Pittsboro Express Passenger Count for Friday morning, Sept. 25

[WolfpackFan]

What I find strange is that Gene went out there on his own time, did some counting, took some pictures, and then shared his experience with us.  Then you have the bus supporters that are so quick to dismiss his efforts, tell us how it does not paint a realistic picture, etc.  So my questions is, instead of dismissing Gene's work, why haven't any bus supporters gone out there and taken some pics and counted the high number of riders and come back and share that information with us?  Beel attacks Gene for only going one time, but Beel has not been at all.  According to some around here, Dee Reid rides the bus every day.  Why not give her a camera and a counter so supporters could have some pics and numbers to back up there case?  Makes me wonder if they know Gene is closer to the truth after all.

[Beel]

Puleeze.  I "attacked" him.  But his weak, one-time investigative journalism doesn't amount to a lackluster attempt to get at Voller?  All I said was, his facts are not sufficient.  He does claim to be a journalist. 

[Gene Galin]

This "issue" is a phony attempt to attack Mr. Voller.  Populist is exactly right.  Gene's "investigative" reporting is only marginally relevant if he spends his days for at least several months compiling ridership totals.  And just checking out one parking lot doesn't do the job adequately.  He should ride the damn bus from start to finish.  Then he needs to get into the transit books, and also understand how they've set up the plan.  Populist is exactly right in his analysis above. 

This bus route is essentially a pilot project--a step towards a regional transit system, which all of the Triangle Counties will eventually need.  Mr. Voller contributed to the benefit of his constituents in Pittsboro by helping to get the project.  As there are a number of folks who seem to hate Voller, their goal is to trash the bus as a tool towards trashing Voller, and logic be damned. 

To quote David Byrne, same as it ever was. 

With all the discussion about the Pittsboro Express and the tinkling contest between Integrity Ticket and Populist (and others) I decided to ride down to the Pittsboro Lowes parking lot this morning and see for myself how many folks were on the bus. The numbers on Friday morning are as stands.

7:15 am - 7 passengers
Bus heading up to Chapel Hill

7:34 am - 2 passengers
Bus heading down from Chapel Hill

7:48 am - 0 passengers
Bus heading up to Chapel Hill

Please explain to me and others what the benefit would have been for me to ride the empty bus all the way to Chapel Hill.

Actually, I did get the names of the people I need to contact to get the daily ridership numbers for the Pittsboro Express. I do plan to do that next week. I will not wait until the 90 day period someone else had mentioned somewhere else on the board.

[WolfpackFan]

Puleeze.  I "attacked" him.  But his weak, one-time investigative journalism doesn't amount to a lackluster attempt to get at Voller?  All I said was, his facts are not sufficient.  He does claim to be a journalist. 

I see you left out the majority of my post.  No facts huh?  Gene works harder than a lot people on this board combined, so why the dig?  Why don't you go ride the bus and provide us with the detailed information about ridership?  You are the one that thinks it is worth the money.  You can even count yourself as a rider while you do it.

And once again, I will point out that Gene is not the only person that has reported what they have seen on the bus.  But maybe you think everyone is just out to attack Randy or is racist.

[WolfpackFan]

Gene, thanks for your efforts.  I can't wait to see the offical numbers you bring back.

PS.  Are you going to be at the game today?

[snowcamper]

Why should Gene pay an extra $2?  He's already paying that in taxes.  Zero riders are zero riders.

Gene did what every reporter should do...he went to where the story was...

Look at the ACORN expose...  No one else was doing, so it took a few kids fresh out of college...

Look at the things like the "Climate Change Committee", which certainly hasn't been well publicized, and who it took to expose that fiasco.

This is not a dig at Voller alone... this is a dig at all of the CC's who voted for this, the Mayor who pushed for it, the Coalition who made it a plank in their agenda... 

And Beel... it would only be a dig at Randy if it were something bad... are you admitting that the ridership numbers are bad?  I'm surprised you're not engaging in a circlepat about the 7 riders on the first bus. 

Demographics of the riders would be interesting as well...how many are workers/shoppers/students/joyriders/homeless bums looking for some AC?  How many have transportation of their own and choose not to use it?  How many are paying their own way, and how many have the bus entirely paid for by taxpayers (via the UNC pass?).

[Beel]

This is not a dig at Voller alone... this is a dig at all of the CC's who voted for this, the Mayor who pushed for it, the Coalition who made it a plank in their agenda...

