The City Council is considering a bill to make bus service free for senior citizens and disabled passengers, as the public awaits Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s plan to reverse last year’s service cuts and route changes.
The proposal, Bill 58, was introduced this past summer by Council Chairman Ernie Martin amid widely unpopular cuts to Honolulu’s bus system. It would do away with the initial $10 identification card cost and $30 annual pass cost that seniors and disabled riders pay to use TheBus and would take effect in July if approved.
Such a move would also eliminate $2 million in revenues just as costs to run TheBus are going up and city officials are looking at ways to restore previously cut service, Nelson Koyanagi, acting director of the city Budget and Fiscal Services Department, told Council members during Wednesday’s Budget Committee meeting.
Resident Nathalie Iwasa asked how the proposal would be funded. Council members Ann Kobayashi and Breene Harimoto said they had strong concerns about the idea.
Nonetheless, Martin said it was important to discuss amid the recent changes to TheBus service and the hardship they created for many passengers, particularly seniors and the disabled. "A lot of our seniors can no longer sit on the bus," Martin said. "If they’re not guaranteed a seat, why make them pay for it?"
"It’s a matter of balancing priorities," he added, referring to how the city could make up that $2 million in lost revenue.
Barbra Armentrout, an outspoken advocate for better bus service, told the Council that many seniors and disabled riders would be willing to pay more to restore the service. "Thirty dollars a year is pretty cheap," she said. Armentrout also expressed concern that free service would add more people to buses that have grown more crowded in recent months because they run less frequently.
"Where are we going to put these people?" she said.
Budget Committee members opted to send the bill for a public hearing.
Michael Formby, director designate for the Transportation Services Department, told Council members there’s "no firm timetable" on when Caldwell would announce his plan to restore bus service. Formby’s staff plans to brief Caldwell on options in the next 30 days, he said.
