Multimedia Reporting (Bradford-Noland)

The University of Kansas Student Senate has passed a new referendum for a special election to increase transit fees to buy newer buses and create a fare free system.

The referendum includes a proposal to raise the mandatory student bus fee by $15 to create an unlimited access system to all students on campus. This would grant each student free access to KU on Wheels at all times without needing to purchase a bus pass that currently costs $150. It would also include another $20 raise in fees that would be used to buy cleaner buses that create less pollution and are better for the environment. In total, the fees would add up to an additional $35 on top of the $16 mandatory fee that students currently pay, coming to a total of $51 a semester.

The referendum passed through the Student Senate by a unanimous vote on Wednesday, Dec. 6.

“This election will allow students the chance to vote on whether or not they would like to increase their fees to increase the quality of service they would receive in regards to transit,” KU on Wheels Transportation Coordinator Jessica Mortinger said.

After passing through the Student Senate, the referendum will now be put up for a student body vote on Feb. 14 and 15.

The proposed referendum comes on the heels of a new report released by the consultant team of Dan Boyle & Associates. The report has recommended that the Lawrence city transit system merge with the university bus systems in an effort to make it easier for users to get around the city.

The suggestion of the report is to gradually merge the city-operated T-system with the university operated park-and-ride system and the student-operated KU on Wheels service. KU on Wheels would then stop selling passes to individual students, just like in the proposed referendum by the Student Senate, and instead make every student pay about $54 a semester in bus fees.

The report claims that the increase in student fees would go a long way in improving the transit system for all Lawrence residents by providing the funding necessary to make other needed improvements. These improvements include extending the hours that the city and campus buses run, creating a significant number of new routes and the use of a newly purchased fleet of buses.

The report includes four different proposals that could possibly work, although it could take up to several months for the city to decide which proposal it will go with. Because of this uncertainty, KU student senators like Mortinger remain unconvinced of what exact changes will be made.

“The consultant report is simply a recommendation, each party can choose the things they do and do not like to plan for the future,” Mortinger said.

Some members of the Student Senate, like Nathan Ladd, Effingham senior, are skeptical of whether or not a fee increase to create a free bus for all students is even necessary, regardless of whether it is the city or the student body controlling it.

“Such a small population of the campus rides the buses and I myself have never ridden on a KU bus, so I’m not sure how well it would work for KU students,” Ladd said.

Statistics show that less than 20% of KU students purchase bus passes each semester. According to a report provided by the KU Parking and Transit Department, 2,893 passes to KU on Wheels have been sold as of late November. In addition, the university has sold 915 passes for the park-and-ride lot located at Clinton Parkway and Iowa Street.

However, fears that the new park-and-ride bus that brings students, faculty and staff from the lot on West Campus to the Main Campus free of charge would result in a reduced number of students purchasing KU on Wheels passes have proved to be unfounded. Sales for the park-and-ride bus are up slightly since last year, but passes to KU on Wheels have not gone down significantly. The referendum does not include any changes to the park-and-ride system.

“The park-and-ride bus is not having an impact on KU on Wheels because there has always a park and ride before, it was just in a different location at the Lied Center, so its not much of a difference,” Mortinger said.

Any changes agreed upon by the Student Senate, University and city will still have to go through a series of logistical and planning hurdles, the greatest of which may be approval by the student body.

Students who drive their own cars to and from class are critical of the plans to raise the mandatory student transit fee.

Caleb Smith, Topeka junior, said that he pays enough for his parking permit and therefore does not think he should be made to pay for any additional mandatory bus fees.

“I find it ridiculous that I might have to pay an extra $70 a year for a bus service that most people, including myself, would never even use,” Smith said.

Transportation expert Danny Kaiser believes that the increase in student fees must be made to improve the city's transit situation. Kaiser, KU’s Assistant Director for Parking and Transit, is pleased with the results of the Boyle report and believes that its recommendations are a good roadmap for future planning with the city.

“The recommendation for the increased student bus fees are logical and will entice more students to take advantage of transit, which will result in less traffic and parking congestion,” Kaiser said.

Mortinger said that a problem with the students accepting the recommendations in the Boyle report is that the students want to keep control over their bus system at all costs.

