DART is exploring a new paratransit-only service option for Bondurant and Pleasant Hill.
Why it matters: The move could maintain door-to-door, wheelchair-accessible transportation for people with disabilities, even as the transit agency plans to cut more than a dozen bus routes in July.
Catch up quick: DART this year launched its “Reimagine” project to modernize and better align services with travel patterns.
- The proposed network would shift most bus services to eight routes that run every 30 minutes most of the day, and two others that would run every hour.
Friction point: Much of DART’s $43.4 million annual budget is distributed among nearly a dozen metro governments, based on a formula that has been a source of contention in recent years.
- Des Moines’ city government recently agreed to pick up a larger share, ramping up its contribution from about a third to almost 50% over the next few years and increasing a local option sales tax to help cover it.
Yes, but: Grimes ended its membership this year, and Pleasant Hill will withdraw its membership in July, eliminating regular bus service to those communities and decreasing the agency’s revenue by more than $1 million annually.
- Meanwhile, next year’s proposed networks could not expand service in Bondurant, even though it is one of the fastest-growing areas in the metro.
Driving the news: Bondurant and Pleasant Hill would pay a tax rate of 10 cents per $1,000 of valuation, along with full reimbursement for paratransit services, under the proposal.
- Bondurant’s contribution to DART would decrease from approximately $334,000 to about $43,500; Pleasant Hill’s would decrease from roughly $477,500 to around $127,500, according to estimates DART provided to Axios.
The intrigue: The paratransit-only model will be part of a three-year study and will only be available to communities with 20,000 or fewer residents and whose boundaries are more than 50% disconnected from the system’s fixed routes…