TAXI OWNERS SAY CITY BUS SERVICE NOT NEEDED, WON'T WORK IN CAPE

Several people at recent hearings on the city's transportation needs said the time is ripe for the city to offer an expanded public transportation system.

But the former operator of a Paducah bus service who currently runs a taxi company here says a bus service won't work in Cape Girardeau.

"People just don't want to walk the extra block to catch a bus the way they used to," said Curtis Kelley, who drove a bus for the Cape Transit Co. in the 1940s and 1950s. "A bus system never worked before, and it won't work now, because it's just too expensive and not enough people would use it."

After Cape Transit went broke in 1969, Kelley joined with his late son, Claude A. "Nip" Kelley III, to buy eight buses and attempted to operate the service in Paducah. After a four-year run, however, the Kelleys realized the taxi business was the only profitable venture.

Currently Cape Girardeau provides a taxi voucher system as a form of public transportation. But proponents of improved service at the meetings being conducted by Vision 2000, a community improvement organization, have questioned whether the taxi coupon system meets the needs of the city's elderly, handicapped and people without their own vehicles.

The taxi coupon system enables senior citizens and disabled people to obtain a booklet with 16 coupons a month for $16. Others can purchase the coupons at $2 per coupon.

Kelley Transportation Co., which operates the taxi program, is subsidized $2.50 a coupon through a program of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department.

There is a need for public transportation for those who don't have vehicles or can't operate them, City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said. However, Fischer thinks the taxi coupon system is by far the most economically sound system.

"When you talk about the return on your dollar and the number of riders," the coupon system is best, he said.

Curtis Kelley's grandson, Terrence Kelley, runs Kelley Transportation. He said a taxi ride within the city limits for $1 is a bargain and emphasized a taxi service operates 24 hours a day. A bus system would operate on a limited time schedule.

But convenience is the biggest factor. "When you think that we're picking each passenger up at their door and delivering them to their doctor or the mall, it's hard to beat," Terrence Kelley said.

Critics said they often run out of coupons before the end of the month, which means walking or doing without.

The Community Caring Council conducted a transit study in 1993. The study was prepared by the Southeast Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission.

The study revealed many clients of human service agencies didn't qualify for the $1-a-ride taxi coupons because they were neither elderly nor disabled.

The study also showed many people who use local service agencies couldn't afford to buy a car and would benefit from a fixed-route bus system to go to school, seek employment and tend to health care needs.

The transit study discussed several alternatives for funding expanded transportation services. One option was to state money allocated for community transit services. Another was to issue a half-cent transportation tax that would also pay for street improvements and extensions.

Street improvements generally have been the focus of the Vision 2000 hearings.

The Community Caring Council study concluded that it would be wise to retain the existing taxi-coupon system, because it is used primarily by the elderly and disabled.

In 1993 taxi coupons worth $70,568 were used by the elderly, while only $5,896 worth of coupons were used by the general public.

Under a federal grant administered by the state, the city purchases the maximum taxi coupons allowed. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Department reimburses the city for 50 percent of the operating losses generated by the program.

Public use of the taxi coupons in 1995 is ahead of last year's pace. From July to March, citizens have bought 61,712 taxi coupons.

Kelley said that rather than look toward a public transportation system, the city should consider alternatives.

"We lease three shuttle buses to Southeast Missouri State University that just sit during the summer months," he said. "There could be a way to make those buses available."

The community council study proposed a concept of a public/private partnership in which private industry would subsidize existing transportation funding for a new public transportation system. The system could be developed and delivered by the current provider, Kelley Transportation.

A study conducted by the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission in 1992 put the cost of beginning a fixed-route light vehicle transit bus system at around $283,000. The city would be responsible for $29,730 of the cost of acquiring the vehicles. The recommended fare was $1 a ride.

There also are ways for the elderly and disabled to obtain a ride in Cape Girardeau County for free. Cape County Transit, a not-for-profit organization subsidized by the American Automobile Association and the state highway department, has three vans to transport passengers. One van is equipped to transport wheelchair passengers.

Cape County Transit's assistant manager, Gene Cunningham, said the company serves about 25 people in the county each day. "Kelley takes care of people in the city, and we handle the ones who need rides in the county."

However, riders must schedule the service a day or two ahead of time.