Discovering Transit in Montana

I’ve traversed the length of Highway 93 South more times than I can count. When you are from Stevensville, it can’t be helped. I learned to drive on 93 and its smaller counterpart, Eastside Highway. My parents commute on it regularly. Everyone I know in the Bitterroot risks everything during their Bitterroot commute, and sometimes these commutes end in tragedy. Now with gas prices hovering around $3/gallon, the commute is now more expensive than many Ravalli County families can afford. Even with its high price, it is the only way to employment and income, so other things are sacrificed to pay for the increasing cost of the commute.

After all of this comes the issue of congestion, an issue not nearly as important as those mentioned above. Lets be honest, the congestion on Highway 93 South isn’t really that bad, but it certainly is worse than it used to be. Missoula’s channel 8 (KPAX) has been doing a series on traffic congestion in the Missoula area, and one of their stories centered on the Bitterroot Commute. I found it interesting that the only part of this issue they focused on was the congestion problem, which they termed “growing gridlock.” Now I know local news likes to exaggerate, but “gridlock” is ridiculous. According to the 2000 census, 3,200 people commuted regularly between Ravalli County and Missoula, and that number has surely grown. Even if we allow for growth, the number of commuters is still relatively small. Even so KPAX did find some Bitterroot commuters that agreed with their severely negetive assesment of 93 South.

‘I think they need another highway’ says Stevensville Resident, Darlene Burgess. ‘I think that they need to prepare now for another highway. I came from Washington, and these people don’t really know what traffic is. I’ve seen the signs. You come just past Florence and it’s traffic. And it’s only going to get worse.’

Darlene is right, to a point; it is only going to get worse from here. I do not agree that there needs to be a second 4-lane highway. Lets use a “big city” example here, but its not from Washington. Between Boulder and Denver, Colorado is US 36, a 4 lane highway that has served as the only link between these cities for many years. Needless to say the number of commuters between these cities is far more than the 3,200 recorded in Ravalli County’s 2000 census. So what has allowed US 36 to remain the only major highway between Boulder and Denver? Something must have added capacity without adding highway lanes. That something is called transit.

Missoula - Ravalli Bus System

I spent a bit of time fiddling around with a Montana Department of Transportation highway map in microsoft paint, and came up with a possible bus system that links Ravalli County towns together, as well as to Missoula. With only 4 routes, every town north of Hamilton is linked on both Highway 93 and Eastside Highway (Route H for Hamilton, S for Stevensville, F for Florence, and E for Eastside Highway; the X routes stands for Express, as there is the possibility for future express routes that would have limited stops, and are therefore faster).

The beauty of the Bitterroot Valley’s long North-South orientation along 93 is that the further north you go towards Missoula, the greater the frequency of service, and it is the north valley that has the most commuters. This geographical fact would allow a Missoula - Ravalli Bus system, I like to call it MR Bus, to provide frequent bus service in Florence and Lolo with fewer buses added to the entire system. In fact, this system could work with 10 buses; 2 buses per route, plus 2 spare buses for maintenance rotation and emergencies. Connection to a central station in Missoula would allow free transfer onto Mountain Line’s local system, and UM’s bus system.

The point is that for less than the cost of a new highway, we could add capacity to Highway 93 with 10 55 passenger regional coach buses. Riders would even have their own reading lights. More than adding capacity and reducing congestion, a transit system offers greater safety to riders, and puts money back in their wallets that would otherwise go to the pump. It seems that the Montana Department of Transportation agrees with me:

Officials with the Montana Department of Transportation say that there isn’t enough money to currently fund a new highway or to add on to the existing road. Instead, the MDT is recommending more vanpool, carpool, and even bus services for the corridor.

I dare say that vanpools aren’t really doing much to help add capacity, we need buses for that. Sorry MRTMA.

- Benjamin

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Regional Transportation, Safety, Statewide Transportation, Transit Planning, Transportation Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.