The Spokane Rising blog is suggesting a “night bus” service in Spokane. The idea is to model the system after similar ones in Europe where shuttles could be used on simple routes, all which start at the STA Plaza, on Friday and Saturday nights. Stops would be limited and park and rides and transit centers used as the terminuses for each route. The suggestion is to just have a handful of routes, such as two north routes, a south hill route, a Valley route and a couple others.
My concern with this suggestion was funding. Spokane Rising suggests charging a flat $5 rate for everyone, even if they already have a monthly pass. While this would help with some of STA’s expenses, it still wouldn’t cover all of them.
The blog suggests this new service would reduce traffic deaths and DUIs and increase economic activity in our downtown area by encouraging people to come downtown. What do you think?
No late night service has been a criticism of STA, and I know I have ridden fairly late and a lot of people do ride late at night, so hopefully STA or someone else could do late night service.