[tabi] NOVA articles from today's 7/29 Democrat

  • From: Erica <ericamccaul@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:39:49 -0400 (EDT)

 2 articles appeared on the top of the front page of today's Democrat. I have 
pasted in the complete text, along with the comments posted as of noon, below: 

 
Miccosukee Hills residents fight for bus service
8:09 AM, Jul. 29, 2011  By TaMaryn Waters

Nearly 40 residents in Miccosukee Hills pleaded for bus service to resume in 
the subdivision populated with seniors and residents living with disabilities.
The subdivision has been cut off from general service for two weeks after 
StarMetro launched its new citywide system. Bus riders at the subdivision say 
they can't trek the hilly entrance road to access a bus stop on Miccosukee 
Road, which has no sidewalks in the area.
Philip Gregory, a 64-year-old resident of Miccosukee Hills for a year and a 
half, said he doesn't want to see StarMetro make "knee-jerk reactions" based on 
finances since staffers say serving the subdivision would be costly if a bus 
came through in the new system.
"The majority of these people are 75-, 85- and 90-year-old people, and I'm 
going to be there very quickly," Gregory said. "We can lose our eyesight. We 
can lose our hearing. We can loose our teeth. We can lose a lot of things. But 
when we lose our mobility, that's when the quality of life drops significantly."
Several solutions were presented by StarMetro staffers, who have been working 
with residents on the issue well before the launch.
StarMetro Executive Director Ron Garrison said it would cost an estimated 
$180,000 per year to serve the subdivision with a regular-size bus, which is 
too costly to justify the number of riders at the subdivision. He said he has 
to consider ridership, budget restraints and physical challenges with the 
condition of the subdivision's roads.
Garrison is leaning toward an option that would work like a fixed route using a 
smaller vehicle, such as a Dial-A-Ride van. He's hoping to have a possible 
solution to share by a follow-up meeting scheduled for Aug. 18.
In the past two weeks, Miccosukee Hills riders who would normally ride the bus 
could still get access to Dial-A-Ride at $2.50 per trip. Residents who are 
qualified to be considered "transportationally disadvantaged" could ride the 
Community Transportation Coordination (CTC) for medical appointments for $2.50 
per trip. That service is free to Medicaid recipients, Garrison said.
(Page 2 of 2)
"If I can, by using technology, rearrange the other trips on a Dial-A-Ride van 
to fit this in," Garrison said, referring to the subdivision, "it would be at a 
minimum cost."
Carol Worthham, 89, a Miccosukee Hills resident for 17 years, said residents 
are willing to compromise with StarMetro.
Worthham said residents would be willing to live with bus service in the 
morning, afternoon and evening.
"That will take care of us. Please, give it to us," Worthham said, standing in 
front of the audience while looking Garrison in the eyes.
Garrison tried to comfort audience members, some of whom made no attempts to 
hide their frustrations.
"My heart wants to do the right thing here," he said. "I would not be in this 
business if I didn't care ... I'm in this business because we want to make a 
difference."
Tallahassee City Commissioner Nancy Miller listened to the concerns and felt 
strongly that bus service needs to be restored. She said residents at 
Miccosukee Hills are the very ones the bus system was designed to serve.
"I understand that the ridership was low over here, but I think we can expect 
ridership to increase if we solve this problem," Miller said. "I feel we have 
got to run some routes through here somehow."
"If I can, by using technology, rearrange the other trips on a Dial-A-Ride van 
to fit this in," Garrison said, referring to the subdivision, "it would be at a 
minimum cost."

Carol Worthham, 89, a Miccosukee Hills resident for 17 years, said residents 
are willing to compromise with StarMetro.
Worthham said residents would be willing to live with bus service in the 
morning, afternoon and evening.
"That will take care of us. Please, give it to us," Worthham said, standing in 
front of the audience while looking Garrison in the eyes.
Garrison tried to comfort audience members, some of whom made no attempts to 
hide their frustrations.
"My heart wants to do the right thing here," he said. "I would not be in this 
business if I didn't care ... I'm in this business because we want to make a 
difference."
Tallahassee City Commissioner Nancy Miller listened to the concerns and felt 
strongly that bus service needs to be restored. She said residents at 
Miccosukee Hills are the very ones the bus system was designed to serve.
"I understand that the ridership was low over here, but I think we can expect 
ridership to increase if we solve this problem," Miller said. "I feel we have 
got to run some routes through here somehow."

