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Riders
to stand for bus to Yosemite Park By
Patty Guerra MERCED -- Just about everything is ready for the start of a two-year bus demonstration project into Yosemite National Park next week: the buses, the drivers, the routes. But one thing riders on the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System won't have is a place to sit while they wait for the bus. "The bus stops are not going to be done," said Marjorie Kirn, YARTS transportation program manager. A slim wallet and nasty weather combined to thwart efforts to get all the structures finished by the time the first bus takes passengers to Yosemite on May 19. "We just started construction on March 20," Kirn said. "And I only had $590,000. If I'd said 'rush it,' it would have cost me three times as much." The money for the stops came from the California Department of Transportation and wasn't received until recently. Construction still may have been finished on time, but the dry winter turned into a wet spring and rains kept the work from proceeding. However, the buses still will stop for passengers, and Kirn said she hopes construction on most of the projects will be complete by mid-June, in time for the summer swell of Yosemite visitors. The stop in Coulterville, though, is a different story. A property owner who volunteered his land for use as a bus shelter now says he won't be able to start building until this fall. Frank Shannon offered a portion of his property for a bus shelter after business owners expressed concern that bus riders might clog up local parking. Coulterville was a late addition to the system's routes, and all of the money Caltrans allocated for bus stop construction had been spent. "My proposal was I would donate my property for two years, just like everybody else," Shannon said. Many of the other stops are in parking lots or on land owned by business people who have loaned the area for the buses' use. Shannon's property needed some work, and he offered to build a bus shelter on it if the system would pay for the materials, which came to about $8,000. "They thought this was wonderful," Shannon said. "But there was nothing left in the construction fund, so they said they'd write me a lease for $8,000 instead." A proposal for that lease -- $4,000 a year -- came up at the transportation agency's meeting May 1, but board members delayed action, citing concerns about setting a precedent of paying rent. It will be considered again at the board's July meeting. Shannon said it appeared he was asking for rent when nobody else was, and that isn't the case. "I just wanted them to pay for the material," he said. Kirn acknowledged that the proposal isn't a normal lease, but said there weren't any other options available. "In other places, we received funding from Caltrans to construct and do improvements," Kirn said. "Mr. Shannon was not on that list of initial bus stops." In the meantime, a system bus will pick up passengers at the History Center in Coulterville, and parking is available at a nearby park. The stops are a minor glitch in a project designed to determine if busing people in from local communities will ease traffic congestion within Yosemite. Getting the buses running is only the start of the effort. "We'll be taking surveys (from passengers) throughout the summer," Kirn said. "We're going to be trying to get feedback every step of the way, so we can improve as we go." YARTS begins Friday. Round-trip tickets, which include admission into the park, are $15 from Merced and $10 from Mariposa. |
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