Let The Church Roll On

If a member in the church
and he won't do right
tell me what we gonna do
have a meeting, put him out
Let the church roll on

Yes, brothers and sisters, these are Good Times!

On March 10, the American Public Transportation Association announced that transit ridership last year reached levels not seen in 50 years.

"Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, representing a 2.1% increase over the previous year," the APTA announced.

And on the same day, Placer County's Placer Commuter Express bus service announced that it had become so popular that it would have to limit ticket sales to existing customers and start a waiting list for people who have come to transit and want to be saved. Thank you, transit.

Yes, it is a glorious time. But not everywhere. Not here in River City.

No. We have a member and he won't do right. Tell me what we gonna do?

OK. That's as far as I can take this without distracting from the point.

Sacramento Regional Transit has a real problem. While the nation was reporting record ridership, RT's combined light rail and bus ridership fell last year by 2.08 percent. While the Yolo County Transportation District saw bus ridership increase 6.09 percent and Elk Grove's transit service saw a 24.54 percent increase, RT's bus ridership fell 5.20 percent.

In 2000, RT buses carried 65,400 riders on average each weekday. Last year, the buses carried just 57,700.

Yes, thanks to light rail and the expansion into Folsom and Meadowview, train ridership has increased since 2000 from an average 28,800 each weekday to last year's 53,500 average. But with the decline in bus riders, the overall increase in ridership between 2000 and 2007 has done little more than match the percentage increase in the population in Sacramento County.

Sacramento Regional Transit's bus service is in dire need of improvement. Without it, transit can't possibly meet the needs of area residents.

Let me underline the problem with RT's bus service with a real-life example.

The No. 82 bus stops less than 100 yards from my front porch. I can take that bus to the 65th Street light rail station and arrive at work in a little more than an hour. A lengthly commute, but I put the time to good use. The full fare of $2.25 (which I don't pay because I have a monthly pass) is a significant savings from the $4.68 estimated cost of driving.

The wife would like to take the same bus and go to work. But she doesn't work downtown and that is a real problem, a problem that RT is doing nothing to fix. At least it is doing nothing riders can see.

If my wife wanted to get to work at 9 a.m., she would need to catch the 6:56 a.m. No. 82 and ride all the way to 65th Street and then take light rail to Sunrise and backtrack on the No. 74, arriving at an intersection a half-mile from her office at 8:42 a.m. She could cut 10 minutes from the travel time if she didn't mind leaving at 5:57 a.m. and arriving at 7:39. The $4.25 fare is hardly better than the estimated cost of driving the same distance, $4.68.

It is not hard to imagine why bus ridership has fallen four years in a row, according to APTA figures. In 2006, it fell 4.31 percent. In 2005, it fell 3.30 percent. Bus ridership hasn't increased since 2001, when bus ridership grew 3.15 percent.

Light rail is great, but a light-rail only system is unbalanced. It can't produce the sorts of savings that a well-run, option-filled system can provide. RT can do better.

* * *

Now for a postscript: I have to explain where the Mahalia Jackson video fits into this.

When I was growing up in the suburban wasteland of the San Fernando Valley in the late 1950s, our household lacked a number of modern conveniences. Besides not having a father, we didn't have a TV. We had a record player, but we had just three records. One was Handel's Messiah. Another was a collection of Frank Sinatra tunes. And the final record was something by Mahalia Jackson. Included on that album was the song "Let The Church Roll On."

So today, I couldn't resist continuing with this preacher shtick when I decided to write about the wayward RT bus system. And the first thing that popped into my head was "a deacon in the church and he won't do right." I was thrilled when I was looking for the song and found the video on YouTube.

Since I never did find the lyrics to Let The Church Roll On as Mahalia Jackson sings the song, I've transcribed them here:

Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on

Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on

If a member in the church
and he won't do right
tell me what we gonna do
have a meeting, put him out
Let the church roll on

Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on

If a member in the choir
and he won't sing right
tell me what we gonna do
have a meeting, put him out
Let the church roll on

Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on

If a member in the church
and he won't do right
tell me what we gonna do
have a meeting, put him out
Let the church roll on

Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on
Let the church roll on

If a deacon in the church
and he won't do right
tell me what we gonna do
have a meeting and put him out
Let the church roll on

If a preacher in the church
and he won't preach right
tell me what me what we gonna do ...
I'm gonna have nothing to do with that
But let the church roll on

Actually, the roll on part fits well. Perhaps I'll make it the official transitarian hymn.