Hi Owan,
To be fair, that was a different set of folks at StarMetro (or a different head
to be particular).
Also, I have to say they were trying to balance the needs of a lot of different
riders; the disabled were just one set.
Allison is very outgoing, and when we had our year and a half or so on the
fixed-route buses, she made friends with a lot of people, to the point where
when we'd get on the bus there was one of those "greeting" scenes like you'd
used to see on Cheers. I guess I'm trying to say we learned a lot of stories
and the different reasons and ways people road the bus, and while no one who
road the old "hub" routes liked the "grid" much, there were a lot of new riders
who said they couldn't ride before the "grid" was put into place.
For myself, I think they made a real mistake getting rid of the 80x (which
tried to get North-east yuppies to ride down to state office complexes, with a
direct long run and new buses with wifi), but even when I think they made a
mistake, I still think they listen.
Chip
Chip Orange
Florida Public Service Commission
Computer Systems Analyst
850-413-6314
-----Original Message-----
From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
mccaulo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 9:48 AM
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tabi] Re: StarMetro survey (from today's Democrat)
I would encourage everyone to respond to the survey, even though
StarMetro showed us with the Nova 2010 bus route decentralization that
it will listen to public input and then do whatever the heck it wants
to do anyway.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chip and Allie Orange <acorange@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tabi <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wed, May 13, 2015 9:03 am
Subject: [tabi] StarMetro survey (from today's Democrat)
From today's Democrat:
Take survey to help improve StarMetro's routes and times
Jane Johnson and Roxanne Hughes, My View
1:11 p.m. EDT May 11, 2015
If you are lucky enough to own a car, imagine yourself without it. Now
go
through your daily and weekly routines and solve for your transportation
dilemma. The obvious answer for most is, "I would take the bus." Many
residents in our community do just that, though they might tell you
that it
can be challenging.
During the course of several community conversations last fall, the
Tallahassee/Leon County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls
(CSWG)
gained insight about the challenges women and girls often face in
trying to
achieve or maintain economic security. One was the critical role that
reliable and safe public transportation plays as a bridge to employment,
higher education and personal well-being. We heard from women who rely
on
StarMetro as their primary method of transportation and women who would
rely
on public transportation if it met their needs that:
*
There are areas of Tallahassee and Leon County, such as Woodville,
which are
not served by the current bus routes.
*
Parents who have to take a bus to work must make multiple stops to drop
kids
off and get to work - and many day care centers are not on bus routes -
leading to early wake-up times and long commutes.
*
Students who live far from campus may feel unsafe using public
transportation when trying to get home from campus at night.
*
Grocery shopping for older adults who no longer drive is difficult on
the
bus and so they must rely on friends and family to either take them to
the
grocery store or do their grocery shopping for them.
*
The costs of owning and maintaining a car may exceed the cost of using
public transportation, but the time and convenience tradeoffs you have
to
make to ride the bus can actually be more expensive in the long run.
Based on the feedback that we heard during our community conversations,
it
seems that StarMetro has done a good job of making public transportation
affordable, but being able to afford the bus is only one piece of the
puzzle
- it also has to be able to get you where you need to go, when you need
to
get there.
The CSWG has collaborated with StarMetro to assess how service options
for
buses can be improved to meet the needs of women, girls and all
residents
working to build economic security for themselves and their families.
Together with Brian Waterman, StarMetro's transit planning manager, we
have
developed a short survey - now we need
your
help!
We urge all members of our community to participate in the Star Metro
survey
at: www.starmetrosurvey.com by May 23 to provide important data which
will
inform StarMetro's decisions about routes, times and other service
issues
next year and in the future.
Jane Johnson and Roxanne Hughes are Commissioners on the
Tallahassee/Leon
County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
PARTICIPATE:
Take the survey at StarMetroSurvey.com by May 23.
You can also fill out a hard copy survey at The Oasis Center for Women &
Girls, 317 E. Call St.
Check out the TABI resource web page at http://home.comcast.net/~acorange/TABI
and please make suggestions for new material. If you find something
out-of-date, and you'd like it to be updated, please let the list owner know.
Without comments as to what is helpful, and what should be included on the TABI
resources page, it's unlikely that any volunteer work will occur.
if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the freelists.org web
interface, or by sending an email to the address tabi-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject.
Check out the TABI resource web page at http://home.comcast.net/~acorange/TABI
and please make suggestions for new material. If you find something
out-of-date, and you'd like it to be updated, please let the list owner know.
Without comments as to what is helpful, and what should be included on the TABI
resources page, it's unlikely that any volunteer work will occur.
if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the freelists.org web
interface, or by sending an email to the address tabi-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject.