Thank you thank you thank you Snowcamper, you made my point better than I did.  Again, I'm not attacking Gene for offering some empirical data.  Good work, Gene.  I'm only saying that this is a rather small amount of data given that the bus is apparently going to be running for a significant amount of time before an evaluation of it's merit is undertaken by whomever is in charge of the bus route.  I would imagine the people who got the bus route going have some idea of what they'd view as a success.  I would bet that many many such bus routes have been started in this great land of ours, and that there are many many analyses of ridership, and of the success and failure of each undertaking.  Mass transit is not new.  New York City had a subway in the mid-1880s I believe, and many urban places have had trolleys, trains, and busses for over a century.  My mother, who grew up in Wilmington in the teens of the last century, spoke of taking a train from Wilmington to Carolina Beach in those halcyon days of yore. 

It takes a radical rightwing point of view to imagine that public transportation is a socialist plot.  What next, a campaign to close the public library?  After all, anyone with gumption can just buy his or her own books.  If you can't afford a book, don't read.  You can watch tv for free at the laundromat, slackers. 

[Beel]

Let's move this thread on the bus back to the top rather than burying it, since it comes to a sensible conclusion. 

[GOP Chair]

Gene;

Were you able to verify that the bus drivers are accurately logging ridership? I'm concerned that they are not recording as they go but will go back later and "remember" how many riders there were. Also, were you able to just ask the drivers if the ridership #s you witnessed were representative of what they have been seeing. Maybe that isn't scientific but it seems they would be a very good source. I guess a  good spot check would be to compare what you see to the official log.

[Clyde]

just to recap the previous poster's post... in the 2nd sentence you cast doubt on the possible accuracy of the driver's memories... followed by the 3rd sentence where you ask gene gene the dancing machine if he'd gotten the chance to ask the drivers what they remembered, saying that would be a good source of info.

what i take that to mean is that if the drivers report remembering decent ridership we should probably be suspicious and if they remember not many riders they become a good source.

is that pretty close or did i miss it completely?

[chrstnhsbndfthr]

Let us give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you to claim that you just missed it completely.



The BEST information is recorded real-time. It is obviously going to be the MOST accurate we can get, without video tape.

The second best available, would be the drivers' recollection, since they were actually there. 

Available data points can all cast light on this. What does NOT cast light, are those who want to make sure NO information comes out. 

[integrityticket]

7:48 am - 0 passengers
Bus heading up to Chapel Hill

Wow!  

No wonder the pro bus people did not want to supply any ridership numbers.

Don't worry. Just wait for the attacks and excuses to start rolling in a little bit later on.

Just as I predicted, Beel and his/her liberal buddies are trying to turn this from an issue about the dismal ridership levels on the magic bus to an attack on someone who went ahead and made an actual count on site.

Randolph's moniker Populist makes the excuse that it's only one number despite the three observations from that morning and the other observations posted on this BBS.

People take "snapshots" and "samples" all the time. It think the snapshot below speaks volumes.

[Beel]

I didn't attack Gene, and in fact I thanked him for gathering the data, which I then said was probably insufficient to draw a conclusion about the success of the bus route.  I also said that the bus is actually a surrogate for the true subject of the attack, Mayor Voller. as well as other members of the current Chatham County "administration."  Snowcamper agreed with me so completely that I used his words as my own, in a quote.  I stand by Mr. Camper.  He's right.   

[kstraughn]

Lets see, 9 passengers for 3 bus runs averaging 3 passengers a bus, the bus seats 40. Sounds to me like a van is needed or a compact car depending on the run.

They do have a van running, it's not full either.

[snowcamper]

Whose policies led to the Magic Bus?  Randolph Voller's and the current board of commissioners.  They certainly mugged for the cameras when the route was started, I'm sure they'll try to dodge responsibility (like a greased pig  ) when the real and ongoing costs come to light.

What they don't understand is that the taxpayers of the county don't like them "experimenting" with their hard-earned money on the whims of a very, very few people. 

The Magic Bus
The Human Relations Department
The Climate Change Committee
The Arts Incubator
The Fancy "parks" offices, but the strangely missing parks...
The Studies of the Obvious
The Special Elections
The funds spent on economic development and the funds spent against economic development.

We should not be experimenting with anything right now, in the middle of an economic correction.  We should not be experimenting with anything in good times.  We should shop around for "best practices", open them up for broad community discussion, and then implement those which will benefit the most people at the lowest cost.  This secretive and hurried action is preposterous on the local, state, and national levels.

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