Hike in bus fares worries some seniors
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A proposed bus fare hike could cost 65-year-old Jonie Grassly of Waikiki $286 a year more than she pays now to commute three miles to and from work and to run errands.
Grassly, who uses the city bus seven days a week, is downright angry about the prospect.
"I'll never vote for that mayor," she said. "I think he sounds like a snob. I heard him say on the television that they'd make the increase, and if it turned out to be too much of a burden on us, they'd find some way to relieve it.
"What does he think I am?" she asked. "A baby? Or a moron?"
Carol Costa, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said that she did not recall him making any statements of that sort.
"We spent three days crunching the numbers, trying to keep the same level of service and come up with the fairest across-the-board increase," she said.
Without the increase, Costa said, bus service would have to be reduced.
Grassly isn't the only senior concerned about a proposed fare hike that would do away with senior passes, increase adult monthly pass rates by $7, add a 25-cent charge for transfers and increase fares for express buses.
Seniors who now pay $25 for a two-year pass would pay an annual $10 fee and an additional 25 cents each time they step on a bus.
Greg Marchildon, executive director of AARP Hawai'i, said his office has been fielding 40 to 60 calls, visits and e-mails a day from seniors concerned about bus fares and from those who are worried about the possibility of a drivers' strike.
"We get a lot more on prescription-drug reform and long-term care, so I don't think you'll see them out blocking traffic on Beretania," he said. "But we've had a sizeable spike on this issue."
The Hawai'i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 have set a strike date for Aug. 26 if negotiations with the bus company fail. Marchildon said that because Hawai'i's bus system is so much more senior-friendly than many on the Mainland, and because of fears of a bus strike, AARP will not weigh in on the fare increase.
But, he said, that doesn't mean that political leaders shouldn't be prepared to deal with one of the most politically savvy generations in recent history if the needs of the elders aren't addressed.
"These are the people who came of age during a politically active era, and they've remained so," he said.
"When they go to the ballot box, these are the types of issues they will consider in deciding who they want to represent them.
"It is not an audience you'd want to take lightly," he said.
To those on fixed incomes, he said, even a few dollars between Social Security checks can mean huge lifestyle changes. For many older people who have given up the keys to their cars, the bus is the only link to friends, family, doctors and their favorite beach parks.
"Mobility is a critical factor in a person's ability to age with dignity and respect," he said. "When a person becomes homebound it is a very slippery slope to the end."
Older passengers riding buses last week said they were also concerned about the status of contract negotiations with the drivers, and the possibility of a strike.
"Of course I'm worried," said Angel Arigo, a Waipahu resident who works at Fisherman's Wharf. "I need the bus; I take the bus to work."
Grassly said she was also concerned but wasn't convinced that contract negotiations and proposals for a rate increase were connected.
She said it seemed to her that the drivers were just trying to avoid unwarranted salary freezes and benefit cuts, and that city and bus company officials were timing the rate increase request to make political hay.
"I want to know where that $4.6 million (in bus budget shortfalls) went," Grassly said.
Costa said the fare increases were needed not to boost salaries, but to keep the same service levels passengers have come to expect.
"There is nothing else we could do," Costa said. "We've got to add revenue. There is no other way."
Riders too young to qualify for senior passes had more diverse opinions about bus fares.
Jordan Newman, an 18-year-old demolition worker who commutes home by bus daily, said he was appalled that another fare increase was being considered so close to the last one on July 1.
"It's expensive," he said. "They're killing people."
Newman said he used to use the bus to and from work but had started catching a ride into town after the last rate hike, putting the money toward gasoline for the driver.
"It used to be for 50 cents, you could ride the bus and use the pay phone," he said. "Now it's $1.75? I'd rather hitchhike."
Micha Daniels, who was jumping aboard a bus at King and Punchbowl streets, said she would pay a rate increase without protest.
"It's comfortable, it's cool, it's safe," she said. "I don't have to worry about a car, and I can take it anywhere. It's worth it."
Barbara Theus, a City Bank worker who commutes from Salt Lake to Makiki, watched bus commuters move in and out of the Ala Moana hub stop earlier this week as she waited for her bus home.
She said she didn't have an opinion on the proposed rate hike. Her employer takes the cost of her bus pass off the top of her pay — before taxes, she said, so the difference between the old and new rates would have little effect on her budget.
"I'll just go with the flow," Theus said.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
