HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/13/24 Item 2, Best1
From:Sage <
Sent:Thursday, March 7, 2024 6:11 PM
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:Short range transit plan comments
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Hello,
As I will be working during the meeting of the Mass Transportation Committee's meeting on Wednesday, I want to
provide some input in advance. I am a SLO resident who works with individuals with disabilities who use the bus as a
main mode of transportation, and want to draw attention to 3 main issues that make our current city bus system
incredibly inconvenient. These issues are 1)limited evening hours 2)extremely limited weekend schedules and 3) failure
to update the rider alerts when there are changes or delays to the bus system
1) People who ride the bus also go out late. In fact, people who use the bus as a main means of transportation are likely
to be lower income, and therefore to have shift jobs which go late into the evening, such as food service and caretaker
positions. We need reliable bus service after 10pm. It would also be beneficial to have late night bus service to get
people home from downtown on weekend evenings to reduce drunk driving and car traffic.
2) for similar reasons, we need the same service schedules on weekends as on weekdays. Shift jobs and food service
operate on weekends, and people need to get to and from work. Also, if people have access to convenient
transportation on weekends they are more likely to go out and attend community events and traffic local businesses.
3) last summer several bus stops near cal poly were removed from service due to construction. After people I work with
missed their busses several times and had to get rides to work, I finally called to find that the stop was out of service.
There was no rider alert on the website. As far as I'm aware none was ever posted. At other times busses have simply
passed by due to being overfull, leaving people waiting 40m to an hour for the next bus. A functional transportation
system needs to be reliable for people who have no other means of transportation, and for people who may not be able
to make use of the text updates system. This may entail more effort towards signage, more frequent and clear
communication via rider updates, and flexibility in adding additional busses to a route during peak traffic times.
I feel it's pertinent to add that I share experiences from work simply because our current public transpor system is so
inconvenient that I have been unable to justify using it since I learned to drive as a teenager. Even though I live very
close to the downtown transport hub, it adds 40m to an hour to go anywhere by bus, as opposed to going by car. In fact,
I can walk most destinations near me faster than I can take a bus. That isn't the way it should be. Public transportation
should be convenient and reliable enough to make it a valid option and not a last resort. When it is convenient, it
reduces traffic and therefore emissions, offers safe rides to reduce drunk driving, and increases mobility and therefore
employability for those who are unable to drive for various reasons. Thank you for your consideration and your work
towards building a functional and usable public transportation system.
Sage Best