Downtown Baton Rouge has been undergoing a facelift since 1998. It has injected Live After Five concerts to create more of an evening life, nipped away at the curve of Government Street by removing a lane and adding parking and converted one-way streets into two-ways. Baton Rouge is scraping away the wrinkles away to reveal a dazzling new look.
But Plan Baton Rouge’s 10-year strategy to revitalize downtown is entering its eighth year, and as Baton Rouge attempts to become a large, urban entity, it lacks one major component: reliable public transit.
Our city regards public transit as something for those that are dependent on the system and have no other method for getting around. Capital Area Transit System needs to expand to the discretionary riders, those who opt for mass transit.
Here’s what CATS has to operate on: $12.5 million from federal, state and local government.
Currently, Federal Emergency Management Agency has given us an extra $47 million, which expires Mar. 18 but hopefully will be renewed. However, the main focus of this money is to provide emergency service to those displaced.
CATS simply does not have the means to be New York or Washington, D.C. With the budget going into the red every year, CATS raised fares (student fares remain free) from $1.25 to $1.75 on Jan. 1. Service is infrequent; times are not even posted for when buses plan to arrive at a stop. With the current state of traffic, one could get on a bus and simply wait behind other cars. But why ride it? There are no incentives. I’d rather wait in my car jamming out to some Belle & Sebastian.
CATS CEO Dwight Brashear, who orchestrated the new buses for Baton Rouge, selected a new color scheme and added security cameras on buses, said that the perception of mass transit is negative.
“Transit is not as efficient as your own car. You are giving up a little of your flexibility,” said Brashear.
However, the potential for public transportation is huge. More people would be on a bus, less on the road. The flow of traffic would be easier to coordinate with phased stoplights.
CATS is working on being able to bypass traffic on Interstate 10 and Interstate 12 by driving on the shoulders. They are trying to implement Park-N-Ride, which proposes five new routes including Hammond and Gonzalez.
I would love to see our city connected by zooming blue and yellow buses, people opting for public transit over private. It would help so many problems from traffic to pollution; however, public transit is a major glitch that everyone seems to be overlooking.
OK, downtown is together. Let’s get people there. Who cares about a new skyline downtown? Put some of the money into more incentives for riding the bus, creating transit arrival information and increasing awareness so people can help take advantage and modify the pretty decent system we already have.
“I have a vision,” said Brashear. “But it’s not enough for one man to have a vision. It takes an entire community. I can’t do it by myself.”
 
Laura is a communication studies senior. Contact her at [email protected]