For Judy Purrington, the latest round of service reductions proposed for the Valley Transportation Authority’s buses and light rail lines feels like death by a thousand cuts.

Purrington, who heads the advocacy group, Silicon Valley Transit Users, has seen this happen before. For at least the past decade — ever since the Great Recession forced layoffs, service reductions and fare hikes — fighting just to maintain the system has been mostly a losing battle. And although the VTA’s latest plan staves off cuts that would affect some of Santa Clara County’s most vulnerable residents, the continued erosion of service will only serve to do one thing, she said: turn off more riders.

Because of budget cuts, the VTA is proposing 63, mostly small, curtailing its service, often in the form of reducing weekend service or eliminating it altogether, shaving off a few hours at the start or end of the schedule, or running buses less frequently. One bus route, the 65, will be eliminated entirely, as will light rail service along the Almaden spur, which affects two stations.

A complete list of the changes can be found here.

“The detractors say public transit here is just useless,” Purrington said. “But it’s a really difficult problem to solve because with all these years and years of mostly cuts — and increases that only happen on major routes — we are not experiencing what could be happening if there was reasonable service and reasonable coverage.”

The number of riders taking VTA’s buses and light rail fell a staggering 23 percent from 2001 to 2016, while operating costs have only risen, forcing the agency to consider more cuts to service, said VTA spokeswoman Holly Perez. And, even though voters in 2016 approved a half-cent sales tax to help fund transit improvements, along with myriad roadway and capital projects, Perez said it’s not enough.

“We’re having to make some tough choices with this plan,” she said.

The latest plan focuses on some increases in frequency for the VTA’s busiest and heaviest-used routes through downtown and East San Jose, but it reduces or eliminates some bus and light rail service to outlying areas where fewer riders board.

But it’s also an existential question that’s not unique to the VTA, said Teresa Alvarado, the director of urban planning think-tank SPUR’s San Jose office. At its core, the question boils down to whether transit agencies should be maximizing taxpayers’ dollars or providing a social service for residents within its district who do not have other options.

“It really speaks to this fundamental values question about what is the purpose of public transit,” she said.

Nayna Rana moved to San Jose from India five years ago and is still in the process of learning English, her friend, Vanita Patel, said, making the prospect of a driving test a challenge. The VTA is the only way Rana can get around the city. Without it, she wouldn’t be able to get to her job with Patel, who operates a childcare center in her home. The 13 bus route she takes daily was on the chopping block to be cut entirely, but will be spared under the latest iteration of the plan.

“It’s a lifeline for her,” Patel said.

But, the VTA is facing a number of challenges beyond its control. Chief among them are sprawling single-family suburbs and streets designed for cars, Alvarado said. SPUR’s work in Santa Clara County focuses on championing taller buildings near frequent light rail and bus service, but there’s huge opposition in many cities to any new developments that would add density, despite a deepening housing affordability crisis that is pushing people farther and farther from job centers.

It doesn’t help that buses also get struck in traffic, which has been worsening as the population grows and as people stop taking buses, said Chris Lepe, a regional policy director for TransForm, a transportation advocacy nonprofit.

San Jose resident Vincent Suarez tried taking the bus and light rail, he said, but he was frustrated by the length of his commute, which was often double or triple what it would be in a car. Couple that with buses that sometimes only come every half hour, and it just doesn’t make sense, said Gia Williamson, of San Jose.

“It’s kind of stressful if you miss your bus and you’re trying to get somewhere,” she said, “and the next one doesn’t come for another half-hour.”

Efforts by the VTA to dedicate traffic lanes to buses to make them more attractive have been met with fierce political opposition, Lepe said. Even making small improvements, such as enhancing the traffic signal technology so buses and light-rail trains get the green light, has been met with push-back from city officials and residents.

“The built environment has trapped people in their cars, but also, it’s trapped them mentally inside a box of auto-orientation,” he said. “So, a lot of people in those cities, they end up opposing the very kinds of improvements that could speed up the bus and increase ridership and create greater efficiency.”

The VTA’s Board of Directors is expected to approve the new service plan in May, but Lepe said he wouldn’t be surprised if the agency found itself in the same position in another five or 10 years.

“It’s going to take a lot of political will and a wake-up call from the folks making decisions in and out of the VTA in order to shift course,” he said, “and to be able to really address congestion and climate change and equity issues, of which transportation is a really big part of the solution.”