QuickTake:

Lane Transit District is making changes to routes that southern county residents will take. It will mean less service for residents and require them to do more planning. 

Transit service changes in rural southern Lane County will require residents in Cottage Grove and surrounding communities to adjust how they schedule and plan trips for medical appointments, work, shopping trips or other needs. 

Some 16 people gathered Monday, Aug. 18, in a community center in Cottage Grove to hear Lane Transit District officials answer questions and talk about the changes ahead.

First, the Metro Shuttle service, a grant-funded pilot project, is ending this winter. That shuttle provides reservation-based origin-to-destination service five days a week from Cottage Grove and Creswell into the Eugene-Springfield area. The two-year pilot project’s funding is ending and LTD needed to find other funding options to serve residents in that region.

Officials are planning a seamless transition: The Metro Shuttle will continue until service through a new pilot starts this winter. As planning continues, the exact start date for the new Rural Lane County Shuttle pilot — and the end date for the Metro Shuttle — is not yet available.

The new pilot project will start this winter and end on June 30, 2027. Service availability will go down: Instead of five days of service, there will be two days.

It all comes down to funding, which the state of Oregon is short on for transportation. 

“There’s just a limited amount of peanut butter to go across a very big piece of bread,” Cosette Rees, LTD’s director of mobility services, told the group.

Statewide needs for transportation

Fuel tax revenue has not kept up with rising costs and inflation, so the Oregon Department of Transportation, local transit providers, cities and counties have struggled to balance needs with available funding. 

In this year’s regular session, Oregon lawmakers were unable to pass a bill that would fund transportation needs, including transit and money for road and bridge maintenance, with a boost in the fuel tax and increases in vehicle title and registration fees. 

Gov. Tina Kotek has called an Aug. 29 special session for lawmakers to pass a transportation bill, which includes more funding for transit services. Kotek’s proposal, released in draft form to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, calls for an increase to the state’s payroll tax that funds transit services. It would increase from one-tenth of 1% to two-tenths of 1%. That’s an increase from $4.16 a month to $8.33 a month for an Oregonian earning $50,000 annually.

Monday’s meeting in Cottage Grove didn’t delve too deeply into the upcoming session, but officials encouraged attendees to contact their legislators about needs in the community. 

“Talk to them now,” LTD board member Heather Murphy said. “They’re not in session, so it’s a really good time.”

Pilots filling gaps

For the Metro Shuttle project that is ending, Lane Council of Governments received $280,000 in state funding over two years. LTD provided a 20% match of $70,000 for the project.

The new Rural Lane County Shuttle pilot project has a two-year $720,000 state grant, with LTD providing a 20% match of $180,000. 

The money allows the new pilot to expand service into rural areas of southern Lane County that currently have none: Highway 36 between Mapleton and Deadwood, and Mohawk Valley. 

Without the Metro Shuttle Service, riders will have to take an extra step if they’re headed to the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area. When the new pilot starts, riders will be transported to the Walmart in Cottage Grove or LTD’s Park & Ride lot in Creswell. At that point, they can take the transit service’s regular Route 98 bus to Eugene.

Route 98 will see an increased number of trips for more access, the transit district said. 

Michelle Thurston, a Cottage Grove resident, can drive only short distances due to a neuromuscular condition. When she doesn’t feel comfortable driving or needs to travel a longer distance, such as to Eugene, she needs transit service.

She said the most vulnerable people in the state, such as people with limited mobility or in need of trips for medical appointments, rely heavily on the service. She said she uses the service for trips to her doctor in Springfield, as well as excursions to bookstores and movies. 

“If we didn’t have LTD, we would be disconnected from the metro area of Eugene,” Thurston said. “I know a lot of neighbors who are not disabled take LTD as well. That’s their only connection.”

Inside Cottage Grove, riders have options. 

The Cottage Grove Connector, or LTD Connector, provides on-demand shuttle service within the city limits of Cottage Grove. That can serve riders who reach the Walmart dropoff. LTD officials said those services will be more available with expanded capacity for increased access to on-demand services.

The LTD also has a virtual meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20. To stay up-to-date on changes and attend the meeting, riders can visit here for more information: https://www.ltd.org/rural-shuttle-pilot/.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.