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Bus riders ready alternatives on the eve of a potential strike
by Art Hughes, Minnesota Public Radio
March 1, 2004

(MPR Photo)

Neither the bus drivers union nor Metro Transit officials are optimistic about breaking an impasse over wages and health benefits before Tuesday's strike deadline. Transportation officials say the best way to avoid gridlock if there is a strike is to plan ahead.

Minneapolis, Minn. — Employers and transportation officials in the Twin Cities are not waiting on word of a strike to prepare.

Corporations have started bulletin boards and computer links to match potential car-pool riders and some are loosening work schedules for employees whose commute routines might shift.

	Joe Klenken

Joe Klenken is a regulatory specialist with Center Point Energy Minnegasco and one of the more than 100 of the company's 600 employees in downtown Minneapolis who regularly ride the bus to work.

"I've been contacted by a fellow employee who lives in Brooklyn Park where I'm from and they've already contacted me and gotten a list of employees in our area and I'm going to ride with them," Klenken said. "So I'm going to car pool."

Klenken has ridden the bus to work for more than 25 years. His company, like many others in downtown Minneapolis, offer discounted monthly bus passes as an incentive to leave cars at home. Klenken pays about $40 a month for his MetroPass. That's a significant savings compared to parking which costs around $250 dollars a month in the downtown core, and car maintenance and gas.

Such incentives have boosted transit ridership to 42% of Minneapolis commuters, according to MetroTransit figures.

Teresa Wernecke with the Downtown Minneapolis Transportation Management Organization said employers who expect workers to be at their desks if bus drivers walk off the job shouldn't wait to hear about the strike on the news.

	Teresa Wernecke

"If in fact the strike is called and we're given very little notice, one or two days notice or even less, then I think we'll have some significant problems because people will be caught off guard unless they're proactive," Wernecke said.

Wernecke's offfice conducted a survey related to the last transit strike in 1995. She says planning helped prevent a traffic disaster when drivers walked off the job for three weeks..

"I think we'll have some significant problems because people will be caught off guard unless they're proactive." - Teresa Wernecke, Executive Director of the Downtown Minneapolis Transportation Management Organization

"We found that there wasn't nearly the impact that we had assumed," she said. "And I think that a lot of that had to do with the fact that there was lead time to prepare for it. It was mild weather and people kind of took the initiative. They rode the bikes, walked, car pooled."

But Warnecke warns an increase in downtown employees since 1995 and unpredictable weather are factors that could make traffic worse this time around.

No matter what, officials expect more people to drive cars. If there's a strike, the city of Minneapolis plans to post parking availability on its Web site, according to John Wertjes, Assistant Director of Traffic and Parking Services.

"We're expecting there will be some increased need for parking and so we'll be trying to steer people in correct direction rather than having them circulate inefficiently around the downtown looking for parking and potentially causing some traffic impacts," Wertjes said.

City traffic police could be deployed if downtown traffic becomes snarled.

More than 15,000 students and faculty at the University of Minnesota use some type of bus pass. Bill Stahlmann, Transit Manager for the U of M said bus pass users will get a parking discount during the strike.

"We're encouraging people to car-pool," Stahlmann said. "Also we've opened up more carpool lots on campus so if a MetroPass holder or U-Pass customer shows that U-Pass or Metro Pass they'll be able to park in some of our lots on campus for a reduced carpool rate."

Stahlmann said the University has more than 1000 extra parking spaces at the fairgrounds if needed. If there is a strike, many commuters like Joe Klenken say they should be able to work around it---for a while.

"I'm in a position to weather it without much trouble," Klenken said. "But it depends on how long the strike would go whether I consider it more than just an inconvenience or not."

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