Public transit a savior, burden for epileptic Cedar Rapids man

CEDAR RAPIDS - Aaron Lynch's overnight shift at Wal-Mart on Blairs Ferry Road ends at 7 a.m. sharp. A minute later, and he could miss his bus, which would set the whole day back.

On a Thursday earlier this month, Lynch clocked out and hustled through a dark morning fog as an icy drizzle beat up from his bright yellow Iowa Hawkeye jacket. The No. 6 public transit bus collects at the east edge of the parking lot at 7:06 a.m. It would be another hour before the No. 6 and the transfer with No. 4 align to get back home.

'It's just so time-consuming,” said Lynch, 38, who has been dependent on busing for eight years since losing his driver's license due to an epileptic seizure.

The transportation services, such as Cedar Rapids Transit and Neighborhood Transportation Service (NTS), are a love-hate relationship for Lynch. They provide some of the independence craved by those without vehicles, but regular users such as Lynch find inefficiencies and limitations that make life a struggle.

The whole public transit system is under review as part of a $166,385 metro-wide public transit study to analyze and find solutions to improve and possibly expand service.

Parsons Brinckerhoff, a consultant based in Kansas City, Kan., is conducting the study to analyze existing conditions, revenue per mile, ridership, secondary services such as NTS and LIFTS, and conduct public input surveys. The study began in December.

Open houses for input are scheduled for noon and 5:30 p.m., Feb. 16, at the Ground Transportation Center. People can also provide input by participating in a transit survey.

The report is expected to be finalized in late May. The recommendations will inform cost-neutral changes, such as realigning routes, said Brandon Whyte, multimodal transportation planner for Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization.

'The report will be used to take a fresh look at the transit system,” he said. 'Does the geographic footprint of the transit system make sense?”

Bigger changes could be on the horizon as the Corridor MPO shifts money to public transportation, $1 million a year for four years beginning in 2021 - up from zero, Whyte said. That could mean new bus shelters, new waiting pads for riders, additional buses and better service, he said.

The money should make a noticeable dent for Cedar Rapids Transit, which has an annual budget of $9.1 million, and possibly for secondary services such as NTS, which has an annual budget of $802,000.

‘It's really hard'

Lynch accounts for dozens of the 1.4 million Cedar Rapids Transit rides and 4,842 NTS rides each year. NTS fills in gaps after hours of existing transit, and generally serves riders without other means of transportation to get to school or work.

He also has used Uber, taxis and Riders Club.

Lynch spent about $150 on busing this month, including about a dozen $3 daylong bus passes with Cedar Rapids Transit and 10 $5 rides from NTS.

Winter is especially hard on Lynch. He would be trapped without public transit. Buses are his lifeline to work, getting groceries, running errands and reaching appointments.

Buses are almost always on time, he said. Between Cedar Rapids Transit and NTS, there's 24/7 service except for six days a year, and he can get him just about anywhere in the city.

Lynch's experiences also highlight some of the flaws, such as a bicycle-spoke-looking route layout where all lines lead downtown - and as a result, a lot of wasted time. It's also hard and extremely costly for him to leave Cedar Rapids.

The former high school wrestler has two season tickets to Iowa Hawkeye wrestling, and he usually uses one for a friend who can give him a ride. But on other occasions, such as for one meet late last year, he took Cedar Rapids Transit to The Eastern Iowa Airport and paid $40 for a shuttle to Iowa City.

'It's really hard on me living this way,” Lynch said. 'I feel like I'm in a halfway house.”

Lynch doesn't have much choice. He lost his license in 2008 after a seizure caused him to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a telephone pole. It was minor enough he worked that night at Wal-Mart, where he's been employed for 14 years, most recently stocking the canned-foods aisle.

Iowa law requires people prone to seizures be free of an episode for six months before reapplying for a license. Lynch is on a new schedule of medications and hopes eventually to get his license again. But his clock restarted after seizure in December.

For now he's at the mercy of buses, the weather and generosity of friends.

Lynch lives alone in a condo about a five-minute drive from Wal-Mart. He bikes most of the year and even through bitter cold. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes to bike to work, and he often combines modes by using the buses' bike racks, he said.

In the dead of winter, though, when the snow spills out to the bike and vehicle lanes, it's too dangerous to bike, he said.

Forty-five minutes

The recent Thursday was a typical day of busing for Lynch. Leaving work, he rode the No. 6 to the corner of 42nd Street and Center Point Road where he got off, crossed the street to an icy sidewalk and waited 10 minutes to catch the No. 4 bus westbound on 42nd toward his home. He had to scramble over snow banks to get on the bus at some stops.

In all takes about 45 minutes to get from work to home.

He uses Cedar Rapids new RideCRT smartphone app, which allows bus users to look up schedules and see in real-time when the bus is due to arrive, although he knows many of the schedules by heart.

A little later, Lynch caught the 8:45 a.m. bus downtown to replenish his NTS punchcard at the main office at 819 Fifth St. SE. NTS drivers don't carry cash but can take checks or money orders for new punchcards.

After purchasing the punchcard, Lynch walked to the Ground Transportation Center. He missed the 9:20 a.m. No. 4 bus to get home by a few minutes, so he waited for the 10:20 a.m. bus. He didn't get back home until nearly 11 a.m.

Some days, it feels as if the whole day is spent on or waiting for the bus, he said.

Cedar Rapids Transit stops service by 7 p.m., so Lynch relies on NTS to get to the start of his Wal-Mart shift in the evenings. Those rides are arranged ahead of time, and if necessary must be canceled one hour in advance.

The service allows Lynch to work a third shift, which he prefers because of his medical condition, but it's been frustrating at times, too, he said.

He is supposed to be ready for pick up 10 minutes early, but the orientation of his condo doesn't allow him to see when the bus arrives. The bus will leave if he's not there within a few minutes, causing some missed rides, he said.

'Another time they were 30 minutes late and there's no communication telling me they are here,” he said. 'It's one-way communication.”

Mike Barnhart, executive director of NTS, agrees the service is not perfect, but it is staffed by people who genuinely care about getting people to work, 'not leaving them behind.”

He said NTS plans to roll out within the next three months a text system to 'bridge the communication gap” that will allow drivers to send basic messages such as 'we're here,” 'we're leaving” or 'on the way.”

'When it's 20 below zero, we are out there picking people up,” Barnhart said. 'When it's snowing, we're out there picking people up.

'In 15 years, only three times we've had to stop service because of weather. We are working hard to get people to work.”