Anchorage: Transit on the edge of the wilderness

You know, I'm from near Annapolis, Maryland, where we have really humid summers, July and August especially, and so it was great to be there with everyone, as well as here in Anchorage, and it just made me, the whole experience was very warm and welcoming, the folks were there, and the beauty and the warmth just seemed to harken back to an earlier era, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the history of Alaska, just for a minute.

Have you ever heard of the term Seward's Folly? Remember that Alaska was actually part of Russia, for a long time, and, uh, there was a Secretary of State named William Seward. He was Secretary of State during Abraham Lincoln's tenure, and he had been negotiating with Russia and actually wanted to purchase, the state of Alaska. It wasn't a state then, obviously, the territory of Alaska, from Russia, but then the Civil War happened and they couldn't focus on it then.

So in 1867, just after the close of the Civil War, William Seward, the Secretary of State, negotiated this transaction with Russia for only 7. 2 million, which equated to roughly only two cents an acre. But at the time, can you believe it? Many Americans saw the purchase as a waste of resources, calling it, quote, Seward's Folly, or Seward's Icebox, believing that the land was, you know, barren and useless. But it was just a couple decades later when they discovered gold.

There's gold in them thar hills, is what they would say. We actually got to see places where the gold was dug up from. I went on a boat tour, with Jaime Cuadra, our videographer, for a three hour tour, like Gilligan's Island, you know. but we came back safe and, it was along the river. up there in Fairbanks, and the guy told us, the tour guide told us, down this one river here, they found the equivalent of seven billion dollars in today's money of gold.

So, a lot of gold came out of there, and then, of course, later on, they discovered oil, which was called black gold, because of its value. And then, of course, later on during World War II, the state had great strategic importance and it eventually silenced all the critics. Some people will still use the term Seward's Folly to, you know, to talk about something kind of tongue in cheek, right? Initially, people are skeptical, but later on, they realize the deal has great value.

So, this deal had great value.

so, first let's go on to Anchorage. as I mentioned, this was a rainy Saturday morning. I sat down at a local coffee shop with Jamie Acton and Bart Rudolph, to talk about their city, and their transit, and what it's like for them living in Alaska. Jamie Acton is a native of Alaska, and she's the Executive Director of Public Transportation, and Bart Rudolph is a transplant there, but wants to spend the rest of his life, he is the Transit Planning Manager for the City of Anchorage.

Anchorage, is the largest city in Alaska, home to around 290, 000 people, which is about nine times larger than the next largest city of Fairbanks. Their transit system is part of the city government. and has a service area of 77 square miles, which is pretty big, with fixed route, paratransit, and microtransit.

Jamie was born and raised in Anchorage, and she went away to school in Oregon, but came back after college, and, like many of us, kind of fell, into, and in love with, public transportation. Bart came to Alaska 14 years ago. He said he'd stay for just a couple years, but he's never left. Bart went to college in Kansas City. And worked at the MPO there, the Metropolitan Planning Agency, and is friends with our previous guest, Tom Garand, who heads up the streetcar there.

They actually both started at the agency around the same time, which shows you how small the transit world is, you know? Anyway, I started out asking Jamie and Bart over coffee how they got their start in transit. You know, I think like a lot of people, I fell into transit. Transit found me. I actually, just responded to a job opportunity and it was for a mobility program.

I had no idea what that meant, and then quickly learned that it had everything to do with anything that walked or rolled, and so, quickly learned that, I had a heart for transit and, and saw that everyday value in, you know, being able to help people get to where they needed to go throughout our community. Bart, tell me a little about your background and how you got into what you do.

I have an MPO background, so I was the MPO coordinator between the Department of Transportation and the MPO here, and through those relationships, the transit director at the time recruited me to come over to transit, so again, I was doing road planning, I was doing aviation planning at DOT, which was really fun, but was convinced to start transit planning and decided that I really liked it. I liked the immediate effect it had.

I liked the interaction with the people and not planning for a road that was going to be built in 15 years. Yeah, yeah. You know. And did you used to work in Kansas City? We used to work in Kansas City. I went to college in Kansas City. That's where I got my degree at, the University of Missouri, Kansas City. And then the MPO, Mark, really got my footings there. And you're with Tom Gerend there, you told me. Yeah, Tom started around the same time I did.

He was leading the transit program there at the time. Very interesting. Now he heads up the Kansas City streetcar. You know, it's a small world. He's done great things for Kansas City. And it's amazing what Kansas City has done in the last few years. But the streetcar is amazing and it's just amazing. forever expanding. I'm glad it's reaching the university now. And on a funny note, because Alaska is so huge, it's twice the size of Texas. 570, 640 square miles.

It doesn't look like it on a map or on a globe, but neither does Australia look as big as it really is. But anyway, yeah, it's very large, and they have a close knit family, and they stay in touch throughout the year, in the transit industry. But it might only be in person at events like APTA, because it's such a big state, which takes place in the lower 48. How does it work between all the different cities public transit systems? Do you all have a good association? You work together well?

