Learning about the bus system in Bend.
I leave the house at 8:05 to catch the bus with some trepidation. First, I was leaving my bike behind. Trying out Bend’s fixed route bus system for the first time, my bike would be a crutch… I could bail anytime and be home quickly. And, I had 15 minutes to get to the closest bus stop or I’d have to wait 45 minutes for the next bus. Someone had told me the day before that using transit is like having a gate on your driveway that only opens every 45 minutes, and then only for a couple of seconds. That felt like a pretty good analogy and I had no good idea how long it would take to get to the gate.
Bend’s bus system is operated by Cascades East Transit (CET). The fixed route system, buses that go the same place on a schedule over and over again, generally run every 30 minutes from 6:00 am to 7:30 am and then every 45 minutes for the rest of the day until they head for the barn about 7:30 pm. A couple of buses run every 30 minutes all day. The bus routes, with a couple of exceptions, don’t overlap. This gives the best distribution across the city but it means that most of the time, the only place to change buses is at Hawthorne Station at NE Hawthorne Ave and NE 4th St. The full schedule is online and the schedule for each stop is posted on the pole at each stop.
CET also runs intercity buses from Government Camp to La Pine and from Sisters to Prineville, also connecting Madras, Redmond and Bend. I used to ride the bus from Bend to Redmond regularly and with my bike on board, it was a convenient trip. CET also runs the ski bus from Bend to Mt Bachelor, a shuttle bus in Bend for river users called “Ride the River”, and a “Transit to Trail” bus with a trailer that can haul 23 bikes up the Cascades Lakes Highway for mountain bikers. A Paratransit system serves folks who can’t get to the bus stop. Check out all the options at https://cascadeseasttransit.com/.
I get to my bus stop at 8:16, with just 4 minutes to wait and board to join a handful of passengers. The bus is stopped for about 30 seconds and we’re off, exactly on time. We wind through the northwest part of Bend and arrive at the COCC library at 8:31, on time. I notice that it has taken 26 minutes from my house to the college, about the time I’d allocate if I were riding my bike. Very good!
This is “Try Transit” week and I am exploring the bus system just to learn about it. I ride the #3, up Newport to COCC; the #2, up Brookswood, and out to St Charles on the #6 bus. I see the city in a new way: I can’t see anything except the road and traffic when I drive. When I bike, I see more, but only the broad strokes. On the bus, I have time to look at the passing houses, buildings, trees and people. There are some beautiful places in town which I’ve never really noticed. I also watch the bus drivers. They are universally courteous and kind to riders, answering questions with patience. And they stop for people in the crosswalks, always! The transfer between buses is painless–a 10 to 15 minutes wait–just time to run into the station for a drink or a pee. In bad weather, the seating in the station is comfortable.
The pandemic decimated transit ridership nationwide and CET was no exception. Recovery is slow but ridership is climbing again. Buses that were ordered years ago are finally arriving. Most of the driver positions, vacant during and impossible to fill after the pandemic, have been filled. They are now in a position to start expanding again. Some of the changes coming soon include:
Extended hours: Bob Townsend, CET Director, says that cutting the hours during the pandemic made it impossible for anyone to get to work and back home if they had to take two buses. People who had been taking the bus were busing one way and biking home. Or they were giving up entirely and driving. The buses now leave Hawthorne station at 6:00 am and run until 7:30 pm. Ridership appears to be up because of the extended hours in the first couple of weeks.
Fares: All fares were dropped during the pandemic. This fall, each trip will cost $2.00 up to a daily maximum of $6.00. Paratransit rides will now cost $4:00 a ride. Reduced fares are available for income qualified people. Monthly passes will be available also. Fares are needed to help pay for the service but also to ensure that people use the dial-a-ride paratransit service judiciously and don’t call for a ride multiple times in a day like a free taxi service. Balancing the need to collect revenue with the damper on ridership that fares bring is an art.
Bus passes: Bus passes will also be required starting sometime in the fall. This will provide privacy to people with reduced fares. It will screen for people who have caused problems on buses in the past and remove that responsibility from the drivers. Providing a safe, comfortable environment is important to making transit viable. Passes will allow CET to collect fares without having to handle cash.
The next day, I have a meeting at the north end of 3rd St. I ride my bike to Hawthorne Station and get on the #4 bus. At the closest stop, I retrieve my bike and ride a couple of blocks to the meeting. Bikes are the bus extender on this system… if you can get to Hawthorne Station on bike and to your destination by bike from a bus stop, it works great. And the variations of bikes and buses are vast. Of the four trips I took, there were bikes on three of the buses. The bike racks at Hawthorne Station were full both days. People like the combination of bikes and buses.
The barriers to operating a transit system are great. The first is funding. CET’s permanent funding comes from the payroll tax of about .01% levied by the state. The transportation bill currently before the legislature will raise that to about .03% so if it passes, CET’s regular funding will go up dramatically. (As of 26 June, it looks like that bill may not pass or could be stripped of most new funding including the payroll tax.) Without that funding boost, CET has few options other than to leave service as it is or to try to get voters to form a transportation district so we can tax ourselves. That would be a heavy lift.
Land use patterns in Bend are a second barrier. Most of the city is pretty low density, built more like suburbs than a city center. The lower the density, the farther buses have to go to find enough people to ride. And our limited affordable housing is spread through the city, good for many reasons, but making it hard to get buses close enough to serve everybody who needs a bus.
Bus coverage is missing in parts of all four quadrants of the city: In the northwest Awbrey Butte and everywhere north and west of Mt Washington have no buses. In the southwest, there are no buses in Deschutes River Woods or west of the river or south of Mt Washington Drive and Reed Market. There is new development in the northeast–but no buses north of Wells Acres. And the same story repeats with new development in the south east–There are no buses south of Reed Market and east of 15th including around the new library. It’ll take funding, new buses, and more drivers to expand coverage.
The time between buses is 30 or 45 minutes. That means that bus rides have to be planned ahead of time.
Why do we need buses in Bend? Bend is expected to grow by over 50% in the next 20 years. Fifty percent more cars will not fit on our streets. Almost 30% percent of our population is 60 years or more and people generally outlive their ability to drive by 7 to 10 years. And about 30% of people everywhere cannot drive due to age or physical abilities. Transit could offer a way for many people to live independent lives without driving.
I need to take a bunch of stuff up to Goodwill, a long and unpleasant bike ride from my house. Now I know how. I will ride my bike to Hawthorne Station, jump on either the #1 or #2 bus with my bike and travel south. I can ride to Goodwill, grab a cone at Dairy Queen, and enjoy the stress free bus ride back down the hill to the Hawthorne Station. Not as much exercise but I won’t have to worry about traffic!