Uber Mobility

Prompted by a posting about Uber on Facebook’s Amador Political Discussion Group a dialogue ensued about the mobility situation of the elderly, disabled and drunk and our local options. We have a few expensive taxis, an excellent, but skeletal bus service, a limited Dial-A-Ride (DAR) service and a new and well functioning, but small, Volunteer Driver Program.

Among those transported by the Volunteer Driver Program are people going to dialysis in nearby cities. While this is vital, its contribution to county wide mobility and building a transit system is relatively small. However, they are acquiring a van and grouping individual trips together can add efficiency. Other social service agencies own vans, but often their use is limited by grant restrictions or other rules. So we do have some underutilized vehicles available.

The only for the ADA certified Dial-A-Ride, although recently vastly expanded, is still very limited in scope and the most expensive use of our transit money. The ADA certified can also request route deviations on the fixed route buses. Obviously, this slows the other passengers down and can inhibit developing a more thriving transit system.  Minimizing route deviations and DAR use through system design is the best alternative. The funds saved are better used for service that attracts more riders (and revenue).

Recent developments in our system are illustrative.  The service to River Pines was stopped due to negligible ridership, but some in River Pines and also Fiddletown would still benefit from a transit connection. The additional upcountry run has been successful because one can now run errands or make appointments in the Jackson/Sutter Creek county core without having to wait half a day for a return trip. Another situation, although seemingly unrelated, is the fact that the Ledger Dispatch finds it much cheaper to home deliver rather than mail. This supports the obvious that we have a surplus, certainly in terms of time, of transportation vehicles in the county along with unmet transit needs.  The success of the volunteer drivers program clearly points to this.

I am suggesting that we continue to build the trunk/backbone system. It is the best investment with the best return. Improvements in one area feed the entire system. No matter now many volunteer drivers or Dial-A-Rides we have, we still have a rural county with dispersed homes and the General Plan aside, most of us want it to remain this way. I can envision the Uber type technologies, the volunteer driver program and the bygone jitneys (peso cabs in some places) coming together into a workable bus stop to home system. After all, taxis at the railheads are as old as the railheads.

At each bus stop, or callable to your home, would be private individuals in their own vehicles. Over a short period of time it would become routine with the same passengers having the same drivers.  If a shuttle trip costs an affordable $2 someone working an hour a day could easily make about $2500 per year. This could be someone on their way to or from work or a retired person wanting added income. An enhanced system with this sort of passenger collection and distribution would make the proposed Grapevine route for those who shouldn’t drive as well as other services possible. While I don’t have the technology or the details, I can’t imagine that it can’t be figured out. If we did it here we would not only benefit, but be able to sell it to the world.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

Unmet or Unseen?

At the Amador County Transportation Commission’s annual Unmet Transit Needs hearing on 12/17/15, I said the following: “I would like to tie some elements of the Unmet Transit Needs document together and make a modest proposal. Under 'Long Term' is increased service to Sacramento. This key link has good daily commute ridership and is partly subsidized by SacDot. They appear very pleased with the service, and I understand that they are buying us a new bus.

Increased service to Sacramento can benefit the overall system in several ways. People transferring to and from this service could lead to incremental system wide ridership growth. It provides a needed service to Calaveras County residents and should serve as an impetus for Calaveras Transit to extend its current route to our transit center. This interchange not only provides greater travel opportunities, but also and again, should lead to incremental system wide ridership growth.

The short term need of greater service to Ione could be met by routing an additional and non commute hour trip through Ione. Seat turnover, like table turnover in a restaurant, is one of the few ways to increase revenue without increasing cost. The question is not always providing for the need of going from A to B, but how many times can you sell that seat between A and B.

Added Sacramento service will also provide an incentive for the Casino bus and the suggested “Grapevine” service, both other recommendations, to operate from the transit center. Once again, this should lead to incremental ridership growth.

I have decided to speak on this particular need and the benefits of doing it because, and unlike other parts of the system, there is a significant and untapped ridership market for the Sacramento service. Senior citizens from Sacramento would enjoy a day in county for an affordable price. They would also fill the empty return trip seats.

Publicizing this travel potential could be done by the Amador Council of Tourism and other organizations within their existing funding. For that reason and all those that I have stated, I ask this body to support this idea and to inform the existing tourist and related organizations of that decision by whatever means seems appropriate.  Thank you.”

My suggestion was well received and discussed afterward. While I have no idea if this created enough forward momentum to bring this into reality, it seemed like a good start.  Also a plus for this proposal is the recent addition of full time staff at the transit center to assist tourists, and, of course, the money they would spend here. As noted above, SacDot (Sacramento County Department of Transportation) has purchased us a new bus because they are pleased with the service and the local service between Rancho Murrieta and Sacramento it provides. They subsidize part of this service, another plus for Amador County.

