» sbcglobal.net, mwheetley «at» arcatacityhall.org, Nel Fregoso (nel «at» hta.org), Greg Pratt (greg «at» hta.org), greenwheels core email (greenwheels-core «at» googlegroups.com), ekamainst «at» aol.com
Subject: aRTS alive, putting RTS in arts alive.

HCAOG representatives,

Alissa Fogg recently reported back to a Green Wheels of your meeting regarding plans to seek a North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District grant to do an alternative transportation event. It sounded as if you hoped to do a sort of “Car-Free Day” centered in Eureka during “Bike to Work Week.” This idea has some problems. HSU students will be out of school, and thus less likely to participate and assist with the event. Promoting public transportation during bike to work week will distract from the focus on bicycle commuting. Lastly, many folks work in parts of Eureka other than Old Town and are less likely to attend the event if they do not work nearby.

Here is a different idea that HCAOG has the resources to do, and could have short term and long lasting positive effects on public transit ridership.

It’s called: “aRTS alive, putting the RTS into Arts Alive.”

The idea would be to run frequent R.T.S. buses during an “arts alive” event and even allow folks to ride free for the first few months. Buses during the evening usually run about once every 2 hours, making it a tricky transportation option for attendees of Arts Alive, even though many would love to ride public transportation to this particular event. It might be most effective to focus on population centers (Arcata, Fortuna and possibly McKinleyville) rather than run entire bus routes. Whatever is financially feasible, kicking off an expansion of the schedule with some free service to Arts Alive would do a number of things that will benefit many of the players:

1) Making RTS available will enable more people to attend (folks who cannot or prefer not to drive).

2) Providing a non-driving option will make the event safer by making it easier to avoid driving after drinking.

3) Initially promoting the service as free will introduce many people to RTS who would not otherwise ride the bus, hopefully generating future regular riders.

4) Piggy-packing this promotion on Arts Alive may result in more success and public exposure than an isolated, artificial event, as significant numbers of people already attend Arts Alive.

The best thing is that this concept is very achievable for HCAOG. Eureka Main Street would have an interest in seeing this succeed, so they ought to be interested in becoming a partner. They have some ability to promote it. HCAOG oversees the HTA, so they have the means to provide the service.

Whatever HCAOG does to promote sustainable transportation, Green Wheels would be glad to provide whatever assistance we can.

Sincerely,

Chris Rall