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BUS NOTES
I am a huge fan of mass transit and truly want our bus system to succeed [Cover story, April 11: "
"]. Nicole Blouin's advertisement for (oops, I mean article about) the Santa Fe bus system failed to go beyond the inertia excuse and specifically note why more people who have tried the bus do not continue to use it. Here are some notes from someone who really tried to make it work for her:
• First, did anyone notice how many of the bus riders had to augment their transportation with a bike? That should tell us that the buses aren't going where we need them to.
• Were any of the people interviewed on the bus trying to get from the south side of town to their desk in the downtown area for an 8 am start to their workday? The timing just doesn't work out if you do the simple math.
• The downtown "hub" design is fine for a handful of the routes (Cerrillos Road and Museum Hill, for instance), but locking the rest of the routes into the Sheridan Street hub would probably be contraindicated by a formal assessment showing where the citizens of Santa Fe are actually trying to move to and from (and when).
• My guess is a mass transit designer from a larger city would look for the connection "grid." Where the heck is the bus that should be going straight up and down St. Francis Drive all day long at 15-minute intervals?
Possibly the new commuter train stations will force a redesign of the bus routes and bring some traffic relief all around. I look forward to using the bus and train on a regular basis while saving my car for long trips or heavy loads.
Laura Orchard
Santa Fe
SERVICE FIRST
Thank you for your article on Santa Fe Trails. I too believe the bus can be a great option for getting people to where they need to go.
But I take issue with the idea that we need to "vote with our butts" and subject ourselves to overlong and inconvenient bus service on the way to more frequent, more convenient service. Why not take the model of the Greater Eldorado Express or the Rail Runner instead, and hope that if you build it the riders will come?
A six-month pilot program involving expanded and more frequent bus service, along with a public marketing campaign, would provide people with the service they need and make sure they know about it. Given that service, they will ride the bus, and with that new ridership the pilot program can continue sustainably. But the service needs to come first.
Brendan Miller
Santa Fe
WORKED FOR HIM
As a regular rider on the Santa Fe Trails bus system from 1996-2000, the drivers were always courteous and helpful, the buses on time most of the time and you couldn't beat the fare price. When my job moved out of town, I needed to buy a car.
If the system is only going to capture those people who don't have cars, tourists and those interested in social or environmental reasons as their riding public, the ridership will not increase dramatically.
It's not until driving and parking downtown becomes cost-prohibitive and unavailable that people will hop on the bus; then routes may increase and buses may be more frequent. But there is always a public outcry for more parking downtown. There will always be people who equate the drop in tourists with the lack of parking.
And I'm glad there was no mention about the cost of the bus service; public transportation never pays for itself. If government was just looking at the bottom line, there would be no public libraries.
Kenneth Pin
Santa Fe
FUNDS CORRECTION
There is an error in fact regarding New Mexico Park and Ride. The NM Park and Ride program will not be receiving millions of new tax dollars. There are additional tax dollars available for transit services in northern NM, but none of these will be coming to the NM Park and Ride program, which is a service of the New Mexico Department of Transportation. The additional funding will most probably be administered by the North Central Regional Transit District.
Amy D Estelle, PhD
Commute Options Program Manager
NM Department of Transportation
Transit Rail Bureau
Santa Fe
A GREATER TRAGEDY
As a pet owner who once lost a dog due to a shelter's oversight, my heart goes out to the Gomezes over the loss of their dog [Outtakes, April 11: "
"]. But the larger tragedy we are left with is the impact of this story on those resisting spaying or neutering their pets whose doubts may have thus been reinforced with fear of (unlikely) complications. It is especially sad that pet owners who can only afford low-cost clinics offered at financial loss by shelters might be more likely to choose to continue having unwanted litters, many of whom end up in shelters, only to be euthanized.
Gomez refusing a shelter dog in lieu of a "replacement" dog from a breeder seems ironic, knowing that there is a good chance that puppies of their dog's puppies' puppies may have ended up coming through those shelter doors, as so many purebred pit bulls do.
It is sad that this family lost a dog, but sadder that their reaction to an exceptional situation would lead to lawsuits and continuing PR, jeopardizing the career of a dedicated vet and an organization that exists to solve the problems of pet overpopulation. This all costs time and money that could otherwise be spent helping the animals.
Lucy Cornwell
Pojoaque
SHARE THE LOVE
There is tragedy and adversity everywhere. There is accusation and blame in lieu of self-reckoning also. Lucy died within a radius of heartbreak, there is no doubt. Most significantly, perhaps, her own.
On behalf of the blood-soaked and exhausted medical professionals and volunteers who try their best to assuage the avalanche of abuse, neglect, overpopulation: Paul and Lynda Gomez, might you consider spending even an hour in the operating room that you seem so eager to litigate against?
Free "Spay Day"? A 9-year-old in heat? Do you have ANY idea of the intricacies involved with a complete hysterectomy of an in-heat adult female dog? Have you ANY concept of the hundreds of thousands of dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, snakes, owls, hawks, rats or gerbils that go through a shelter door every day?
I would invite you to sit in on any day in the life of a shelter veterinarian; the absurd lack of financial benefit, evidently from people like you, who can seemingly afford to sue the Española shelter but don't take their pet to a vet that they can pay for?
Ah, but I miss the point entirely in a political debate. Seventy-five percent of dogs don't spend their lives with their original owners. The rest end up at the shelter.
Lucy loved you. Perhaps it's time to pass it on to those who tried to help her.
Christopher Willett
Santa Fe
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