“We would never give up control of something that we are contributing money too,” Mortinger said.

No matter what happens with the proposed changes regarding student fees, Lawrence Transit General Manager Mike Sweeten is happy to see that steps are being taken to improve the transportation options for all Lawrence residents.

“The coming together of the systems is a natural progression that would come with great benefit to both the University and the community as a whole,” Sweeten said.

“I think all the discussion about the transit systems is wonderful for the city.”

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The staff at the University of Kansas Medical Center announced last week that they are using a new blood test to quickly diagnose patients who come to the hospital complaining of chest pains.

The test is designed to provide doctors and nurses with a diagnosis of the patient’s problem within 15 minutes. Older tests that are still being used at most hospitals across the country can take up to six hours to correctly identify a cardiovascular problem.

“This test allows medical technicians to figure out the problem in a matter of minutes and begin the appropriate treatment in a more timely fashion, which can go a long way in preventing the severe damage done by a heart attack and saving the life of a patient,” said Jackie Pifer, KU Medical Center’s Chest Pain Center and Rapid Response Heart Attack Care Program Coordinator.

The test works as a rapid bedside reading of the amount of troponin in a patient’s cardiac muscle. Troponin is the protein to which calcium binds with to regulate the contraction of the muscles in the heart. A test is labeled as positive when a significant level of troponin elevation above the baseline serum level is found in the patient’s blood. This is a sign that a heart attack has started to develop.

The American College of Cardiology recommends that no more than 30 minutes pass between the time a patient comes to the hospital and when he or she receives a diagnosis. Officials at the KU Medical Center made the decision to switch to the new faster test to better satisfy this recommendation.

Despite the benefits of the new test, not all cardiologists are convinced that it can be fully trusted as the only indicator of a heart attack. Dr. Cecil James Holliman of the Penn State Hershey Medical Center said that he would recommend that any hospital that uses the new test as its major source for heart attack testing should also back the test up with other measures.

“The new test may help speed up treatment for some cases that otherwise present themselves atypically, but the test can show as negative even when the patient is definitely having an acute myocardial infarction, especially if it is in an early time frame from the onset of symptoms,” Dr. Hollinger said.

“Therefore, in most patients, we would still need to proceed with additional testing and aggressive diagnosis and treatment even if the initial test is normal or negative.”

Other physicians are even more skeptical of the effectiveness of the new test. Retired vascular surgeon and current associate at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., Dr. Richard J. Bergie does not believe that the test should be trusted at all.

“When you are talking about something as potentially serious and dangerous as a heart attack, it is much more important to gather the right information rather than just going with the quickest information that becomes available,” Dr. Bergie said.

“Although the new test may in fact be much faster, my research has shown that the risk of misdiagnosis is still too great when using this test as it is currently being used at the few hospitals that have started to utilize it.”

The staff at the KU Medical Center is aware of the risks of the new test and has taken precautions to ensure that their patients receive the best possible cardiovascular care. Pifer, who is overseeing the implementation of the test at the hospital, said that her staff is still in the process of fully developing the test.

“We have been using the new test on about 20 patients a day and have been comparing the results of the new test with the results of more traditional tests,” Pifer said.

"The results have been excellent, but we know that this single test is not perfect. Hopefully one day we can have a test that stands alone, but until then clinical judgment of a patient’s history and symptoms that they are expressing are very important in assisting in a diagnosis.”

Although not everyone agrees with the level of efficiency the new test brings, patients are happy to at least see that progress is being made in the field of cardiovascular health.

Lawrence resident Ramona Davis comes from a family with a history of heart problems and lost her 26-year-old son to an unexpected heart attack two years ago. She sees the development and use of the new test as a positive sign that steps are being taken to prevent people from having to go through what she went through.

“Eventually they will work out the kinks in the test and it will be better for everyone,” Davis said.

“I just wish they would have come up with this sooner so that my son and the countless other victims of heart attacks would have had a better chance of survival.”

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Workers in the energy conservation industry are not satisfied with the efforts being put forth by the local government to increase public awareness and participation in the energy issues.

State and local legislators, energy experts and area residents gathered on Sunday at the Douglas County Fairgrounds for the sixth annual Home Energy Conservation Fair to discuss energy conservation issues and demonstrate new advances in technology recently made in the field.

