Friday, October 3, 2008

What exactly is a bus system?

During the last few weeks, I've seen two people hurt seriously while trying to use the Atomic City Bus system. One person was decked by an inattentive motorist while crossing the street in a marked crosswalk, and one person was stung by yellowjackets while walking to the bus stop along foliage-festooned sidewalks showing serious neglect by their homeowners. Both people required medical treatment.

As I said to our Traffic and Transit managers Nancy Talley and Mike Davis , our County Engineer Kyle Zimmerman, Pavement Manager Tom Roach, to several Councilors, and to you, my Blog Reader, a bus system doesn't work optimally without a viable way for people to get to and from the bus from their destinations. If our community is not bus and pedestrian friendly and thus support all the parts of the system, we will not see as many riders as we should. Well marked crosswalks, alert and cooperative drivers, and neighbors who care about keeping their sidewalks clear of obstructions are as crucial to the system as the riders, buses and drivers. Seems to me that in an auto-centric world, we have forgotten that sidewalks are as crucial as streets.

Thanks go out to Pavement Manager Tom Roach for inspecting our neighborhood and sending out notices to folks who need to take out the weed whacker and pruning hooks. Thanks to those homeowners who are acting on the notices--and even more to those who don't need notices in the first place.

No comments: