Asheville’s bus system needs real support to help thousands of locals. But the city’s proposed budget puts money to top-level staff and policing rather than the needs of the public. That must change

Above: Part of the map of Asheville’s bus system, which thousands of our city’s people rely on to live their lives.

Editor’s note: The following piece is the work of transit riders, labor leaders, activists, workers, transit committee members and advocates. It is a call for the city of Asheville to take a different direction with its budget and put its resources to the long-overdue promise to truly fund and support its transit system. The list of those who worked on and support this declaration is at the end of the piece. — David Forbes, editor

The Asheville Metro Area, encompassing over 2,000 miles, has a $17.3 billion economy and though workers are the bedrock of this wealth, we all contribute. Whether we are heading to work bright and early boarding the W-1 near Deaverview or taking the E-1 to the VA Hospital for our check-up sharing a laugh and a story with the driver or the rider sitting next to us. Perhaps, we are jumping the S-3 down south to board a plane to visit family.

Maybe after grabbing lunch we ride the N-1 for our grocery shopping and then the W-3 to pick up a prescription before school lets out and the kids get home. Maybe we are finishing up work and are just looking to get home at a decent time, take a shower, and fill our empty stomachs.

Perhaps we have just finished a shift in Beer City USA on a Saturday night, and yet there’s no bus to take us home.

Transit riders have been asked to wait time and time again as we endured issues such as problems with the management company, the need for additional bus purchases, for station renovations, for more bus shelters, for clear bus policies. Better Buses Together alerted city officials to the problems and struggles with our public transit system for years, and leading up to last year’s passage of the new Transit Master Plan, officials have responded, “Just wait until the Transit Master Plan.”

Time and again transit riders and allies have brought their stories and advocacy to city officials in hopes of gaining additional support just so that we can live our lives. And indeed, our many wins include last year’s Transit Master Plan, the fact that all routes now run until 5 p.m. on Sundays and evening service is now available for our Emma neighbors and communities throughout our area, including Arden and Black Mountain. This is because we have raised our voices and demanded concrete solutions to our transit needs. We still have far to go, including implementation of extended service hours until at least 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 8 p.m. on Sundays. Riders and allies have been pushing for these hours for more than a decade.

A functioning transit system is a crucial part of every growing city to address the needs of those that use transit by necessity or by choice to commute into, out of and around the metro area. Public transit serves to reduce the effects of pollution from commuter cars, and supports an economy that works for all of us. Sorely needed transit across the region starts with Asheville, the hub. Transit Can’t Wait.

Waiting too long

“Routes are not efficient due to massive increase to traffic and lack of extra buses… I have been using transit since ‘94. They have improved very little. Many routes don’t run late enough and there are still problems for people who work on Sunday evenings.” — Angie Kunschmann

On July 24, 2018 Asheville City Council passed the Transit Master Plan (TMP) promising to start implementing this July 1. The price of implementing Year 1 of the TMP was then quoted at $2.5 million. Now city staff claim this was an underestimate and that $3.7 million is needed. This was the first amount needed to start making a deeply dysfunctional system functional. But city officials, despite a booming budget and millions more in property tax revenues, are considering giving the bus system less than half of the money they first claimed is needed, funding just $1.2 million for half a year of the proposed plan.

The TMP promises to bring more reliable and robust public transit to our City, vastly improving on time performance, and extending service through route reconfigurations and extending service until at least 10 p.m. on all routes Monday-Saturday and until 8 p.m. on Sunday.

Riders from the Better Buses Together Campaign worked extensively as advocates to ensure that the planning and public input for the Transit Master Plan helped to create service for necessity riders that ensured access to basic necessities like food and healthcare, and provided more opportunities to access jobs and educational opportunities. Furthermore, the feasibility study that was part of the plan’s construction cost the city more than $300,000.

Also of note:
• At their winter retreat, City Council members voted to make Transit their number 1 priority.

• To fully implement year one of the Transit Master Plan, the City now says it needs $3.7 million.

Bus Riders are being asked to wait for the full implementation of the Transit Master Plan due to what city staff says is a lack of funds and the capacity of both the Transit Management Company and the Transit City Staff. The lack of available buses has been broached, but the last Transit Master Plan called for the addition of buses that has not been implemented, and the current plan is unfortunately headed in the same direction should Council deny full funding.

When the city repeatedly fails to provide for our transit riders and the people of this city bus availability, transit funding, and staff shortfalls seem like simply excuses. Purchases of cost efficient shuttles would function well on low occupancy routes, and we are asking for full implementation of the plan the city already agreed to.

The City has proposed $1.2 million for transit in the 2019-20 budget which will be used for partial implementation of the Transit Master Plan Year 1, a consultant to work with the transit department, and funding for a study to move the Bus Depot, which will run out of space in the next year or two.

