Forums to address transportation needs of public
Let’s coordinate transit programs regionally,
planners say.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — Regional planners want to hear ideas from the public on how to coordinate public transportation services in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys across county and state lines.
To get input from public transit riders, business and social service agency representatives and others interested in identifying public transit needs and gaps in service, they’ve scheduled three public forums, two Wednesday and the third Thursday.
“People don’t care where the county boundaries are. They need to get to their jobs. They need to go to doctor’s appointments,” said Mirta Reyes-Chapman, transit program manager at the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, a regional planning agency for Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
“We’re embarking on something here that could be the beginning of something big: cooperation that would ultimately benefit people who are transit-dependent,” and recruit new riders, said Mike Bosela of Youngstown, president of the Western Reserve Transit Authority board of trustees.
“WRTA will work with anyone and join forces to pull down resources,” to help fund better public transit, Bosela said.
Wider reach
Bosela, who is blind, regularly rides WRTA buses from his South Side residence to his job as coordinator of the Radio Reading Service for the blind at Goodwill Industries, and for other trips.
“We need to reach out,” to other communities, he said of WRTA, whose local funding comes solely from the city of Youngstown. “If it wasn’t for Youngstown, WRTA could not exist,” Bosela said, referring to city property tax levies that support the authority.
“We need other partners in this whole endeavor,” he said, noting that other major Ohio metropolitan areas have county-wide transit systems.
“By coordinating, we can be good stewards of those tax dollars,” that come to local public transit programs from federal, state and local sources, said Kathy M. Zook, senior planner at Eastgate. Public transit is “a quality of life issue for everyone,” she added.
“We’re definitely trying to examine the gaps in our own systems and look at opportunities for some joint ventures,” said Thomas Tulip, executive director of the Mercer County Council of Governments, which operates the Shenango Valley Shuttle Service and Mercer County Community Transit.
“We’re part of the same urbanized area, and anything that we can do to collaborate and cooperate is a benefit to all of us,” Tulip added.
Government mandate
The public comment sessions are being held under an August 2005 congressional mandate requiring coordination of federally funded public transit programs within metropolitan areas, Zook said.
The planning efforts will focus on improving the mobility of elderly, disabled and low-income people, said Kathleen L. Rodi, Eastgate’s director of transportation.
“The funding, statewide and federal, is shrinking. So we need to look at something to generate enough money to provide public transportation for this area,” as a region, Bosela said. “If they (federal and state officials) see that you’re making an effort on the local level to coordinate and not overlap services, people are supportive of that, and they’ll give more dollars toward that.”
The tri-county area is served by the Youngstown-based WRTA, which offers fixed-route buses and door-to-door transportation by appointment for elderly and disabled people; the SVSS, which offers fixed route bus service in western Mercer County; MCCT, which offers door-to-door service by appointment to elderly and disabled people; and the Niles-Trumbull Transit System, which offers rides to all population groups by appointment.
The New Castle Transit Authority is not included as a sponsor of the forums because Lawrence County, where it is based, isn’t federally designated as part of the Youngstown-Warren-Sharon metropolitan area, Zook said.
Also not included is Columbiana County, whose Community Action Agency operates a countywide minibus and van service by appointment for all, but has no regular bus routes.
Reyes-Chapman said dialogue is under way among WRTA, SVSS and the Niles-Trumbull Transit System concerning establishing passenger transfer points from one system to another at or near county or state lines.
Bosela said Goodwill Industries or Liberty Plaza, both on Belmont Avenue, would be good transfer points from the Niles-Trumbull Transit System to WRTA buses.
Zook said she’d like businesses planning to establish facilities in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys to consider locating them along bus routes to help employees commute to work.
A joint regional approach to maximize operating efficiencies is needed now more than ever because of recent funding cuts that have forced transit service curtailments, all three Eastgate officials said. WRTA was forced by federal and state funding cutbacks to eliminate its evening and Warren service this spring.
“If you take their bus service away, they no longer have a way to get to work,’’ Rodi said of people making the welfare-to-work transition.
Bosela said he is inconvenienced by having to rely on friends, family, RRS volunteers, and, as a last resort, a costly taxi, to take him home when he works past WRTA’s last bus departure at 6 p.m.