Introduction

For over 50 years, the City of Albuquerques Transit system has moved hundreds of
thousands of citizens and tourists throughout the city taking them to their destinations
safely. Whether it be to the hottest eatery in town or to the many historical sites located
within our great city, the bus system has connected people to other parts without the use
or need of a private vehicle. That being said the system has not always been reliable to be
on time to your desired location, leaving many residents reluctant to ride the bus. We are
writing on behalf of the citizens of Albuquerque, through the foundation savert66, to the
transportation department of Albuquerque because we believe that the ART project is a
waste of government spending. If the reliability, consistency and overall welfare of the
bus system increased, the citizens in Albuquerque may then be more likely to utilize our
system that is already in place instead of setting up a completely new system. This
document proposes a review and renovation to our already existing transit system. The
proposed renovation will use the recently granted federal Small Starts Capital Grant to
revise and help restructure the already existing system to be more efficient. Included in
this paper is our solution to the renovation, our qualifications, as well as a cost/benefit
analysis of our proposed solution.

Statement of Problem
Over the same 50 years that the transit system has been servicing our community, there
have been concerns from the citizens about consistency, reliability and the overall
condition of our system. Inhabitants of Albuquerque that do not have personal vehicles
are unable to rely on the transit system forcing many of them to use other modes of

transportation, often keeping these people from holding a job. It also deters tourists from
using the system and leaves many of those same tourists with negative views of our great
city.

Recently the City of Albuquerque received a Small Start Capital Grant of the Federal
Transit Administration (FTA), giving the city more than 100 million dollars for
construction and beautification of the system and its stops. However, the citys current
proposed action may not address the true issues behind what plagues our transit system.
The purposed plan is the ART project and this project may cause additional problems for
those who currently use Central Ave for access to either work or home.

The proposed actions will shut down parts of central for construction causing problems
with accessibility to both business and residences of Albuquerque for citizens and tourists
alike. There will be fewer places to park in an already crowded part of the city. The
project does not address the issues surrounding the number of buses we already have in
place and the transportation they provide. It does not address the inconsistency of the bus
schedule or adherence to that schedule. Without addressing these issues they would
continue to plague our unreliable transit system that already exists. Among the
frequently asked questions about the ART project, is how will it affect my business
during the proposed construction? Is it necessary when we already have routes dedicated
just to run along central? Will the buses interfere with traffic? Will buses be on time
because of these changes?

Citizens of Albuquerque are worried that the actions proposed by the city government do
not address the real issues that make the system ineffective. Valued thoughts brought to
us by the community both in and around the neighborhoods surrounding Central. These
concerned citizens are worried that the ART project was more of a way to bring tourists
then improve the transit system. Although no one person may be able to tell the future,
we believe the money given to the city by the Federal government could be used to
rejuvenate, refresh and revamp our current, stale, unreliable transit system.

Solution
As part of the Savert66 foundation we would like to improve the current transportation
system rather than start over completely. We propose using the 100 million dollars to
make the Albuquerque transportation system better and more appealing to tourists and
citizens without being an inconvenience to the business owners and residences along
central. The money will be able to go a lot further in advancing the appeal and
convenience of the system already in place than it would to start completely over and
make a new system. The money would not go to just the transportation system itself but
also to the buildings and landscape of downtown and uptown. The ART project is
proposing this new system to make Albuquerque a more desirable and in the now location
to live. But we believe that using the money to refurbish ABQ ride, the buildings and
landscape would be for more beneficial for the citizens of Albuquerque and would full
fill the problems that the ART project is trying to answer.

Step 1: Smaller/Convenient Buses

First we propose that the money goes to adding more buses to the ABQ Rapid Ride
system. These busses would be smaller and more convenient for the individuals using it.
There will be a yearly fee that will keep the busses clear of the homeless and other
individuals that make the Albuquerque transit system less desirable. There will also be a
day and week pass that can be bought by tourists and people traveling for business.
These busses will only stop at bus stops where the people riding it need to stop. The
fewer stops and smaller size busses, more like shuttles, will increase the desirability and
convenience of the ABQ Rapid Ride.

Step 2: All night buses

These shuttles will also run all night because many people who do not have vehicles are
forced to work their schedules around the buses that only run till about 8 pm. This new
shuttle system will make the ABQ Rapid Ride system quicker and cleaner due to the
higher price of the system. The money used from the day, week and year passes will be
used to pay the drivers that must work the night shifts and also for increase in number of
bus drivers. The day and weekly passes will be great for people on vacation wanting to
see the historic Route 66. With the higher prices the system will take care of itself after
the initial money from the federal grant is invested in it. This solves the problems the
ART project is trying to solve without destroying the system already in place. If we
update the landscaping and buildings along Route 66 with keeping the historic look in
mind we can increase the number of tourists and desirability of Albuquerque even
further.