The Transit Committee and the Multimodal Transportation Commission both voted recently to advise council to fully implement the Transit Master Plan with an additional $1.85 million alongside the operating budget (out of the $190 million city budget) they now say is needed, and we rely on the City of Asheville to receive this advice, and begin full implementation on Jan. 1. In light of the budget’s continued increases for the police department and raises for high level city staff, we believe competent decision making and accountability for city staff and elected officials begins now. As Transit Riders and Allies, together, we say, “Transit Can’t Wait.”

Funding transit is an issue of environmental justice, of racial justice, and of economic justice. The lack of a fully functioning transit system hinders residents now and will jeopardize our economic future as Asheville continues to grow. So as members and supporters of Better Buses Together, we say “Transit Can’t Wait!”

Our environment can’t wait

“I have been riding transit since moving to the area in 2014, and I depend on transit as a petsitter, riding the bus to homes throughout our area and at all times of the day. As a trans woman who while riding the bus has been harassed for my gender identity, sexually harassed, given death threats, and was once nearly attacked while waiting for a bus, I would like to see some vast improvements with our bus system. The fact that our climate is changing dramatically and our species is faced with extinction emphasizes the importance of using transit, and despite the transphobia and classism I encounter on and between buses, I will continue to depend on this necessity. Asheville area’s economy is just smaller than the economy of Afghanistan and is actually larger than the economies of the Bahamas, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Mongolia, and even Jamaica. The city budget is now over $190 million. We can afford the extra $650,000 to extend service hours.” — Matilda Bliss

Whether it be the 11.1 million tourists brought into Buncombe County each year or the 40,000 workers per day who commute into Buncombe from surrounding areas. travel is the common denominator and most of this travel is by passenger car.

Dependence on passenger cars harms our environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation produces over a quarter of greenhouse gases (26 percent) and half of those greenhouse gases are produced by passenger cars (42 percent) and air traffic (7 percent). Greenhouse gases cause climate change, and climate change produces weather and environmental catastrophes across the world. Locally, as we are struggling to keep up with infrastructure, it is only a matter of time before the worsening floods turn devastating, and Asheville feels the effects of these changes in ways yet to be noticed.

If Asheville is truly committed to a carbon-free future, funding transit is a crucial step. Public buses create, on average, 33 percent fewer carbon emissions per passenger mile than single-occupancy vehicles, and public transit as a whole saves us 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline per year. As doubling the sizes of our transit systems has the potential to decrease carbon emissions per person by 60 percent, these numbers will only improve as we give our transit system the investment it deserves to create a system Ashevillians find reliable and welcoming.

As young people and as elders, for our children, our grandchildren, and all those in our community we care about, we say “Transit Can’t Wait.”

Our diverse community can’t wait

“I’ve ridden the bus for a couple months. [At] times [the] bus was not running and I wasn’t aware no text, email and even when calling the number no answer or mention of the bus (S2) I know that [it] is a slow route but when needed I was there at the bus stop just don’t stop the route because where I am it would take me 20 minutes to walk to tunnel or 40 to walk to Biltmore!”
— LaRisa Davidson

“I catch the s3 bus to the airport at 2:30 and get to the airport at about 3:05,i have to wait an hour to get on the apple country transit at 4:00, why [aren’t] art transit and apple country transit trying to communicate by at least waiting 5 or 10 minutes so we don’t have to wait an hour.” — Barbara Pickens

On our buses, Asheville’s diverse community is most visible.

Transportation is an equity issue. We believe and are working so that everyone in our city has access to living wage jobs, food, healthcare, education and opportunities. A robust and reliable public transit system creates this access. Transit was a cornerstone of the Civil Rights movement then and of the racial and economic justice movement that is our Human Rights movement today. Sixty one percent of those who ride the bus do not have a driver’s license, and the on-time average for buses rests at 60 percent. The local Black unemployment rate is triple that of White Asheville. When we are failing to bring our riders to work on time, we endanger our riders’ abilities to gain and keep their jobs.

When the city of Asheville fails to sufficiently fund transit it fails to support those that rely on transit to get to work, school, healthcare, or other services. Those riders tend to be lower income people of color or those with disabilities.

The predominantly Black Southside community, the site of massive redlining and the largest “urban renewal” project in the Southeast, was until recently directly threatened by proposed cuts to the first year of the TMP. We appreciate city staff, including City Manager Debra Campbell, for including the S4 Route, providing a bus every 30 minutes to the Southside community. This addition was a direct result of pressure from riders and allies, and we are pleased Campbell has been a transit rider in the past and is familiar with some of the challenges many riders face. But far more is needed.

