The future of public transportation in Mountain Brook

Public transportation in the city of Mountain Brook is “not what we want it to be,” City Manager Sam Gaston said.

There is one fixed route in the city that runs from downtown Birmingham through Mountain Brook Village and English Village. In 2019, the city approved a microtransit zone, which uses smaller, neighborhood-friendly shuttle buses to pick up riders at the Central Station in downtown Birmingham and drop them off at a requested address or pick them up at the address and return them to the Central Station. All routes are maintained by the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority.

In total, the city’s budgeted amount for fiscal 2022 was about $14,600 a month.

Gaston said many of those who use the service in the city are those who work in the city but don’t live there.

There is a lot of “indirect benefit” to increased public transportation, Gaston said, from freeing up congestion to making people less dependent on cars. It also adds “vitality” to the community.

Still, the city has previously lost routes that went from one end of the city to another as the city had to reduce its investment in the transit authority, Gaston said.

As the city approaches the new fiscal year, the goal is to be efficient and not waste taxpayer money, he said.

There are plans in place to increase both the efficiency and opportunities provided through the transit authority, said BJCTA Executive Director Charlotte Shaw.

As cities gear up for budget discussions, Shaw said she plans on holding “Transit 101,” helping cities understand that the decisions they make need to be made with the region in mind, not just their municipality. Otherwise, a series of disconnected routes and inconsistencies form.

“That’s not how we’re going to grow transit,” Shaw said.

The transit authority is preparing a proposal to expand options in the over-the-mountain area and plans to present those options to the BJCTA board for approval before presenting the plan to the various cities involved, Shaw said. The authority also has reached out to contractors to inquire about possibly providing an on-demand service, Shaw said. She hopes to provide greater connectivity throughout the Birmingham region, she said.

“We have a lot of room for growth,” Shaw said.

Any changes made to zones and routes throughout cities must be approved by each municipality. Shaw said the authority will not recommend eliminating routes but providing more options.

With so many options for transit, from personal transportation to on-demand services like Uber and Lyft, Shaw said the BJCTA must be more competitive. While buses will always see riders who use them out of necessity due to lack of transportation, the authority is now competing for “discretionary” riders, Shaw said.

“We have to get the rider to choose us,” Shaw said. “It’s about reliability and predictability.”

Expansion in the over-the-mountain area is a goal for Shaw, she said, including possibly expanding to areas like Trussville and growing in existing cities that receive service.

The Birmingham Xpress Rapid-Transit line will be a “game-changer” in Birmingham, moving east from west to connect 25 neighborhoods along a 10-mile corridor between Five Points West and Woodlawn. The system uses BRT technology to improve travel time, lower costs and enhance service, and crosses 80,000 jobs. Buses will run in 15-minute intervals, Shaw said.

The goal is for service to begin in late September, Shaw said.

The transit authority is also looking to add more complementary services and more targeted areas of service. For example, downtown ridership decreases after 7 p.m. So instead of running large buses that don’t get filled, there could be a service that allows the few people who aren’t home yet to catch a van that seats 20 people, increasing efficiency, Shaw said.

Public transportation helps keep “synergy” between communities, allowing people to access different communities instead of each city existing as a silo, she said.

“It’s vital because we have to be able to connect people all over Birmingham,” Shaw said.

Increasing opportunities and services offers a chance to make public transportation strong again, the way it used to be “before freeways and cars,” Shaw said.

Ridership increased a bit over the summer due to high gas costs, which were slowly coming down as of press time. Not only that, but The World Games, held throughout the Birmingham area in July, showed that people will get on the bus. The red line from 20th Street to Protective Stadium downtown saw 11,000 people ride for the closing ceremonies alone, Shaw said.

“People are willing; they’re waiting on a larger event,” Shaw said.

Benefiting the environment is another key factor to public transportation, Shaw said. The transit authority is making an effort to move more and more to electric buses, lowering emissions.

“Our environment is really important,” Shaw said. “And we are our biggest enemies.”

Shaw lived in Atlanta for 38 years and asked if Birmingham wanted to become like that city, infamous for its traffic congestion, in the next five years.

“We have to stay ahead of the curve,” Shaw said.

But if residents are going to rely on public transportation and lower traffic congestion, the service must be convenient and reliable, Shaw said. Expansion isn’t possible until options become convenient, such as getting down U.S. 280 faster.

The transit authority is constrained financially, as Alabama is one of just a handful of states that does not provide any state funding for public transportation, Shaw said. The authority does receive $2 million each year from a county sales tax, which was issued several years ago to pay back the selling of bonds, along with other sources of revenue such as funding from local municipalities. Part of her work as the executive director is to build relationships and increase the funding they do get, as well as submitting grant applications. More federal money is available now due to the recently-passed infrastructure bill.

“For the next three years, money will come quickly,” Shaw said. “We’ve got our catcher’s mitt on.”

Some money is available through the newly-announced “Reconnecting Communities” initiative, unveiled this summer in Birmingham by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The grant provides federal dollars to reconnect communities disadvantaged by past infrastructure projects, and the city of Birmingham will be taking part in the program, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said at the event with Buttigieg.

Public transportation provides connectivity between historically different neighborhoods, allowing for even greater unity in the area decades after Birmingham’s role in the civil rights movement.

“There’s no better way to connect people … in various neighborhoods,” Shaw said.