Rockland’s got a new local bus system.
I used it the last time I was down there. It’s called the DASH bus, and the acronym stands for Downtown Area Shuttle. Though it doesn’t exactly dash around town, it makes possible errands without a car in the spread-out Rockland commercial area.
From 7:00 a.m. to 4:50 p.m., two buses run opposite routes on the hour between the Wal-Mart in Thomaston and Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport. They often cross paths at the Custom House Place parking lot in downtown Rockland. Other stops include the ferry landing, Harbor Plaza, the Salvation Army, and the Maritime Farms convenience store on south Main Street. The bus will also stop for you along the route and let you off where you choose.
This is welcome news. It’s relatively easy to get to Rockland without a car, but less easy to get around without a car once you’re there. Residents without cars have had to use local taxis, bicycles, and their own two feet. Like many Maine cities, Rockland has favored the car by locating necessary services (like City Hall) outside the convenient reach of non-drivers.
The DASH bus is not a panacea for all the problems associated with the overuse of automobiles in mid-coast Maine, but it’s a solid start. Trains and long-distance buses can help alleviate some of the summer tourist traffic, but most of the excess use of cars comes from what traffic planners call “trip-chaining” – or in the vernacular, running errands. This is why businesses outside the immediate downtown are compelled to maintain large parking lots, free to park in, which in turn encourages more driving. But the local bus offers an alternative.
Steffanie Pyle is a community engagement facilitator with Mid-Coast Public Transportation, the Belfast-based organization that runs the bus. The DASH bus began operations in May, with little fanfare. There will be an “official grand launching” sometime in the fall, she said.
“Anecdotally, I can tell you the reception’s been good so far,” Pyle said. “We’ve had some positive feedback from riders and people in the community.”
The two buses can each carry 12 passengers and are wheelchair accessible. They’re comfortable and air-conditioned. They do not carry bike racks, but Pyle said plans are afoot to add them eventually.
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Fares are comparable to Bangor’s Community Connector. A single ride costs $2 in Rockland versus $1.50 in Bangor; a monthly pass on the DASH is $50, five dollars more than a monthly Community Connector pass. You can purchase a 12-punch card that gives you dozen rides for the price of ten; the Community Connector offers a string of six tickets for the price of five rides. But the Rockland bus service offers something Bangor doesn’t: a five-dollar day pass that allows you unlimited rides on the day you buy it. This is perfect for someone like me, in town irregularly but often, usually without a car.
I had to look up the Community Connector prices; I haven’t paid for a ride in years. The University of Maine is a pioneer in promoting public transportation. Unlike most employers, they do not provide free parking at the job site. Instead, they give away de facto bus passes, and Husson, EMCC, and Beal College have followed suit.
Could employers in the Rockland area do the same? Penobscot Bay Medical Center and Wal-Mart, the anchors of the route, employ many car commuters. If even a few of them became bus commuters instead, the roads would be a little less crowded, and drivers might be a little less inclined to treat crosswalks like yellow lights, racing to get through them ahead of pedestrians.
Like many small cities, Rockland is struggling with the transition from the Age of the Automobile to a mixed-use transportation future. Pyle described bus service in Maine as a collection of small services “all Frankensteined together – as is the funding.” Money comes from sources including federal grants, local matching funds, donations, and fares paid by riders. “The ultimate goal is to connect all these services together,” Pyle said.
I agree. It should be possible to take the Community Connector to the Concord Coach depot in Bangor, get on a bus to Rockland, meet the DASH bus at the ferry terminal, and reverse the process at the end of the day – in either direction. We’re not quite there yet. But it’s coming.
Public transportation serves older people aging out of cars, but it also helps to keep young people – the post-automotive generation – in the state and in the work force. People want human-scale, pedestrian friendly communities. Buses are a big part of that picture.
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