Has the time come for a public bus in the San Juans?

Robin Hall hopes so, and is looking to the community for input.

Robin, a senior at Lopez High School, is researching the feasibility of a public bus service on Lopez. He is presenting his findings as his senior project.

Since October, he has been studying the aspects of a bus service, particularly how many people it would need to transport to make it worthwhile. He is inserting a survey into today’s newspaper in order to gather community input. Surveys can be dropped off at a ballot box in Lopez Library — they must be turned in by Jan. 29.

After Robin compiles results from the survey, he will write an essay and present his project to a panel at Lopez School.

“I am doing this because it might be a good way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I am very concerned about global warming. I am determined to stop global warming,” said Robin. After Robin graduates, he hopes to attend Western Washington University and study physics. “My biggest interest is to start a colony on the moon,” he commented.

Robin’s father C.B. Hall, who has done work with transportation groups, helped him with this idea. C.B. has been Robin’s mentor for the undertaking (all seniors have a mentor for their projects), offering suggestions and providing some of his own research.

The survey is being underwritten by the San Juan County Economic Development Council. “It’s very gracious of them to underwrite this, and I hope the results can be used on the other islands too,” said C.B. Robin will make the results public. If community response is positive, both he and his dad are interested in helping to organize a bus service.

“Clearly, transportation is a key element to the economic health of a community in general. Recognizing the potential impact of this, we just thought it was a good combination, and we like working with other entities, schools being a primary one. We think it’s a good opportunity, and we are interested in seeing the results. We had considered doing it countywide, but decided to just do Lopez initially,” said Bill Watson, program coordinator for the Economic Development Council.