Residents Oppose Park Bus System

Officials want a plan to reduce traffic in Yosemite Park.

by Bob White
The Modesto Bee - December 8, 1998

MERCED - The agency trying to develop a regional bus system to help relieve traffic congestion in Yosemite National Park took a tongue-lashing Monday from some residents and business owners along Highway 41.

Their message to the management board of the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation Strategy, or YARTS, was that there are enough tour buses belching diesel fumes in Oakhurst and Fish Camp.

But local counties will have the final say on what type of bus service, if any, will be provided along each of the four highway corridors into Yosemite, said Bonnie Nelson, a transportation-planning consultant for YARTS.

"If a community says there will be no bus stops there," she said, "YARTS doesn't have the authority to say there will."

A representative of the Yosemite Restoration Trust chastised the Highway 41 group.

"Yosemite is a national park, not a neighborhood park," Janet Cobb said. "If you don't want to get on a bus, don't. But give us, who do want to, the chance."

The public agency's governing board is made up of one representative each from the boards of supervisors in Tuolumne, Mono, Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties, plus one Yosemite representative.

The YARTS board decided several months ago to start a voluntary busing system into Yosemite next summer, complete with passenger staging areas at various points along highways 41 and 140, eastbound Highway 120 in Tuolumne County and westbound 120 in Mono County.

In October, however, YARTS officials decided they couldn't have the system operational in time to meet that schedule, so they postponed it.

Among the business scheduled during Monday's board meeting was a YARTS request to negotiate revisions of the scope of work assigned to Nelson and her consulting firm.

Board chairwoman Deidre Kelsey polled the board members and the YARTS Citizens Advisory Committee on possible issues to be discussed.

They came up with about 50 questions, including:

• Is it possible to have a demonstration bus project without affordable fares, and is it possible to have affordable fares without the gateway counties subsidizing the system?
  
• Will YARTS be able to sell the bus system to the gateway communities?
  
• Can a regional transportation plan be developed before Yosemite completes its land-use plan?
  
• Can the economic vitality of the gateway counties and environmental protection of Yosemite be given equal weight?
  

The board appointed an ad hoc committee to review the questions and present recommendations at its next meeting.

Meanwhile, Nelson said it appears the gateway counties did not want to subsidize the bus system. By February, she hopes to determine the cost of the bus service, the subsidy needed and potential sources.