COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION GOOD IDEA

A report being prepared by the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission at the request of the Cape Girardeau County Commission will conclude what county officials have known for a long time: A hodgepodge of transportation services operate in Cape County, yet many people can't get a ride when they need one.

The report will recommend that the county take the lead in working with all of the transportation services to set up a single system of vehicles that can be called upon at any time by people in need of a ride. It also will recommend that a central dispatching system be set up and that the dispatching either be handled by the county or under contract with a private company.

The report comes after county commissioners over the past couple of years had heard numerous complaints from older residents that they have no transportation. The commission believes that shouldn't be a problem in view of all the transportation services in the county.

Each of the following operate buses, shuttles, buses and shuttles or taxis, but serve only specified groups: VIP Industries, Cape Girardeau's taxi coupon program, Cape County Transit Service and Southeast Missouri State University's shuttle systems for Eldercare and student transportation. In addition, a number of churches and retirement centers provide shuttle services for their members, and East Missouri Action Agency uses buses for its Head Start program.

The county buys vans for some agencies, and the vans are not rolling all the time. Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones' suggestion that they could be made available for public use when not in use by the agencies is a good one that could provide a starting place for a public transportation system.

Last year alone, almost $1 million in state, federal, local and private funds were allocated for public transportation in Cape County. Those agencies provided almost 400,000 trips in the county, and that number doesn't include all of the taxi runs in Cape Girardeau. That is evidence of the need for countywide public transportation.

As the county continues to study possibilities, it will find that some government grants for transportation equipment and services specify how the money must be used and who must be served. Those types of grants discourage rather than encourage expansion to a public system, and those agencies might be better off finding other ways of funding their transportation services.

Any public transportation service would have to be operated on a pay-as-you-ride basis, and the county could very well find that the generated revenue would cover the cost of establishing a centralized dispatching service.

The work toward offering public transportation has just begun, but the need exists and will continue to grow.