Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1981)
New fare may lure riders LTD lowers bus fares By MARIAN GREEN OtlwEmmkl University students may be pleasantly suprised to find they can climb aboard a Lane Transit District bus for at least ten cents cheaper than last week And that's not all thaf s new The transit district has been working in the past several months to revamp and stream line its bus system to meet the needs of bus riders The public transportation agency has held public work shops and hearings, a "transit day,” conducted several surveys and launched a publici ty campaign for its revised ser vice Sunday was the culmination of all that effort when the new service went on line LTD redesiged its service because people's needs were changing, says Ed Bergeron, an LTD marketing representative "We were providing a bus system mainly for people who couldn't drive or afford a car Now people want to take the bus to school or to work on a regular basis," Bergeron says In the spring of 1980, LTD’s board of directors increased the bus fare from 35 to 60 cents — partially was responsible for a 28 percent ridership drop, Ber geron says Emerald graphic LTD hopes to regain a good portion of that lost ridership by lower fares, Bergeron says As of Sunday, the 60-cent fare was lowered to 50 cents, and bus toKens, which can be pur chased in the University area at 7-11 stores, the EMU Main Desk and the University Bookstore, cost only 40 cents. "Fastpass" monthly bus passes were lowered to $16 for adults, $12 tor youths and $8 for children "It's a good faith effort to get people back on the buses," Bergeron says The major route change in volved switching the LTD bus system to a "line route" system, which means routes will run both directions, incoming and outgoing Bergeron says this switch al lows roundabout one-direction routes to be dropped without major rider inconvenience Under the new system, buses arrive most frequently at the route stops during morning and afternoon commuting hours when ridership is heaviest. For high ridership routes, that may be every half hour. On less crowded routes, buses may ar rive less often, Bergeron says. Formerly, LTD buses covered more streets in less frequent runs, he says “The trade-off has been coverage," he says but adds that LTD still passes within a quarter-mile of 86 percent of the Eugene-Springfield communi ty’s households "Given the limited resources we have to work with, it only makes sense to allocate them where ridership is heaviest,” he says "When traffic is jammed and everyone is trying to get home, that's when we should have the most buses.” Bergeron says LTD will be monitoring the new system clo sely in the next few weeks and months in order to make adjust ments To minimize rider confusion with the new system, LTD workers distributed leaflets to six Eugene neighborhoods out lining changes “so they don’t get lost,” Bergeron says 396 E. 18th at Mill Street 686-8321 V ^ J Cafe fire caused by fat fryer Five Eugene Fire Department units responded to a blaze at the EMU Wednesday afternoon that caused an estimated $3,500 damage to the student union building's grill area Firefighters extinguished the fire in approx imately 15 minutes A malfunction in the heating element of a deep fat fryer started the fire, according Jim Jensen, a fire department in spector "We used fire extinguishers to keep flames knocked down,” said Jim Covington, EMU food service director. "The flames were only about two feet high I was happy with the way people handled it and there were no injuries ” The EMU was evacuated when the 2:15 pm fire alarm sounded "The evacuation of about 350 people went smooth ly with no injuries,” said Adell McMillan, EMU director Preliminary reports that indicated the fire retardant sys tem housed above the fryer did not activate during the blaze were false, according to Jen sen He reported the chemical retardant was released and helped to squelch the flames Although the retardant was released, the heating element thermostat of the deep fat fryer failed to shut the fryer off when the flames started ""The system has been checked out now and is in good condition,” Jensen said
