11/10/2009 3:31:00 PM Verde Lynx now on the road from Cottonwood to Sedona
Those who attended the gathering admire the new Verde Lynx van, equipped with an ADA low floor ramp entrance and a programmable monitor. The vehicle can handle three wheelchairs. VVN/Jon Hutchinson
Mayors Diane Joens of Cottonwood and Rob Adams of Sedona joined members of the planning team Carol Quasula and Margie Beach in front of a new Verde Lynx van. The new operations and maintenance facility shows in the reflection.
COTTONWOOD -- "It was all pie in the sky," Margie Beach recalled of the concept for an intercity transit link between Sedona and Cottonwood. Beach and Carol Quasula were both citizen members of a special task force to assess the Cottonwood Area Transit system (CAT) two years ago to suggest how to make it more efficient and better. More fixed routes for CAT was one suggestion. A Cottonwood to Sedona link was another.
Monday, both women were in the audience for the Open House for the new Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transit Authority Transit Facility and the inauguration of the Verde Lynx transit service.
At the same time that the Cottonwood task force was brainstorming improvements to CAT, new Sedona Mayor, Rob Adams was lamenting that the Sedona Roadrunner transit system did not serve enough residents, didn't run from Uptown to West Sedona, but only gave freebie rides to tourists around the shopping area."
"I was not a supporter of NAIPTA two years ago," he told the small gathering.
"We didn't think it could happen so fast," Beach went on.
It was serendipitous that a need was presenting itself on both sides of the Verde, at the at the same time the ARRA federal stimulus program (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) was unfolding to provide cash for projects that were shovel ready, including a healthy shovel-full of cash for transit projects.
Jeff Meilbeck, the NAIPTA General Manager ran with the idea.
The transit authority won $2.8 million in stimulus money. The grant helped build the transit operations and maintenance facility in Cottonwood, equipped with a solar power system.
It helped establish the Verde Lynx connection between Sedona and Cottonwood with two new 25 passenger buses, equipped with the latest handicapped accessible ramp, instead of a lift. The new buses can also carry bicycles.
In Flagstaff stimulus money bought two gas-electric full-sized buses.
Representatives of Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, Governor Jan Brewer and ADOT, all who had a role in the funding congratulated the system.
Yavapai Supervisor Chip Davis told the assembly that there has been a lot of talk about transit in several quarters in the Verde Valley over the past 12-years. That talk "ebbed and flowed without getting anywhere until NAIPTA. Now we have an awesome facility and system."
Davis still dreams that the route will circle the entire Verde Valley one day.
Lana Tolleson of the Verde Valley Chamber, brought the dreams down to an economic reality.
"The AAA says that an one average car costs a family about $8000 per year to run and that the average family spends 19 percent of its income on transportation. If that money was not pumped into the gas tank, it could be pumped into the local economy."
The Verde Lynx travels back and forth between Cottonwood and Sedona eight times Monday through Saturday and three times each Sunday. The fare is $2 each way.
For more information call 282-0938 or www.verdelynx.az.gov.
Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009
Article comment by:
Jeff Meilbeck
Dear Commuter:
Verde Lynx actually dies "link" with the CAT system today. CAT serves Clarkdale, Verde Village and points in between with 30 to 60 minute service. This means that people can use the Verde Lynx today to get to and from work. The system was deisgned for workers who can save money by taking this system. Thanks for the tip. We will promote this aspect of the service more heavily.
Posted: Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Article comment by:
COMMUTER
This is a great start for a means of transportation for Cottonwood residents to get back and forth to Sedona. However, many (70-80% ?) of your ridership will be people who are going to and from work -- from Cottonwood to Sedona (and back). Most people who can afford to SHOP in Sedona have their own vehicles, and don't mind using them. They are going to DRIVE to Sedona, not go through the hassle of taking a bus.
The people who NEED this route are the working class who do may not even have their own transportation to and from Sedona. They will be the people who WORK in the stores and restaurants or other businesses that the people with Escalantes visit, after DRIVING to Sedona.
No people with MONEY are going to go through the hassle of parking their expensive SUV or car at a bus stop in cottonwood and then wait for a bus to take them shopping in Sedona.
The MONEY for this bus system will come from the "little" people -- those who live in Cottonwood but work in Sedona, AND have no transportation.
How is someone who lives in Clarkdale, Camp Verde, or anywhere in Cottonwood other than downtown Cottonwood ( Old Town) supposed to access this route? At least you could have more than two stops/pickups in Cottonwood. Spread them out a bit! Make this route more accessible to the people who need it. Like maybe a loop through Camp Verde with stops along 260. And a stop at 260 and 89A, and more along 89A going into town and/or back. Maybe go along 89A to/through Bridgeport toward Sedona with stops.
Your money is going to eventually come from the every-day working people of Cottonwood. Those who cannot afford normal transportation (like cars). You are making a mistake by thinking that you are catering to the "green" shoppers. It just won't work that way.
The thing is, that if there were a smooth route through Camp Verde, Cottonwood, and Clarkdale, with many stops along the way, that went to Sedona, (like along 89A), you would have a much more loyal ridership and the unemployment rate here in Cottonwood would possibly even drop, because people who need to use public transportation just to get to work could actually use it.
I have lived in a big city (Las Vegas). The people who use the bus (public transportation) are those who cannot afford or don't have their own cars!
Come on! Make this system/route more accessible to those who actually need and will faithfully use it! (faithful+loyal=$$$ for you)
Thank you
