Transit District Option - a sidebar to WSU Today article 4/12-07
Nils Peterson
http://groups.google.com/group/SaveTheBus/browse_thread/thread/fc76bbfe15757b2d/?hl=en#
also contained a sidebar story that is very important to understanding
a path to expand the regional bus service:
The two-state transit option
Would the future of the intercampus bus be secured
through creation of a two-state transit agency to manage
the system? The exact impact of a cooperative system across
the Idaho-Washington border is uncertain, but creating two-
state bus service with stable funding is possible, according
to Don Chartock, project development coordinator of the
Washington State Department of Transportation in Olympia.
"If the people want to, then nothing will stop it," he ex-
plained. "We just have to figure out how it will work."
Chartock noted that local governments and universities
can form public transportation benefit authorities to fund
and manage public transit systems. Then those local agencies
can create inter-local agreements to combine management
and ownership with other agencies nearby, even across
state lines.
The recent creation of a transit system for both Lewiston,
Idaho, and neighboring Clarkston, Wash., followed that
model, he said. "If there is interest in this idea," Chartock
said, "our office exists to help brainstorm the options."