Some of the workers in the industry, such as Bill Roush of the Heartland Renewable Energy Society, left the fair unimpressed with what they heard from those in local government.

“The only way the government is ever going to help make the public more energy conscious is if they make energy savings a priority for themselves,” Roush said.

The government, mostly on the federal level, has taken some action towards encouraging the public to make their homes more energy efficient. In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act that established tax credits of up to $2,000 for builders of all new energy efficient homes. The act also includes manufactured homes constructed in accordance with the Federal Manufactured Homes Construction and Safety Standards. These state that a home is eligible for the tax credit if it meets the standards established by the Department of Energy and it is built to reduce energy consumption by 50 percent relative to other homes in that area.

Still, people in the industry think that more should be done. Gary Hogsett of Tetra Tech EM Inc. believes that energy companies like his have actually lost ground over the past decade because of the lack of public awareness on the issue.

“Hundreds of companies have introduced exciting new products that save amazing amounts of energy, but no one ever buys them so the companies soon go out of business,” Hogsett said.

He went on to say that the problem seems to be worse here in Kansas.

“The federal government has some very attractive tax credits in place to encourage energy conservation, but few people in Kansas take advantage of them. Most other states offer tax credits in addition to the federal credits, so the people in those states do a lot more of these types of projects than Kansans,” he said.

When asked what could be done to help solve these problems, Hogsett said that there were no easy solutions.

Hogsett went on to say that “people are lazy and don’t want to be inconvenienced" by doing the things that it takes to be energy efficient.

"There are no easy answers, unless we were willing to add a tax of maybe $5 per gallon on gasonline and a similarly high tax on natural gas and electricity, which we will never do for a myriad of reasons.”

Members of government don’t see things as pessimistically as people like Roush and Hogsett. Douglas County treasurer Paula Gilchrist believes that the effect of government on the issue has been overstated.

“I don’t think we can expect government incentives given the current requirements for education, social security, health care and other governmental functions,” Gilchrist said.

“It would be nice, but I think the tides are turning with or without government assistance.”

One thing that those in local government and those in the energy business do agree on is the importance of getting the message about energy conservation out to all local citizens. Michelle Crank of Lawrence’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Division thinks that it is vital to spread the word about how energy conservation is an important topic for everyone.

“Alternative energy is more reliable, adaptable, clean and attractive than it used to be,” Crank said.

“With today’s energy prices, it is also very cost effective, which should be attractive to those in the public. Energy efficiency can be incorporated at the construction phase, or modular elements can be added to existing construction, meaning everyone can get involved.”

Those who attended the fair seemed to lean towards agreeing with the people in the industry rather than the government.

“All of the new equipment they have on display here is very nice and useful, but unfortunately people like me who actually come to these types of events are already aware of energy issues,” said Dwayne O’Neal, a resident of Overland Park.

“It’s the people who don’t know anything about this that are wasting energy, which is why it’s important for the masses to be educated.”

Despite what people in the industry say, Gilcrhist thinks that the government is indeed doing its part.

“All new construction plans will incorporate environmental consciousness and energy efficiency,” she said.

“The city of Lawrence has done a wonderful job of educating the public and bringing these issues front and center.”

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With the recent drop in gas prices, companies that provide private and public transportation services are starting to feel the various financial effects, both positively and negatively.

The price of fuel is a double-edged sword for public transportation. With a steady increase in unleaded gasoline prices over the past two years came additional riders, as people who could not afford or were unwilling to pay the additional cost for fuel looked to other transportation alternatives.

Cliff Galante, an administrator for the Lawrence Transit System, said that although this would seem like a good thing for those in the transportation industry, it also has a downside.

“On the other hand, operating costs increased substantially with the rise of gas prices, breaking the budgets of many transit systems that were not prepared for the significant increases in fuel,” Galante said.

As gas prices reached record highs in late 2005, increasing to $3.50 per gallon in some states, transportation companies both large and small enjoyed never before seen success when it came to drawing in customers. From major national corporations like Amtrak and Greyhound to local bus systems in small towns, the transportation industry was seeing more customers than ever before, and companies in Lawrence were no different.

