AppalCART hopes to bump up numbers on selected routes
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

AppalCART — Watauga County’s mass transit system — is gearing up for winter and also trying to boost ridership on some of its routes.

The local transportation authority broke monthly ridership records in October, achieving nearly 151,000 riders for the month, most of them for in-town bus service. However, the new “Silver Route” added this year could be headed for the scrap heap, as riders haven’t embraced the route on the Southern end of town.

The route connects the Boone Mall with the Kellwood and Blairmont communities along Bamboo and Deerfield Roads. AppalCART director Chris Turner said the route hasn’t really been embraced by the residents of the area and it doesn’t have the large apartment complexes that can provide a reliable stream of passengers.

The area mostly has condominiums and town homes, and though some people use the route to get from Appalachian-Brian Estates and Glenbridge Health and Rehabilitation to Watauga Medical Center, the AppalCART board may vote to end the route if numbers don’t increase soon.

Turner acknowledged it was harder to promote a route where potential riders didn’t identify the route as “theirs,” because it stops at intersections instead of turning around in apartment parking lots.

“There are some (Appalachian State University) students but we thought we might get some commuters going to Samaritan’s Purse for Operation Christmas Child. Maybe those people are coming from farther out than we thought.”

Total ridership is sometimes only a few people each way, and though it doesn’t run as frequently as the in-town routes. Turner hopes the route will become a little more popular over the holiday season and more people will use it during bad weather.

Traditionally, AppalCART ridership increases during cold weather, as snow and ice deters many people who find it safer and more convenient to catch a bus, particularly students who don’t have much experience driving on slick roads.

However, the last couple of years haven’t been particularly snowy, and Turner said once traffic slows and the bus is delayed, people find other alternatives if they don’t think the bus will keep a tight schedule. But that hasn’t stopped AppalCART ridership from increasing steadily since it went to a “no-fare” system in 2005.

Some buses have “talk technology” to tell sight-impaired riders when a bus is arriving, and new buses have hydraulic mechanisms that allow them to “squat” for easier wheelchair access.

As required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), AppalCART provides paratransit service to those eligible passengers who are unable to ride the in-town bus routes serving the general public in Boone.

Paratransit service is offered only during the times and in the areas served the regular in-town route bus.

AppalCART will also be forming an “Art in Transit” committee, in keeping with federal transportation funding guidelines that will seek to promote art in public transportation. Turner said this could take the form of murals on buses, statues at AppalCART facilities or adornments to covered bus stops.

The biggest task on the transit authority’s slate is the construction of the new operations center on the N.C. 105 Bypass. Turner said plans are still under review but grading work could begin in the spring, which would have the new station opening in 2009.