BOISE, Idaho — Elaine Clegg, the CEO of Valley Regional Transit (VRT), is inspired by public transportation.
“It's still really surprising how inspired I am every day. I chalk that up to the high bar that our staff sets," Clegg said.
VRT runs the Treasure Valley's bus system. Clegg took the job as CEO a little more than a year ago. In that year, she's seen and made a lot of changes. "On the infrastructure side itself, we have been hard we're at work on two large grants."
One of those grants will pay for a lot more bus stops, pedestrian and cyclist paths, improved traffic lights, and other infrastructure on State Street. That's the first in a long string of projects on State Street to turn it into a mass transit corridor.
VRT is also looking to electrify downtown Boise's Main Street Station, to allow on-route electric bus charging. "The beauty of that is that it allows us to use our electric buses more often, in more places," Clegg said.
And those aren't the only changes. Clegg continued, "In transit, really unlike other kinds of infrastructure that we talked about, it's a service and not just the infrastructure."
On the service side, Clegg says they've redesigned their fixed route system. When it's put in place in June, it will have more frequent buses and longer hours on the key routes. They've improved their bus-tracking software, so people know exactly when the bus will be there. They're also planning to make contactless payment easier. And they've started a service called Beyond Access for older adults and people with disabilities.
Clegg said making buses easier to use and more available will mean more riders, "We're very confident that people will ride more."
More people riding, means more people paying rider fees. Though small, those fees are important for VRT's bottom line, because funding is hard to come by. Idaho does not have a dedicated funding source for public transportation. But Clegg said, "As the next year or so goes forward, we'll be working to introduce some ideas about how to solve that one."
That would have to come from the Idaho Legislature. Clegg believes she can convince state lawmakers public transit is a good investment, because of how efficiently VRT is run. They're already getting more funding on their own from increased ridership and fares, substantially increased advertising revenue, and bigger contributions from partners like local cities, counties, and colleges.
Clegg said, all that shows how they're doing a lot with a little, but they would like to have a lot, "So it's not enough. But it's enough more that we can do some of these improvements I've been talking about. In doing those improvements, I think prove to people that public transportation can be a viable choice in this valley if we're willing to invest in it."
Clegg also said that feedback she gets from first-time riders is surprise at how easy it is, how clean the buses are, and how nice the drivers are, which results in people riding again and eventually becoming full-time riders.
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