4 comments
1) squareman  6:34 AM on July 29, 2011
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If Ron Garrison cares so much, why wasn't this issue addressed before the new 
system was put in place? Many Miccosukee Hills residents complained loudly at 
the so called "listening sessions" but their pleas were ignored.
2)  tallylad 6:40 AM on July 29, 2011
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Articles on this concern have not really indicated why there was a change. This 
article indicates that "regular buses" can't navigate the roads within the 
Miccosukee Hills subdivision. Well, what type of bus was used before?
3) redhot47fl  8:06 AM on July 29, 2011
tallylad: Good point, and here's the answer (which should have been made clear 
by the article, but was not).
Before the change, 12 or 13 regular StarMetro buses looped through the 
community each day as part of their normal runs up and down Miccosukee Road. 
After the change, those buses still rolled up and down Miccosukee Road, but 
none were allowed to loop through the community. So, these elderly and/or 
infirm people went overnight from 12 or 13 buses a day to none.
Again, these were regular StarMetro buses that served the community and the 
condition of the roads in the Miccosukee Hills subdivision had never been an 
issue during the 30 years that residents had access to city-provided bus 
service. Suddenly, in playing defense, Garrison has made that an issue.
All the residents want is the restoration of a few - not all - of those 
scheduled trips each day. Also, it is simply not possible that this would cost 
$180,000 a year. Again, to be clear, they are not asking for a new route - only 
the restoration of a short, quick loop of an existing route.
4) squareman 8:07 AM on July 29, 2011
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The change was made because of the budget cut that StarMetro tried to pass off 
as new and improved bus service. The city commission and StarMetro were told 
early on that the Nova 2010 plan would disenfranchise the poor, the elderly and 
the disabled and that is precisely what it has done

===================
StarMetro makes route changes
11:44 PM, Jul. 28, 2011  By TaMaryn Waters

With roughly two weeks into a new system, StarMetro already is making changes 
to several routes and offering free-ride coupons when buses are late.
StarMetro launched a new bus system — the largest change in Tallahassee's 
history — July 11 and that change made the C.K. Steele Plaza one of many 
transfer points in the system instead of the only one. Routes also were 
revamped to allow buses to operate on peak and off-peak times.
While StarMetro coordinated volunteer ambassadors on buses to help riders and 
beefed up help on its hot line, some riders voiced concerns, including late 
buses.
The "Five or Free" program, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 12, will allow riders to get a 
free round-trip ride coupon when a bus is more than five minutes late. Coupons 
will be good for six months, said StarMetro's Executive Director Ron Garrison.
Gregory Thompson, a member of the city's Transit Advisory Committee, said the 
coupon program is a "nice gesture."
"It would be better if they ran the buses on time," said Thompson, a 
public-transportation professor at Florida State University.
Thompson added he was not a bus rider until StarMetro changed its system. He 
said a new system was necessary since the old approach catered to the downtown 
area being the focal travel point, and the city's growth over the years demands 
a more far-reaching approach.
Since the launch, there's been a 12-percent increase in ridership. As a result, 
Garrison said route changes include slowing down or speeding up the frequency a 
bus serves certain routes. He said these kinds of changes could take six weeks 
when a new system launches, but he wanted to minimize the "growing pains."
"It works real well for a lot of customers but it doesn't work well for 
everyone," Garrison said. "So we want to fix it for the folks (for whom) it 
doesn't work well."
Residents voiced concern and support of the new system through emails, phone 
calls and social-networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Garrison 
said rider input is the catalyst triggering the changes.
"We listened. We heard you. Now we are going to make the changes that work for 
you," Garrison said. "It's that simple."

3 comments: 
1) squareman 6:28 AM on July 29, 2011
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Wasn't Dr. Thompson the person that spoke at a city commission meeting who said 
that the new system would not work well with the headways being so long? It is 
hard to remember since so many people spoke against StarMetro's ill-advised 
Nova 2010 plan. More people spoke against it at that meeting than spoke for it, 
but still the city commission gave Ron Garrison the green light to go forward 
with it. And now everyone wonders why the new system isn't working? Ron 
Garrison and StarMetro were told to expect every single problem that they 
currently have... but still the city commission gave them the green light to go 
forward with it. The city commission needs to take its head out of the sand and 
acknowledge the mistake they made in putting their trust in a buffoon like Ron 
Garrison. They need to fire him and put someone in charge that has half a brain 
and a smidgen of common sense.
2) squiffynole 7:18 AM on July 29, 2011
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I have a different view. The old route system was fine when Tallahassee was 
smaller and trips were more center focused. The new route system better 
responds to today's more spread out housing, employment and shopping. Mr. 
Garrison is working to match the new routes with a better fleet, more 
accessible public information, improved bus shelters and sidewalks. Sure there 
are problems and there will be a continuing need to adjust but StarMetro is 
modernizing and it is good for the City.
3) squareman 8:03 AM on July 29, 2011
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No one is arguing that the old system was perfect; there is no question that 
changes were needed. What is being questioned is the method that was used to 
implement those changes. Ron Garrison and StarMetro minimized or completely 
ignored anything that even resembled criticism of their precious little Nova 
2010 plan. They were told to expect that people would have difficulty making 
connections with the headways being so long. They were told of the plight of 
the residents at Miccosukee HIlls; every concern raised was minimized or 
completely ignored. They made a big, fat hairy deal of how they were going to 
put up Braille placards to assist visually impaired bus riders and here we are 
two weeks into the new systems and the placards have not been put up and the 
latest word is that there is not enough money to put all of them up. Notice how 
they don't make a big deal about their failure to follow through on promises 
that they made.

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  • » [tabi] NOVA articles from today's 7/29 Democrat - Erica