Not included in the funding of the year one TMP is extended service hours. Buses that are running every day of the week, until at least 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 8 p.m. on Sundays are of special support to our low-wage workers (disproportionately Latinx and African American), we as riders and allies say once more, “Transit Can’t Wait.”

Our economy can’t wait

“Honestly, I’ve been dealing with this inadequate system for almost five years now. I’m stubborn, so I’ve managed to survive, but I feel bad for folks in worse circumstances: the elderly, disabled, young people just starting out trying to establish their first employment and ending up getting fired because of the unreliable system. Workers who end up paying huge parking fees because of the limited transit hours. It affects so many people in a negative way and there is no reason why it shouldn’t become an asset instead of a liability. It pisses me off that we spent $300,000 to develop the TMP, city council approved it, but now refuses to fund it!… We shouldn’t have to beg this much for an ongoing critical service.” — Tracey Wold

So many of us work every day to create the $17.3 billion dollar economy in our region, and all of us participate in this booming economy. But many of us don’t reap the rewards. The price of rent continues to increase, our wages remain low, and many climb out of homelessness just to lose their apartment and return to the streets, and yet every $1 invested in transit generates $4 in economic returns.

Every $1 billion invested in transit creates more than 50,000 jobs. As transit is a central piece of the recently proposed Green New Deal, Asheville is positioned to take a visionary stance, combining carbon reduction with green jobs ahead of national implementation of this ambitious and necessary plan. We stand with our bus operators, who are important members of our community who put in stressful hours every day transporting us around the region. Our bus operators are a central to our new green economy, and would hopefully one day be paid as such. Let’s get all our workers to their jobs and fuel a new sustainable economy. It is time to recognize Transit for what it is – a core city service. Together we say, “Transit Can’t Wait.”

Who we are

“Is it ok to say I’m literally sick of how hard simple fights are? It will not get better. Unless this happens.” — Amber LaShae Banks

We are workers, we are disabled, we are young people, we are retired. We are people of all races, immigrants, and non-immigrants. Many of us do not work 9-5 schedules. Many of us are service workers, working until 10 pm, 11 pm, and later. We are cleaning up after Beer City USA, and we are missing our bus.

Some of us work graveyard shifts, arriving at the Transit Station at 8 p.m. from our neighborhoods and waiting until midnight to start our shifts. We are riding buses that don’t connect and waiting for buses that never come. We are walking home in the dark. We are walking and biking miles in all weather because it’s the only way to make our shifts or our appointments. We are making less than living wage, and we are sparing hard earned cash on ride shares or cabs.

We are depending on the app, we are texting Nextbus, or we are calling the transit station, and we are waiting for updates on end or receiving wrong information altogether.

Every life possibility is dependent on our bus routes and the timeliness of buses. Asheville is unaffordable, and yet our housing choices revolve around the proximity to routes. We are giving our work availability based on limited bus schedules. We are missing job interviews and we are losing our jobs because we are late to work. We can’t move up from entry-level positions or qualify for benefits. Those of us working the gig economy watch our heads spin as we meet and work for clients across town, across bus schedules, and are dependent on an unpredictable system. We cannot provide for ourselves or the families we may have.

We are disabled, and the buses are full, there is no bus shelter, there is no accessible sidewalk, and the appointments we wait weeks to book evaporate like summer rain as our bus shows up half an hour late or not at all. Our day depends on a timely bus. We have anxiety disorder. We have PTSD, we are women, we are LGBTQ, and sometimes we’d rather just beg for rides than wait at a bus stop in front of speeding traffic and random passersby. We are borrowing friends cars and we are taking risks, driving without insurance and driving without a license.

We have children. We have aging parents. We have pets and we have service animals. We just want to go grocery shopping. We just want to get our kids to school or daycare. We just want to pick up a prescription or make our class on time or keep that appointment we scheduled months ago. We deserve a better transit system.

And. We. Can’t. Wait.

What we want

“We have been waiting entirely too long as it is for buses to be properly maintained, for hours, routes, schedules that actually work for those that it is meant to serve. Again as it always goes with this city priorities are twisted and it has to stop. We were promised a new transit station when I first got here nearly 7 years ago and only now are we getting renovations…I don’t think I’m the only one who has taken far too much already” — Sabrina Rembert

Throughout the years leading up to the passage of the new Transit Master Plan, the problems and struggles with our public transit system that Better Buses has advocated around have met with the response “just wait until the Transit Master Plan.” Transit riders have been asked to wait time and time again with other issues as well from problems with the Management Company, to additional bus purchases, to station renovations, to more bus shelters, to clearer bus policies.

