Feb
22
2011

The Rapid’s hybrid buses: A miserable (and expensive) failure

In April of 2007, The Rapid made a big deal about purchasing two hybrid-electric buses (pictured below). They claimed that these buses, at a cost of $510,000 each (compared to about $290,000 for a regular bus) would reduce pollution and double the miles per gallon of a regular bus. According to an article in the Grand Rapids Press on April 24, 2007:

“Rapid officials expect the new buses will get 8 to 10 miles per gallon on routes with frequent stops.”

The Rapid also claimed that they were working with Grand Valley State University to measure the positive effects of these buses and to determine how much more efficient they were than regular buses.

Then there was silence.

Pursuant to a recent Freedom of Information Act request, we’ve found out why. According to The Rapid, their transit buses average 4.45 miles per gallon. The hybrid-electric buses average 5.13 miles per gallon. This means that for an additional price tag of $220,000 per bus, the improvement in efficiency is only 0.68 miles per gallon.

We also sent a Freedom of Information Act request to Grand Valley State University, asking for a copy of the study of these new buses’ efficiency. Their response? There is no study at all.

It’s been more than three years since The Rapid made these wildly inaccurate claims. Why are we the only ones to call The Rapid out on their lies to the public?

The Rapid plans to buy ten more of these expensive and wasteful buses for the proposed $50 million Rapid Silver Line route. That plan, part of a 31% property tax increase on the ballot May 3rd, will simply duplicate a bus route that already exists, it will be slower than the current buses, and it will clog up Division Avenue, Monroe Avenue, and Michigan Street by closing lanes during rush hour so that regular auto traffic will only have one lane each way. The Rapid is planning to spend millions of dollars more for these hybrid buses which provide negligible environmental benefit.

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell admitted that these buses are for perception only with no real practical benefit: “If for no other reason than the important symbolic benefit of having buses around downtown that say ‘hybrid,’ it’s an investment worth making. . . It’s not practical, but it is principled.”

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 24: The Rapid claims they have no record of our request, implying that we are making this information up. As a response, you can read the entire letter from The Rapid here, verifying our claims.



Feb
01
2011

It’s Official: The Rapid asks for a 31% tax increase in May

The Rapid’s board of directors announced last week that they are pursuing a 31% property tax millage increase on May 3rd to fund, among other things, the failed Rapid Silver Line bus system in Grand Rapids. ITP Watch, a project of Kent County Families for Fiscal Responsibility, is opposing this tax increase for the same reasons we opposed it in 2009.

This $26 million tax increase will cost each household $190 more in property taxes for those residents of Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Grandville, Walker, and Wyoming.

Here are some facts regarding The Rapid and this tax increase request:

  • The proposed Rapid Silver Line would clog up Division Avenue, Michigan Street, and Monroe Avenue during rush hour by closing one traffic lane so that only the Rapid Silver Line could use it, leaving only one lane for cars
  • The Rapid Silver Line would run slower than the bus that currently runs nearly the same route
  • Voters already said NO to the Rapid Silver Line in 2009 – but the politicians at The Rapid didn’t get the message!
  • The average Rapid bus operates about 90% empty
  • The Rapid loses $4.31 for each and every rider that uses the system
  • The Rapid just spent over $30 million on a new garage so that their buses could be stored indoors
  • The Rapid spent $250,000 on a piece of art for their headquarters
  • The Rapid is giving their employees raises while most other government entities are cutting back
  • The Director of The Rapid is one of the highest paid government employees in the county

The Rapid needs to do a better job of spending the money it already has before asking for more!

Stay tuned for further updates as we post more details about this upcoming vote.

If you would like to distribute a flyer to friends and neighbors, to explain to them what this tax increase is about, please feel free to use our flyer, available here.

It’s also important to contact your City Commissioners, State Representative, and State Senator and urge them to publicly oppose this massive tax increase.

Dec
10
2010

The Rapid Posts – then Removes – a Study Critical of The Rapid

Down The Rapid's Memory Hole

Another example of The Rapid’s continued baffling behavior! An article that The Rapid posted on their own web site, showing that spending too much money on public transit achieves the opposite of the intended effect, was suddenly removed when a commenter on the Grand Rapids Press web site pointed out the absurdity of The Rapid’s actions.

The original GR Press article, available here, announced that the failed “Silver Line” would be brought up for vote again next year. A commenter by the name of “ezkl2230″ posted excerpts from a recent study: “New public transit encourages gentrification, lowers ridership, study says.” The commenter went on to quote the study,

“That means renters and low-income residents — you know, the folks you think would ride public transportation — get priced out of the neighborhood and, once again, away from easy access to the very system that’s thought to serve them the most.”

The same commenter, a little farther down the page, pointed out that this information was posted on The Rapid’s own web site! A link was included, and sure enough, there it was!

Stunningly, a few days later, the study and news item were removed from The Rapid’s web site! The original link is here. As you can see, it is gone. Thankfully, Google keeps cached copies of web pages available, so a copy of the original page is still available here. In case that disappears, you can see a downloaded copy of the page, here, saved on our own server.

We’re reminded of George Orwell’s book, 1984, about a totalitarian society which makes uncomfortable news and history simply disappear, down the memory hole. From Wikipedia’s definition of memory hole:

A memory hole is any mechanism for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a web site or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.

You can access the study originally quoted on The Rapid’s web site here.