In May, the Lawrence Transit System set a single day ridership record with 2,038 trips conducted. On the average day, they provide 1,600 trips.

“With my truck, it can cost me up to $50 just to fill up the tank,” Lawrence resident Drayton Jackson said. “To me that is just too much, so I started taking the bus, and I wonder why more people haven’t done the same instead of just wasting all that money on gas.”

Fuel prices have started to come back down to normal levels over the past few weeks, providing relief to frustrated drivers like Jackson. The average cost of a gallon of unleaded gas reached a five-month low in Lawrence last week, dipping down to $2.08 per gallon. Some gas stations in the Kansas City area were selling gas as low as $1.99 per gallon.

With the steady decline in gas prices, the question is whether the money lost by a reduced number of customers is made up for by the money saved when operating and filling up the tanks of the vehicles transportation companies use to transport their customers.

The answer to this question seems to differ depending on whether it is a private or public transportation company that answers it.

Bill George is an associate for the Kansas City Transportation Group which offers airport shuttle, taxi cab and limousine services throughout eastern Kansas and western Missouri. He said that private companies like his actually make more of a profit with lower gas prices and fewer customers.

“We are definitely much better off when fuel prices are lower,” George said. “Even with fuel surcharges of 5 to 8 percent whenever the price of unleaded gas goes over $2.40 per gallon, we can’t recoup the full cost of increased fuel prices when they get up to ridiculous levels like they did last year.”

While the Kansas City Transportation Group has seen a 7 percent decrease in customers using their taxi cabs over the past month, their profits have actually risen by four percent over that span.

The major reason for private companies being better off with cheaper gas prices is that their customer bases are not influenced as greatly as those of public transportation services. George believes that this is because people use these services for reasons other than saving on fuel money.

“People are going to rely on our airport shuttle services because they are trying to avoid having to pay for long-term parking at the airport or bugging friends or relatives for a ride, not because they don’t want to spend all that money on gas,” he said.

Public transportation services are affected differently. Galante said that operations like his see more of a change in business that is tied closely to the rise and fall in gas prices.

“As a relatively young transit system, this is our sixth year in existence, we have enjoyed double digit growth in the number of riders we get annually as gas prices have gone up,” Galante said.

“Before the gas prices started to dip at the end of August, our ridership was up 15 percent from a year ago, and we were on track to provide 500,000 rides this year,” he said.

But with gas prices going down, Galante said his company is starting to see a slow decline in the number of people who use the transit system, although it is too early to see exactly what kind of financial hit the transit companies will take. Still, he remains hopeful that the Lawrence Transit System will see continued success.

“We believe that our increase in riders will continue despite cheaper gas prices because of the greater acceptance of public transportation in the community due to our significant efforts in marketing, education and public outreach,” Galante said.

George has a much more pessimistic view for the future of the industry.

“Public transit will never be profitable again due to its inherent nature, as it will always have to be subsidized in order to remain affordable to the general public,” he said. “The operators of public transit organizations need to be vigilant in keeping their costs low, although that may now be too much to ask.”

One aide for local and national transportation companies to stay successful when dealing with problems like a loss of customers due to low gas prices or an elevated amount of operating costs during times of high gas prices is the newly enacted Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users. President George Bush signed this act into law last year and it authorized federal transit and highway programs through the 2009 fiscal year.

The bill provides a record level of federal transit investment, $52.6 billion over the next five years, a 46 percent increase over the amount of funding granted in previous legislation. It also increases the annual guaranteed transit funding to $10.3 billion, a 43 percent increase that ensures long term funding stability for all public transportation services.

“The new SAFTEA-LU authorization has solidified the financing for public transit, and it will be very helpful,” George said.

Despite all of the stress caused to those who work in the transportation industry, public citizens are still the group that feels the greatest effect of the fluctuating fuel prices. Lawrence resident Allan Henderson is one of the local drivers who are fed up with being subjected to changing gas prices.

“The gas issue is a big deal because it’s something we all deal with every day,” Henderson said. “Hopefully this little dip in prices we’ve seen lately is a sign that things will be getting back to affordable levels because it really is a hassle that everyday people shouldn’t have to deal with.”

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