In an effort to rectify budget shortfalls the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has identified a savings in discontinuing the many local Circulator routes that services many of Cleveland's neighborhoods to staunch local opposition. GCRTA seems to recognize the that their proposed solution is putting many customers in a bind and is planning to start a one-year pilot project in January 2010 in attempt to alleviate this problem.
The Weekly Shopper Service pilot program will offer one day a week, 6 hour long Circulator service from "major residential complexes and high density areas to shopping and medical facilities".
It sounds better than nothing and is still in the planning stages which means that input from the public and elected officials is needed to shape and finalize plans. Therefore it is up to the public to prod RTA and our officials to fulfill the services we require. My main concern is that areas of "high density" will already be close to shopping and medical facilities (such as in Lakewood) so the service won't be serving those that need it the most. I understand that GCRTA feels that they can concentrate efforts in order to achieve more but I wonder how easy such a thing (service vs need vs operational cost vs quality of life vs cost cutting justification) is to quantify.
And I am not going to complain about how high our fares are just yet, because I think we all agree that they are a bit high.
And by a bit I mean ridiculously high.
If the city and GCRTA would team up to get rid of the surface lots downtown to increase the value of the public transit service I think they could then justify the fare increase, until then it is becoming increasing cheaper for me to drive myself.
The Weekly Shopper Service pilot program will offer one day a week, 6 hour long Circulator service from "major residential complexes and high density areas to shopping and medical facilities".
It sounds better than nothing and is still in the planning stages which means that input from the public and elected officials is needed to shape and finalize plans. Therefore it is up to the public to prod RTA and our officials to fulfill the services we require. My main concern is that areas of "high density" will already be close to shopping and medical facilities (such as in Lakewood) so the service won't be serving those that need it the most. I understand that GCRTA feels that they can concentrate efforts in order to achieve more but I wonder how easy such a thing (service vs need vs operational cost vs quality of life vs cost cutting justification) is to quantify.
And I am not going to complain about how high our fares are just yet, because I think we all agree that they are a bit high.
And by a bit I mean ridiculously high.
If the city and GCRTA would team up to get rid of the surface lots downtown to increase the value of the public transit service I think they could then justify the fare increase, until then it is becoming increasing cheaper for me to drive myself.
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