We as transit riders and allies know that TRANSIT CAN’T WAIT. Transit is a human right. Transit is a matter of equity and access to opportunity. Transit is good for the environment in the midst of climate change. And transit is good for our economy—an economy that works for all in Western North Carolina. So we say again TRANSIT CAN’T WAIT.

Just as Asheville’s Transit Committee and Multimodal Transportation Commission have recommended, we are asking that City leaders commit to all funds promised and to build the capacity of the staff and the bus management in all ways necessary to be able to fully implement Year 1 of the Transit Master Plan as quickly and effectively as possible.

We need at least $1.85 million more to implement Year 1 of the Transit Master Plan beginning January 1, 2020. We believe that this is an adequate time frame given the constraints of staff and planning time to bring about full implementation.

Take Action
• Email Asheville City Council members: AshevilleNCCouncil@ashevillenc.gov or

• Call Council members individually. Find their numbers here.

• Write a Letter to the Editor of a local paper

• Invite your friends and neighbors to act!

• Attend Asheville City Council’s public hearing on the budget on May 28 (5 p.m. on the secound floor of City Hall) and speak during that public hearing

• For more information, contact Just Economics at 828-505-7466 or www.justeconomicswnc.org

• For ongoing information about the Campaign Join Better Buses Together group via Facebook

We, the undersigned, declare that “Transit Can’t Wait!”

Diane Cook Allen
Bus operator, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 128, Better Buses Together member and advocate

Julia McDowell
Just Folks Organization President/ Seamstress/Eagle Market Street, YMI Board Member/ Just Economics Executive board Member, Asheville native and former bus rider

Vicki Meath
Executive Director of Just Economics

Kim Roney (she/her)
Necessity bus rider, Multimodal Transportation Commission, Transit Committee, and Downtown Commission Sub-Committee on Parking and Transportation member

Rev. Amy Cantrell
Just Economics and Co-Director of BeLoved House

Rev. Jeff Jones
Unitarian Universalist Community Minister, Asheville Transit Committee, OLLIE instructor, avid bus rider and advocate

Coco Alcazar
Co-Director of Companeros Inmigrantes de la Montanas en Accion (CIMA)

Hillary Brown
The Steady Collective

Nicole Townsend
Community Organizer

Camille McCarthy
Co-Chair of the WNC Green Party

Leila Barazandeh
Sunrise Movement, and President of Young Democrats of Buncombe County

Noah Hall
Co-Chair of Asheville Democratic Socialists of America

Ashley McDermott
Hub Coordinator of Sunrise Movement Asheville

Ben Williamson
Educator, Parent, Member of the WNC Green Party and Asheville DSA

Max Reed
Worker, Member of Party for Socialism and Liberation

Dr. Lisabeth Medlock
Visually impaired necessity bus rider, Mom, Business Owner and Member of the Transit Committee

Elizabeth Schell
Downtown Business Owner

Amber LaShae Banks
Native, on disability, local activist

Sabrina Rembert
Necessity Rider, Disabled Single Mother

Tracey Wold
Necessity Rider, Better Buses Together and Just Economics board member

Carol Buffum
Asheville Showing Up for Racial Justice Core Team Member, environmental and racial justice activist and occasional bus rider

Angie Kunschmann
Local resident of 26 years and Necessity Rider

Sally Evans
Bus rider

Monica Sellers
Bus rider

Martha Mosseller
Asheville Native and Transit Advocate

Cortne Lee Roche
Socialist, Transit Advocate

Jonathan Platt
Asheville Showing Up for Racial Justice Core Team Member, and Co-founder/ Worker-Owner of Appalachian Builders CO-OP

Mic Collins
Worker-owner at Firestorm Books & Coffee

May Toropova

Amy Hamilton

Andrew Rainey
Cyclist and Radio Host

Julia Laffond
Community Member

Tom Halladay
Asheville Resident

TJ Amos
Radio Volunteer and Community Member

Sagan Thacker
College Student and Occasional Bus Rider

Pamela K Fisher

Party for Socialism and Liberation: Marcos Lugo, Saro Estrem, Ford Thorne, Sam Turner, Maris Harbin, Jason Carroll, Euclid Julius Jade, Elan Pedisic, Phil Richmond Miller II

Maryella Cooper
Mom and Transit rider

Mike Jackson, Sr
Asheville Native

Adam Thomas White
Asheville Native

Evan Kolosna
Secretary, Asheville DSA

Andrew Kunza
Member, WNC Green Party

Monica Crase

Matt Shephard

Andrew Fletcher
Busker, member of the Downtown Commission

—

Matilda Bliss is on the core team of Asheville Showing Up for Racial Justice, and also works with the Real Asheville Initiative, the Green Party, and Better Buses Together. When she isn’t petsitting or making schedules of events, she strives to live an off-the-grid lifestyle and creates jewelry from local stones

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