Finding transportation connections in NWI region looks easier on a map than en route

OK, so you live in Portage, don't own a vehicle and need a ride to the Gary/Chicago International Airport.

Quick: How do you get there?

South Shore train? No. Well, possibly, but then you have to walk a couple of blocks to the airport, and no one recommends you do that.

Public bus? No. Only Gary, East Chicago and Hammond have public bus routes, and only Gary buses routinely run to the airport.

Demand-response transportation? Maybe, but many don't cross-county lines, including Porter County Aging & Community Services buses.

Taxi? Of course, for only $2 a mile, plus a tip.

Sure, on a map it looks easy to get from point A to Z in this region. But because of our fragmented public transportation systems, residents who must get around without a vehicle might sometimes wish for bumper-to-bumper Borman bottleneck commutes.

The problem here is a lack of public transportation cohesiveness, or connections, for residents who either don't have a vehicle, or a drivers license, or who may not be able to drive for whatever reason. In the industry, they're called "transit-dependent riders."

These riders have a variety of public transportation options available to them, "but connectivity is key," said Tom Phillips, transportation manager for Northwest Indiana Community Action Corp., which operates a demand response transportation system.

Steve Strains, transportation development director for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, said there are some connections among public transit systems in this region, "but few are convenient."

"Bus to bus, demand-response to bus, bus to rail, demand-response to rail -- people without cars can get around, but not very well as those with cars," he said. 

Don't think that everyone in this urbanized drag strip called The Region owns a vehicle or has easy access to one. In Lake County, more than one in five residents who rent their homes do not have a vehicle available to them, according to latest U.S. Census data. 

"And some people have cars that break down and they can't afford to fix them quickly," said Peggy Barnes, owner of Best Cab taxi service in Burns Harbor, which regularly hauls customers who don't own vehicles.

"A lot of people go only a mile or two, but they have to get there and can't walk," she said.

This problem only gets more complex for region workers without vehicles who must zig-zag daily from home to job and back again using transportation connectors, like walking to a bus stop, to catch a train, to hop another bus, to punch a clock -- if they happen to work in Illinois.

And more Indiana workers are commuting over the state line, an increase of 22 percent from 1990 to 2000.

For Phillips' agency, which operates 24 buses through 16 weekday routes in north Lake County, more than one in five riders uses the service for employment commutes. Another 15 percent for medical appointments.

But unless you're among the privileged 2 percent of workers in this region who work from home, according to latest census data, even short commutes require labor, strategy and planning.

Having to make connections in between transportation systems is tough business, Strains said, being either time-consuming or not available at all. Yet thousands of local workers undertake this adventure every day.

For example, roughly 2,500 Crown Point residents -- most with vehicles, some without -- remain in their city for work, but another 700 must commute to Gary, and another 500 to Hammond, and 300 to Munster, according to compiled figures from NIRPC.

According to the agency's Connections 2030 Regional Transportation Plan, only 23 percent of total regional need for public transportation is being met, using 1990 figures. Yet today's public transit need isn't believed to be waning here, especially if you're needing a ride, for example, to the Gary airport from Portage.

In some rural parts of Portage Township, one in four homes have no vehicle parked in the driveway.

This may be good news for taxi cabs and demand-response services, but it also can make the phrase "public transportation" an oxymoron in this region. A Hooters Air representative suggested: "Take a taxi."