Bus Service Here in Tijuana
By now you’ve heard the bad news: Island County Transit will cancel all routes this summer in hopes of bringing fiscal responsibility to the beleaguered service. The five person Transit Board making the decision — all from Whidbey Island — voted unanimously to bring costs in line by curtailing service here which purportedly cost twice as much per mile per rider than on Whidbey. When questioned on how that figure was derived, a spokesman said it was obvious since Camano is twice as far from the county seat as any place on Whidbey. “Truth is,” the spokesperson declared, “only one of the Board has ever been to Camano, it’s too far to hold meetings.”
Another recommendation by the Board was to rename the bus system Whidbey Transit, presumably to reduce confusion over here in Tijuana that bus service might still be county-wide. A board member who spoke off the record argued that since most Camano riders didn’t own a vehicle, traffic would not be appreciably impacted. “Plus,” she added, “it should actually decrease slightly with less buses plying the Camano routes.” When asked how those vechicle-less riders would get to their jobs, she said they could always move to Oak Harbor. “Rents are cheaper here in town, I’ve been told.”
Needless to say, the South End Economic Council refused to take this lying down. Plans are in the works to create a South End Shuttle Service serving rideless residents. “Kind of an Uber-bus prototype,” Ralph Flatulenz, current president of the council, was quoted. “Course, we would probably have trucks and SUV’s, not buses. We’re still in preliminary planning. Maybe we could share school buses,” he said. “Be good for the kids to have some extra adult supervision. Although I hear rumors that school buses might also be taken out of circulation on Camano. Stanwood has its own budget problems, same as Whidbey.” Or maybe we could just stop sending Camano kids to school.
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