Yeah, so we actually don't have a state association, but it is such a small network that, you know, I'm great friends with the Valley Transit, you know, CEO, I, you know, talk to the people in Juneau regularly and Ketchikan, you know, yeah, it's, it's a small, Network, tight knit very, very much, you know, as being the largest, uh, fish in the pond.

Yes. you know, we, we definitely actually do reach out to each other, you know, very regularly and there's things that are going on in the smaller systems that I'm like, oh. Yeah, maybe we should take a look at that. And then, you know, they're also always pinging, you know, us. What's Anchorage doing? Yeah. Yeah, that's good. It's also kind of funny because our state is so large, we see them more at conferences in the lower 48 than we Yeah, yeah. Like, we'll run into Michelle.

Michelle. At APTA. All the time. Yeah. Yeah. That's always kind of comical. It's like, oh, hey, I haven't seen you, but you're eight hours away. Yeah. But here we are in Portland. Right. I asked Jamie about her agency, how many buses she ran, and most importantly, how they were dealing with lowering emissions.

As you know, battery electric buses face a lot of challenges in cold weather. And then I asked Bart about his rideshare program and plans for microtransit. do. So, we actually still run diesel buses. our entire, fixed route fleet is, is coming in. Ultra Low Sulfur Clean Diesel.

We have just recently completed the second round of three purchases that are coming online to do replacements that will basically turn our fleet over by about 50% So yeah, we, you know, at this point we, we know that we need to start looking at an alternative fuel source, but right now, you know, whether that's CNG, whether that's hydrogen, whether that's, you know, Battery electric vehicles, you know, we're just not quite there yet. Have you piloted anything?

Have you tried other alternative technologies? Yeah, so in 2017, 2018, there was a battery electric, pilot, that we actually did pilot. Did run for a short period of time. there was definitely some challenges with that, in our, in our winter climate. So, you know, the state really, some of the other agencies have gone to alternative fuels. you know, I think when you're up in Fairbanks, you'll probably get to see their, their CNG. Yeah, compressed natural gas, right?

Yeah. Yeah, their CNG facilities. And then, you know, down in Juneau, where they have a little more moderate climate, they, they went with battery electric. also not without their challenges. So, you know, as we look to turn our fleet over, yeah, we're going to do it in a way that best suits our climate, our riders needs. Yeah. So what do you got, since you're the planner, what do you got in the pipeline? well, you know we're late to the game, but we're talking microtransit.

Okay. And our system redevelopment in 2017 provided a lot of gaps in the system. We really went towards the ridership model, not the coverage model. And so we've been exploring ways to kind of fill those gaps. And so we're just now kind of ready to expand or embark on microtransit in some of the less populated parts of the city. Like a lot of cities, Anchorage is trying to encourage more commuters onto transit or rideshare, rather than just drive.

And while a lot of agencies And cities have specific UA programs for university and college students, and Anchorage BART expanded, the UA program to employers as well. I asked him to tell us a bit about how it works and who he's working with. It's a very interesting concept. we have a U PASS program, which started out as a university program because, you know, The UAA, University of Alaska Anchorage, started it about 28 years ago.

We've had this partnership with them and then we've expanded it to a universal program where we start. Adding more businesses and partnerships. So the goal is to expand that, and that's part of our long range plan. Right now we have partnerships with oil companies like ConocoPhillips, the hospitals, Providence, even Denali Universal Partnership Program, different employers across the city. So we're working on expanding that partnership.

And really starting to build a relationship, with everyone in the city to talk about not just the U PASS program, but also the benefits of transit, so that when we pass bonds and, you know, we talk about expanding service, even if someone's never ridden the bus, they understand the value to their, employees or things like that yeah so so basically it's that an employer would buy passes for their employees so they don't have to pay the daily fare they just show their badge and

they're good to go is that how it works yep it's simple and easy it's it's a mandatory program that all employees have you know that they just show the pass and you know hopefully it would encourage them to take a ride on transit that they maybe never would have

I learned a lot of fun facts about Alaska and Anchorage while talking with them. Like, residents of Alaska are eligible to receive money from something called the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend, which comes from interest earned on oil and gas revenues. You might have heard of it. I've heard of it before, but they described it to me in a little more detail. I also learned that in Anchorage, you're only ever 15 minutes away from being in the wilderness.

Some people say in Anchorage, you're 15 minutes away from Alaska. what it means is, you're very close to just being out in the wilderness. And the transit system is geared, literally. to support their active lifestyle. people say Anchorage is 15 minutes away from Alaska, so we What does that mean?

In 15 minutes you can be in complete wilderness, you can be completely solitude, on a trail, hiking, you can go anywhere you want in the backcountry, So we do a lot of hiking, a lot of camping, lot of biking, you know, things that I never thought I would be doing from Kansas City. Yeah. All of our buses are outfitted with fat tire bike racks. Three place fat tire bike racks. Because people are biking all year round now.

