From the Idaho Panhandle

Bonner County Gets on the Bus

By Cate Huisman, 11-15-10

	A new bus service will allow car-free travel between Ponderay and other favorite central Bonner venues.

One outcome of the elections a few weeks ago was completely passed over by the pundits on TV, but it will have a significant effect on residents of and visitors to central Bonner County.  I refer, of course, to the passage of a bed tax in the community of Ponderay, a burg of 1000 or so souls just north of Sandpoint. By a margin of 140 to 48, voters in that community approved a 5% tax to be assessed on short-term stays in the town’s hotels and motels. Added to funding from several other sources, proceeds from this tax will provide for a bus system that will connect Ponderay with neighbors Kootenai and Sandpoint, as well as the town of Dover, three miles west of Sandpoint.

Despite the burden it will put on them to collect the tax, a majority of lodging owners and operators in Ponderay supported the measure, as the bus will give their guests an option to tour the area while leaving the car at the motel. Visitors will be able to ride to public beaches in Sandpoint and Dover in summer and to Schweitzer ski area’s Red Barn parking lot in winter. They can have a few drinks at a bar or restaurant in one town without having to worry about driving back to their lodging in another.

There are benefits for residents as well. People who work in the greater Sandpoint area often cannot afford to live in Sandpoint, while they can afford Ponderay or Kootenai. The option to take a bus to work will enable them to live without the onus of owning a car if they so choose. And Ponderay is a major shopping destination for the greater Sandpoint area, but until now it has been so challenging to get there without a car that few have attempted the journey.

A hundred years ago, a streetcar connected these communities, but it went out of business after cars came into common use. Here, as in many other areas of the U.S., transportation planning since then appears to have been virtually synonymous with transportation by car. The region naturally attracts many who choose to live in rural or mountain areas far removed from any potential for public transportation, willing to pay the price of dependence on a car in order to live in solitude or unspoiled natural surroundings.

Still, as gas prices rise and real hourly wages fall, a bus service opens up options for others who want to live a less resource-intensive lifestyle here. North Idaho is hardly at the vanguard of starting to plan for these people, but it’s good to know that we are, at least, getting on the bus.

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