Sep
02
2010

The Rapid Releases Transit Master Plan – Calls for Doubling Spending and Doubling Taxes

The ITP has finally released their Transit Master Plan on the web. You can view it by clicking here. Here are some highlights:

  • The plan calls for not one, but two bus rapid transit (BRT) lines. This is the return from the dead of the failed Rapid Silver Line, which was already defeated at the polls by four of the six cities in The Rapid’s service area
  • The plan calls for a light rail service downtown – adding railroad tracks and even more congestion downtown
  • The plan calls for doubling The Rapid’s capital spending to half a billion dollars and operating costs to over $120 million a year
  • This additional spending also calls for doubling taxes. They claim that they will “only” require a property increase to 2 mills, but since when do these sorts of government transit projects ever come in on budget? If you’re doubling spending, you’re doubling taxes.

Feb
03
2010

Rapid Silver Line Tax Increase Retry is Full Speed Ahead

The ITP’s board meeting in December of 2009 had a discussion about the Rapid Silver Line. It’s clear that they are pressing full speed ahead with coming back to voters to raise taxes, again, for this failed and inefficient project. You can read the meeting’s minutes here.

Mr. Jaiyeoba gave an update on the Silver Line bus rapid transit project and the environmental assessment process. A Power Point presentation was given describing the project, where we are today, potential impacts being considered in the EA, results of the recent traffic analysis and the next steps in the project.

We are working to get a copy of the Power Point presentation referenced in the minutes for more detail. Our guess is that they will try again either this May or in May of 2011.

May
07
2009

Rapid Silver Line Vote Fails

The Rapid’s Silver Line proposal failed at the ballot box on May 5th. The vote was 53% against and 47% in favor. This is the first time in many years that a tax increase request from The Rapid was turned down. More significantly, of the six cities in the ITP region (Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Walker, and Wyoming) only Grand Rapids and East Grand Rapids voted in favor of the tax increase. The votes percentages on a per-city basis are below:

Grand Rapids      – 53% yes, 47% no

East Grand Rapids – 64% yes, 36% no

Grandville        – 36% yes, 64% no

Kentwood          – 46% yes, 54% no

Walker            – 32% yes, 68% no

Wyoming           – 36% yes, 64% no

This is a major victory for fiscal sanity and the taxpayers of the Grand Rapids area. Although the tax increase request failed, we’re already hearing rumblings about The Rapid coming back to taxpayers again to get the Silver Line at all costs, regardless of how inefficient and disruptive it will be. Stay tuned for more updates!

Apr
21
2009

Rapid Silver Line Vote No Flyers – Download and Print

taxesWe now have available “Vote No” flyers available for everyone to download and print. There are four per page, making it easy to leave these reminders with friends and neighbors. The flyer simply states: “Vote NO on the $70 million bus tax increase on Tuesday, May 5th. For more information, visit www.itpwatch.org.”

>> Download the flyer here in PDF format <<

If you have ideas for more ways of getting the word out, please contact us at info@itpwatch.org

Apr
13
2009

The Rapid’s New Silver Line – Another Waste of Taxpayer Money

We urge the voters of Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Walker, Wyoming, and Grandville to vote NO on the Tuesday, May 5th ballot. The ITP is asking for another tax increase to fund the so-called “Silver Line” bus route. Why should you vote NO?

  • The Silver Line will actually increase congestion on Division Avenue because two (of the four) lanes of traffic will be cut off to normal traffic during peak hours, so that the new BRT buses will have priority over all other traffic. That means that during rush hours, traffic will only be allowed one lane each way on Division Avenue.
  • Rapid buses already travel this “new” route. The new Silver Line will only duplicate efforts and accomplish nothing new.
  • This new bus route is being called a Bus Rapid Transit line (BRT). However, the length of the route is 9.87 miles and the travel time for that route is 36 minutes. That works out to a little over an average of 16 miles per hour. How do they call this rapid?
  • Increasing taxes by $70 million during the worst recession since the Great Depression will only serve to kill more jobs in the Grand Rapids area.
  • Very, very, very few of the residents of the ITP area will see any benefit whatsoever. Residents of Walker, Grandville, and East Grand Rapids will see no benefit at all.
  • The dedicated lanes for these buses will eliminate crucial parking for the small businesses along Division.

Mar
27
2007

The Rapid as Corporate Welfare

corporate greedYou may not be aware that the RAPID offers a shuttle service to and from the Gerald Ford Airport. If you’re not familiar with the Air Porter service, here are the details. The shuttle goes between the airport and three downtown hotels: The Amway, the Courtyard by Marriott, and the Days Inn. Sounds like a good idea, right?

Well, there’s a snag. The shuttle operates 24 hours a day on a set schedule, leaving the airport every half hour. The one-way fare is $15 and a round trip is $25. The problem is that the shuttle actually loses money. How much? It is estimated to lose $103,000 in fiscal year 2007. Guess who pays the difference. That’s right, you and I, the taxpayers.

This is called corporate welfare. The taxpayers of the Grand Rapids area are subsidizing shuttle service for three private downtown hotels. Do you really think that Amway needs tax dollars to get customers to stay at their hotel? Doubtful. But somehow they convinced the board members of the unelected Interurban Transit Authority (The Rapid) to foot the bill. Taxpayers get soaked again.

Even more interesting is the fact that an average of only about 1 person per hour uses this service. Any business operating like this would be bankrupt faster than you could say “Enron.” However, because the RAPID is just another government bureaucracy, we, the taxpayers, get to pay for their poor financial decisions.

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