Riding on the WRTA

This photo by Tony Nicholas

















photo of the smiling bus driver by Tony Nicholas

















A good time was had by all who participated in the bus trip organized by Shout Youngstown. The Vindy did an excellent piece on the event, check it out here. Approximately 25 or 30 people met at the WRTA station in downtown Youngstown to take the Buckeye 33 to Casa Fiesta on Midlothian Blvd. The Casa Fiesta serves a wide range of Mexican dishes, in a bright and cheerful environment. (The pina coladas are to die for by the way)
















Yesterday's gathering was similar to a flash mob only on public transit. It was organized to show support for the WRTA and to bring attention to the fact that Saturday service has been restored thanks to the levy that recently passed. WRTA's current goal is to provide county wide service.

Bus schedules can be found at the WRTA website here. Riding the bus is for everyone. I have often heard people remark that riding the bus is for people in poverty, or disabled. Actually, riding the bus is not a "class" issue but rather an environmental issue. The more people using public transportation the better for our environment.

Yesterday was a first for a few of the participants. Some were a little nervous about the experience because they were uncertain how to ride the bus. The WRTA anticipating this feeling has posted a rider's guide to the bus system here.

More flash mob events on the WRTA are in the planning stages, the bloggers of Y-town will keep you updated. Hope you can join us next time! It is our hope that more and more people will become aware and make use of this wonderful asset in the Mahoning Valley.

The WRTA will be receiving 3.51 million dollars infunds from the Federal Stimulus Package to make needed improvements to the station and to expand service. WRTA can get a head start on making needed improvements by placing bus schedules in the station and fixing their change machine. It would also be wonderful if the WRTA window could be open on Saturday as well.

We do hope to see you all next time. It was a great way to get together with friends old and new, explore Y-town by bus, and have a wonderful lunch!

Cities are't the Problem-They are the Solution

Prior to reading the post below about the WRTA please watch the video of Jaime Lerner from TED. I believe that after watching this video you will understand why the title of today's post is "Cities Aren't the Problem; They are the Solution" and you too will want to sing "The Sustainability Song" by voting yes for the WRTA levy.

As many of you know, there will be a levy on the March 4th ballot to fund WRTA bus service in the region (Youngstown and surrounding suburbs) through a sales tax. If approved, this means that there will be a 0.25% sale tax which would replace two existing property taxes in Youngstown. The property taxes raise 2.5 million dollars a year for the WRTA. The new tax is projected to raise 7.5 million dollars per year and would allow for the reinstatement of weekend and evening buses, more frequent city service and new routes to the suburbs. If this levy is rejected, the results could range from temporary additional cutbacks to the permanent elimination of public transportation in the city.

I support the passage of this levy for several reasons. Many city residents rely on the bus service to get back and forth between their jobs in the suburbs and their homes in the city. I wish I could say that it goes the other way as well and that people in the suburbs use the WRTA to get from home in the suburbs to their jobs in the city, but unfortunately I don't believe that would be an accurate statement.

It never ceases to amaze me, but I have actually heard people articulate that the reason they won't ride the bus is because it is for poor people. What a sad state of affairs that people first of all believe this, and second of all are so worried about being associated in any way with others they perceive to be poor, that they let this influence their decisions. This lack of awareness quite simply blows my mind! It is also indicative of yet another way that classism and racism in this region impact revitalization as well as our ability to be part of a solution rather than the problem. We absolutely must become educated about public transportation and we need to acknowledge our responsibility for the environment.

Hannah Woodroofe, a friend of mine, who has been instrumental in educating me about the levy issue, has written directions for those of us who aren't familiar with how to ride the bus. I can't thank her enough for doing this as I do believe that often the reason people don't do the right thing is because they don't know how to do the right thing. So here in their entirety are the directions for how to ride the WRTA:

Go to the Federal Station which is located downtown on Federal Plaza. There are bus schedules located on the wall facing the entrance. You can take as many rate schedules as you need. You can also find the routes and time schedules here on line at WRTA. You can pay your fare in cash when you board the bus ($1.25), or buy ticket booklets at the Federal Station. Student and senior citizen fares are .70 and .65 with proper ID. To transfer at Federal Station from one route to another, ask the bus driver for a transfer when you board the first bus (an extra quarter) and then just show it to the second driver. While many of the bus stops in the city aren't clearly marked you can pretty much assume that the bus will let you off on any block along the bus route (the few stops on the route schedule are just time markers, and there are many more stops in between that are not indicated). Drivers are good about picking up and letting off where convenient so long as you let them know from the street or the bus that you'd like them to stop. (All the buses are wheelchair accessible, although not all stops are, especially in the winter). In general, to figure out where to wait for the bus look for the WRTA sign, or sometimes an old sign pole missing the sign along one of the routes.

For those of you concerned about what downtown is like during the day. I happened to find a photo tour of Youngstown on the internet. It is great to see that visitors to our fine city see the beauty that is here.Check out the link for more.