My statement was an expansion of the ideas I expressed in “Grant Dependent, or Under Our Control: Amador’s Transit Future” (8/11/14). If transit is seen as a business (public sector yes, but still a business) and less as a social service, it would require less subsidy. I also witnessed an irony at the ACTC meeting. Prior to the Unmet Transit Needs hearing, the board discussed raising the sales tax for road maintenance. If this meeting was a 100 years ago, they were probably discussing new taxes on the streetcar companies for road maintenance. Those programs of taxation were one of many factors in their demise.

Good Samaritans, Indeed

We all know the expression Good Samaritan, and many of us know the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans emerged as a distinct group of people following the exchange of populations caused by the Assyrian invasion of Israel in about 722 BC. They adopted their own form of Judaism and were later negatively portrayed by the Temple priesthood. Jesus objected, and said that the Samaritans are good people. Many believed that they were demon-possessed (John 8:28) and rejected Jesus because they thought that he was Samaritan. All this hostility led to their alliance with the Romans against Judea.

Following Judea’s final defeat by the Romans in about 135 AD, the Samaritans began their golden age.  They rebuilt their temple on Mount Gerizim, gathered over a million adherents. and established communities in Damascus, Gaza, Cairo and elsewhere. But their nation became ruled by the Byzantine Christians and, in a series of persecutions which culminated in the destruction of their temple in 529, decimated them. Their territory had consisted of what is now about two thirds of the area referred to as the West Bank, the other third being Judea.

Despite some cultural revivals over the centuries, the Muslim rule that followed the Byzantines proved even more brutal. The 800 or so now remaining Samaritans have been courted by the Palestinian Authority and persecuted by them at the same time. Most have fled to Israel where they now live in peace.

Because they observe only the first five books of the Bible, they are neither Christians nor Jews. But they are people of the biblical faith, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, like Christians and Jews. The word “Samaritan” means “keepers of the law” in ancient Hebrew. Many Bible scholars believe that their scriptures are the closest to the originals. Assuming that this is so, they are truly Good Samaritans, indeed.

End Note: John the Baptist is buried in Samaria. Saint Jerome (c.347-420) saw miracles there. Today the grave lies beneath the Nabi Yahya Mosque.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett

Breaking News! Stay Tuned!

How many times have we heard that or a similar refrain? Was it alarming news when Greece defaulted on its bonds? Actually it’s rather habitual; the Government of Greece defaulted in 1932, 1894, 1860, 1843 and 1826.

People were shocked by the Jihad attacks in San Bernardino last week, and Paris shortly before that.  But Islam has changed little over the centuries. Most notable were the conquest of Spain in 711 (does that rhyme with 911?), the Battle of Poitiers (or Tours) in 732 when Charles Martel defeated the Muslims, 759 when Pippin the Short, Charlemagne’s father, drove the Muslims from southern France and in 1683 when the Muslims reached Vienna. Beyond those few highlights I tried to summarize the history, but found it impossible. Anyone curious can internet search, however I found this site useful for the years 355 to 1291: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/islamchron.html

This constant conquest, or attempted conquest, has made enduring contributions. Count Dracula is based upon Vlad the Impaler, a 1400’s Romanian prince who defended his homeland against the Muslim Turks in a bloodbath unusual even for its time. He borrowed techniques from them, some of which he probably learned as their prisoner when a younger man. The Muslims conquered Sicily several times and each time the Sicilians liberated themselves. Usually they fled to the hills and fought a guerilla war. Because of that experience, they developed a warlord-style of organization that became the genesis of the Sicilian Mafia.

Many historians contend that the European Dark Ages began when the Muslims controlled the Mediterranean Sea and trade was cut off. Ironically, other historians of this period credit the Muslims with preserving the classical thought the ignorant Europeans had suddenly forgotten. This twist of history certainly reminds me of the usual role reversal of modern Muslim apologists and their cries of victimhood.

About 3,200 years ago, Arabians invaded Egypt, Canaan and Syria. They burned cities, destroyed artworks, razed the temples and mutilated their victims including cutting off limbs. These were the forerunners of the Muslims. Scholars such as Robert Spencer believe that the pagan Arabian tribes in later years felt inadequate to the surrounding Christians and Jews and therefore concocted a third “Abahamic” faith. But it’s rather apparent that their symbol is still the moon goddess.

Will Attorney General Loretta Lynch have me arrested for Islamphobia for retelling this history? Apologists for Muslim violence always note how history is full of religious violence. The Spanish Inquisition tortured people to death.  During Cromwell’s English dictatorship celebrating mass was punishable by death. But I have read and repeated numerous times the obvious. Christianity could heal itself by returning to its roots of a loving, forgiving Jesus. Mohammad, however, was a child rapist, misogynist and war monger.  The Holy Koran is full of hate and violence.

I have nothing against individual Muslims. I once hired one, and felt badly when he asked for time off for a religious holiday because he did not feel free to say "Ramadan". We all know that moderate Muslims are afraid to speak up within their own communities. The well financed and equipped fanatics are a huge percent of the world’s 1.2 billion or so Muslims. Do we face a 100 years’ war, or can Islam reform itself? I have no answer.

Copyright 2015, Mark L. Bennett