Brenda Gregory is a petite, outspoken woman, a retired office worker who depends on the bus to get around after two foot surgeries. I met her the other day on the free downtown DASH line as she was attempting to gather signatures opposing the proposed changes in service by the Valley Transportation Authority.

Gregory spared no words in denouncing the plans to cut DASH and the 65 route, which takes riders into southwest San Jose. “They told us to give up our cars, and we did,’’ she told me. “Then they raised the sales tax. Now they’re getting rid of every bus I need. Don’t you love it?’’

In the immortal words of a former San Jose city clerk who was facing a tide of criticism several years ago, the substance is hitting the fan on the free DASH line, which takes commuters from the Diridon Caltrain station into downtown San Jose. (DASH stands for Downtown Area Shuttle.)

The VTA is proposing to end the free service along San Fernando and San Carlos streets — where it serves Adobe and San Jose State University — and replace it with a new route on Santa Clara Street that would link downtown with the new BART station in Berryessa. A long haul rather than a short one.

This has drawn protest from the San Jose Downtown Association and SPUR, a nonprofit that promotes transit and sound urban design. The SJDA has argued that the impending BART construction on Santa Clara Street makes keeping a bus on San Fernando essential.

“Eliminating the DASH shuttle is another counterproductive move which will affect SJSU students, senior citizens and our low-income residents who rely on this service to get around downtown,” said Ann Webb, a member of the San Jose Downtown Residents’ Association.

But there is another side to this debate. As one of the least efficient transit agencies in the nation, the VTA is in the middle of a wrenching change of its service, a change meant to concentrate buses on highly traveled routes like Santa Clara Street.

In doing so, it is bumping against a truism that also characterizes the federal budget. While the transit system is bloated and inefficient, almost every dollar — every bus — means something to someone. And when a proposal surfaces to change that service, protests erupt.

(I know something about this firsthand. The bus I often take home from work, the 81, will likely be curtailed under the new plans. A note on on my bus stop on Park Avenue says it could end. I mourn, but I also know I can take the 22 or the 63 bus to get home.)

In 2016, the DASH shuttle averaged 1,032 riders per day, with the bulk during peak morning and evening hours. With nearly 138 departures to and from downtown every day, that means that each bus averaged only about 7.5 riders. None of them was paying.

The VTA is planning to replace the free bus with a 500 bus that would run from Diridon station into downtown on Santa Clara Street and then on to the new BART station. While it would charge the standard $2 fare, VTA planners say Caltrain commuters could transfer for free.

“This will become the bus version of the new BART extension,’’ says Adam Burger, a senior transportation planner for VTA, who estimates that a bus could travel from downtown to the Berryessa BART station in 10 minutes. “We think it will be a very strong route.’’

A recent report by Jarrett Walker and Associates, a transportation consultant, concluded that the VTA could improve its ridership by increasing frequency of the buses on heavily traveled routes. And it also pointed to short-haul routes, like DASH, as being relatively expensive.

None of that is likely to satisfy people like Gregory, who depends on DASH to get crosstown to various points of transit. And the folks who work for Adobe or San Jose State will find it marginally more inconvenient to take the bus on the more congested Santa Clara Street.

Burger understands the dilemma. “Every time you change transit, you’re going to help some people and hurt some others,’’ he told me.

As it happens, VTA’s poor record gives it powerful reasons to change. In a couple of years, it will be worth revisiting this one.