Step 3: Beautification
The last step would be to hire architects and engineers to redesign the buildings and
landscapes of central avenue to give it a more desirable and big city look that will bring
more people and more businesses to the central avenue corridor. Money would also be
given as grants to businesses that would be predicted to bring more consumers and people
to the area for recreation. If there was higher end shops, clothing stores and other
trendier places in the area it would bring more consumers and more life to the already
busy area. The additional buses added to the ABQ Rapid Ride would accommodate the
increase in foot traffic of the central avenue area. They would also decrease traffic
because it would be more convenient to use the busses and this would reduce the
congestion that is usually present in the downtown and university areas of Albuquerque.

Conclusion of Solution
By increasing the number of busses and making them more enjoyable to travel in,
bringing higher end shops and a new look to the area would accomplish everything the
ART project is trying to accomplish and more. The money can not only be used to make
a more desirable transit system but create a more desirable downtown and uptown area
that brings more people to Albuquerque. We should not waste the federal grant on
starting all over when we can just fix a broken system and use the rest to accomplish
more than creating a new system ever could.

Qualifications
We are writing on behalf of the citizens of Albuquerque and more specifically as
members who would be most affected by the constructions and plans of the purposed
ART project. We have set up a website, savert66.org, and are receiving signatures daily
for a petition against the ART project through our website and people are free to post
their concerns and ideas about what should be done about central and the transportation
system along with alternative suggestions. Who is more qualified to suggest solutions
and additional problems with the transportation than the people living along central? We
have read through all the posts and have concluded that the above solutions would be
most cost effective and the best solutions to the problems stated earlier.

Cost/Benefit
To conclude this proposal, we will reiterate and summarize the parameters of our plan
and discuss the cost and benefits. The ART project proposed by the City of Albuquerque
calls for a light rail system to be built that will run the entire length of Central Avenue
from Tramway to Unser. This area is known as the Route 66 corridor of Albuquerque and
is known to be historic and a prominent tourist attraction in New Mexico. The
construction of this new rapid transit system will take twelve years and will make all of
Central a nightmare to navigate through for the next twelve years. This project will affect
traffic and commerce throughout the city due to increased traffic congestion, especially
downtown and near UNM. This project will also negatively impact businesses in Nob
Hill and the neighboring communities that are near the construction zone. We believe that
the better solution to Albuquerque public transit dilemma is to put more money and effort

into improving the current Rapid Ride bus system that is already in place. However, we
proposed quite a few changes to the bus system.

Recently the City of Albuquerque received a Small Start Capital Grant of the Federal
Transit Administration (FTA) for the amount of 100 million dollars. The money is
intended to make the bus stations and the public transit system in general more appealing
to tourists. The parameters of our proposal include a redesign of the buses into smaller
shuttles that run more frequently, reconstruction and beautification of the buildings and
architectural landscapes that lie within the Central avenue corridor, and to hire more bus
drivers and train them better so they our system can operate to its full potential. Logically
speaking the 100 million dollar budget granted by the FTA should be divided based on
necessity of the parameter. We have decided that 40 million dollars should be used
towards shuttle
design and safety
updates. We also
decided that 10
million dollars
would be spent
towards hiring and
training more bus drivers. Finally, we decided that half of the budget would be dedicated
towards the reconstruction and beautification of the city because that will be the most
obvious change and positive attribute to the city.

The outcomes of our proposal are only positive and very beneficial for the City of
Albuquerque. Reducing the bus sizes to that of shuttles will increase the enjoyment and
convenience of the ride. Increasing the size of the bus fleet will result in more frequent
stops per day and will also be more flexible with the average schedule. We also propose
to make the bus service 24/7 to increase the rider rate. This will attract people that work
at night and will cause more people to rely on public transportation to get to and from
work. We also plan to invest in hiring and training many new bus drivers to ensure that
this system will perform at its full potential. The introduction of day and week passes will
be beneficial for everyday commuters and will promote tourism. We also plan to slightly
increase bus fares to maintain the high quality of this system. Finally, reconstruction and
beautification of the cityscape around the Route 66 corridor and remodeling the bus
stations will make the city better looking and more desirable as a whole, which will in
turn promote tourism. We believe that this is the best solution to Albuquerques public
transportation crisis.
Thank you for giving our organization a chance to express our ideas and solutions with
you. Our team is more than willing to collaborate in any way possible. If you have any
concerns or suggestions please contact me at bspitzer@unm.edu.

References
"Letter to Mayor Berry, City Councillors, and Citizens of Albuquerque - Save Route 66
Central." Save Route 66 Central. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
"Newsroom." Media. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.