Does Prescott have public transportation? (Bullhead City, Prescott Valley: house, to buy, taxi)

[ArizonaBear]

Why I wonder is places like Kingman, Bullhead City and even Globe have public transportation as in buses but, Prescott apparently has nothing with the obvious exception of taxicabs.

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Why I wonder is places like Kingman, Bullhead City and even Globe have public transportation as in buses but, Prescott apparently has nothing with the obvious exception of taxicabs.

Maybe they'll take a hint from Cottonwood and do something about it. We have our CAT busses here now and they even have scheduled pickups at bus stops. They used to only do door to door but expanded in the last couple of years. It was basically started for senior citizens who don't drive. It's something we really needed. Prescott does too.

I had to take a cab to work and back a couple of times in Prescott. Talk about expensive!!!!

[LinaJo76]

They should have buses here in the Prescott/Prescott Valley area. It would be more convient and less expensive too. Take both to Prescott and/or Prescott Valley more safely and cheaper.

The cabs here are soooo too expensive nowadays. Just to go from Prescott Valley (on Navajo Rd., where I live at) to Applebee's is already $30!!! That is just so ridiculous. Just to go on a 6-8 mile ride is already over $30-$40 (1 way too)!!!

[inderocker]

This is about as good as it gets...
Prescott Citibus | Prescott Transit Authority

Prescott's pretty small... I just ride a bicycle when I don't feel like driving.

[homlish560]

Prescott should have some kind of a Public Bus system on major streets, and in Prescott Valley too!!!!!!!!

Doesn't make any sense why an area this size wouldn't have some kind of Transit system. Lots of smaller cities have it.

[LinaJo76]

Originally Posted by inderocker

This is about as good as it gets...
Prescott Citibus | Prescott Transit Authority

Prescott's pretty small... I just ride a bicycle when I don't feel like driving.

But does it come down to Prescott Valley? That's the question...

But $3.00 for an all day ticket, can't beat that!! I'll try them one of these days. Thanks!!

[LinaJo76]

Originally Posted by homlish560

Prescott should have some kind of a Public Bus system on major streets, and in Prescott Valley too!!!!!!!!

Doesn't make any sense why an area this size wouldn't have some kind of Transit system. Lots of smaller cities have it.

I totally agree! This place is getting larger and everything is so spread out, that's it difficult to walk that far (I hate walking more than 3 miles, really and having to sweat a lot when I get there).

The cab system here is just way too expensive and such. Now if they were only charging $1 a mile, then that's fine (like $8.00 for 8 miles). Now we're talking, reasonable. But it's not like that and it's ridiculous...One time, about a year ago, I took a cab to go from my house (off Navajo Rd.) to Applebee's to meet a friend for lunch. It took them over 30 minutes to pick me up and it costed me $35 to get there!!!! My friend had to buy my lunch!! I had no darn idea it got more expensive. I remember when it was only like $20 to get there about 3 years ago (that's a little bit reasonable)!!

No, I won't take the cab service for that long of distance anymore. No more than 3 miles anymore. Even just to go to Garcia's (about 2 1/2-3 miles from my house) was already $12!!! YIKES!!!

[BriansPerspective]

The costs are enormous. Consider a tiny transit system that only runs between Prescott Valley and Prescott along highway 69. If the bus stops at major instersections, the trip would probably take at least 45 minutes to get from the first stop to the last. You would need at least four buses to cover the route to have about a 20 minute delay between buses. Each bus costs about $300,000. So that's $1.2M to start. Amortizing the buses out 15 years at 6% interest = $10,000/month.

Each bus gets about 4 miles to the gallon. If the round trip is 32 miles and the buses make 16 trips per day, that's 8 gallons of gas per trip or 128 gallons per day, which is about $384/day/bus or $1,536 per day in gas. So let's say $45K/month in gas.

The buses need to be maintained, so let's just call it $1,000 per month per bus, which is $4,000/month.

If the buses run about 16 hours per day (for 7 days), you will to cover 112 driver-hours, so that's 14 drivers (at 8hrs/day). Each driver will probably make $25K per year ($12/hr), plus benefits and taxes which brings it to $35K per year, which is $41,000 per month. There will need to be a transit chief and a transit administrator. Let's say their combined salary and benefits is $84K per year or $7,000/month. That's a total salary cost of $48,000/month.

Adding up all of the costs comes to $107,000 per month for four buses to run between Prescott Valley and Prescott. If you charged $2 per trip, you would need about 54,000 trips per month or 2,700 trips per day. If you assume that people always return, then there would be 1,350 round-trips per day. So, the question is, are their 1,350 people who will pay $4 to make a round-trip every day between Prescott and PV? Keep in mind that the bus riders would have to walk from Hwy 69 to their home or to their destination. Consider the population that lives within walking distance of Hwy 69. I am not sure that a bus system is feasible from a cost or convenience perspective.

[keninaz]

Last time I heard a complaint from someone like this was from someone who move here from NY City and had never driven a car in his life.
Now that he is here, he would not consider taking a bus if he could.
If you live out west you are supposed to have a car!

[nickw252]

Although it may not be economical in a small town, I still prefer public transit even though I've owned a car all my life.