And so, we have a great, amazing trail system within the municipality of Anchorage. And we have the Moose Loop Trail. And it literally, if you are to ride it and track it on the on the GPS or whatnot, it forms the head of a moose. I found that most people that I talk to that live in Alaska have a very special quality. And since Jamie was born there, I asked her about that. What is it like living in Alaska? What's so different about it than the lower 48?

As they call us down here in the lower 48 states. Yeah, you know, Alaska has some of the most, hearty people that I've ever been around, but also friendly and kind. there is a very much of a, we support ourselves and this, you know, idea of how do Alaskans support each other. Each other, to get through the winters, to get through things like major earthquakes. You almost have to do that, right? Yeah, you know. Everybody's brothers and sisters, right? Exactly.

Yeah, we definitely, you know, reach out and support each other, however we can. We had a major earthquake in 2018, and that was one of the messages that really came out, you know, through the emergency management system is, Check on your neighbors. Check on, you know, check on your family.

Make sure everybody's okay and has what they need and, so that's just, I think, a mentality that's very different here, you know, you can walk down the street and see somebody and smile and say hi and they'll respond. While I was in Anchorage in July, there were still almost 21 hours a day of daylight.

I woke up one night, in the early morning and, we were staying in a bed and breakfast and the light from outside coming in the window was just like, you know, the middle of the day here at home in Maryland. Just wild. but in the wintertime, they get as little as four to six hours of daylight and it stays close to the horizon as it goes up. That's in December. I asked Jamie and Bart what that was like. Yeah, so we just had summer solstice, June 21st, the longest day of the year.

Was that 22 hours of daylight? I believe we logged just under 20, 21. yeah, so, when I flew in last night, it was still daylight, just like you were saying. And, It gets a little dusky, but it doesn't quite get dark, but we are starting to lose daylight now, you know, since solstice has passed. And then when it's really in the middle of winter, You don't have hardly any daylight, right? What do you got? You, you go to work in the dark, you come home in the dark.

Yeah. and it, it essentially, oh gosh, at the, at the height of, of that, we're, you're looking at four to six hours of daylight. Four to six hours of daylight. Wow. Extremes. So if you don't, yeah, if you don't get out in it. You don't see it. Yeah. It is kind of my favorite part of the day is the local radio station here tells you the daylight every day as they sign off, they're like, and today's daylight is, and so I know exactly right now we have 18 hours and 45 minutes. okay. Very cool.

Yeah. And so, we start gaining very rapidly, but then you lose very rapidly as well, and those swings are, you know, pretty dramatic. And that impacts, I'm sure, the bus drivers, and tell me about that. How does that impact them? Yeah. I mean, you definitely see it. you see it in the, in the operators, you see it in the ridership. you know, when, when the light starts to come out, all Alaskans, it's like, oh my gosh, you got to get out and enjoy every moment of it.

You know, people are out mowing their lawns at 11 o'clock at night. Oh, yeah. You know, you're yelling at kids to come inside from playing. It's, you know, it's time to go to bed. Yeah, when, when us in the lower 48 got our kids in at 8 p. m. Yeah, you know, you're, you're, you're hauling people in, you know, all hours of the day, because it's still light. But then, you know, in the winter, it's. and it's dark and it's cold and it's hard and some people it does impact their mental health.

Yeah, I'm sure. Got a lot of sun lamps up here I'm sure. A lot of the lamps, a lot of vitamin D. And like we were saying, if you have If you don't have a chance to get out during the middle of the day, you know, you really have to make an active effort to make that happen.

it was great sitting down with Jamie and Bart, and like all cities, transit plays a crucial role in the lives of everyone in Anchorage. Coming up next week, I'll have part two of my Alaskan adventure with interviews in the city of Fairbanks, and I guess, again, you will, really see the difference and hear the difference as we do these in person. And next week, again, is all over the place.

Walking and talking at facilities out in nature and in open fields where they're telling me about permafrost. It's just phenomenal. Make sure you listen to that podcast as well. And again, as I mentioned, If you haven't subscribed yet to Transit Unplugged TV, you really should.

We're doing these, compendium podcasts now when I do the visits there, so you can get a little more in depth than we're able to do on TV on the podcast, but then you can watch the show and kind of see everything you heard about. I think you'll really enjoy it. I'm hearing from a lot of people who really enjoy this approach. Thanks again for sticking with us here on Transit Unplugged.

Thanks for listening to this week's episode of transit unplugged and thank you to our guests, Jimmy Acton and Bart Rudolph for making it possible. I'm Tris Hussey editor of the podcast. And I've been to Alaska several times, including a stint as an archeologist. And just as Paul said, it's an amazing part of the world to visit. Highly recommended. Now coming up next week, we're staying in Alaska for part two of this series from Fairbanks.

In this episode, you'll learn how the geology of the area influenced the entire city. Even how they build their roads. Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo. At Modaxo we're passionate about moving the world's people and at Transit Unplugged, we're passionate about telling those stories. So until next week, ride safe and ride happy.