City Council Approves Transit Master Plan

The vote was 6-1. Changes will not happen all at once, but as funding and opportunity allow. Now is definitely the time to elect transit-friendly city council members...Have you voted?

Get There Asheville Urges City Council to Approve Transit Master Plan

I'm posting this from Get There Asheville in its entirety.



Get There Asheville urges council to approve Transit Master Plan
Monday, October 26, 2009 By Hanna




Asheville city council this Tuesday will review the eagerly-awaited Transit Master Plan, which calls for significant improvements to the transit system including Sunday service, more frequent runs on popular routes, the elimination of the day-evening service gap which currently strands workers downtown, a crosstown route linking West Asheville with the mall and Super WalMart and new service to places where our neighbors live, work and play, including the French Broad River Park and Biltmore Town Square.
Along with the Comprehensive Bicycle Plan and Downtown Master Plan, the TMP will provide an important foundation for Asheville’s multimodal transportation network. But the council needs to hear from you: Please plan to join us on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at City Hall to show your support for this critical document. (And stay tuned for details on a post-meeting party to celebrate the plan’s passage.) If you can’t make it to the meeting, consider sending an e-mail to our city’s leaders telling them why you believe in a smart transit system: Click here to send a message to council members.
Thank you for your support, and we’ll see you Tuesday!

Asheville City Council to vote on Transit Master Plan

Asheville City Council votes on the new Transit Master Plan tomorrow night. Here is a link from Asheville city council candidate Gordon Smith's newsletter regarding this news. I like his point that while the plan isn't perfect, it's a good start...will increase frequency on main routes and initiate Sunday service. Also I believe if I read the plan correctly, it calls for a new route on Long Shoals. I hope that happens sooner rather than later. There's a party after the vote, so come one come all.

Here's the link:http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1410073751

Please Vote in City Council Election and Check Out Get There Asheville

There is a new group in Asheville called Get There Asheville. Their mission as stated on their website:

....To Amplify the Voice of those who support building a local transportation network for the 21st century...As Get There Asheville, a coalition of citizens involved in local transportation policy, we are dedicated to making this election a winning one for our city's many walkers, cyclists and bus riders...


They have already held two candidate forums. If you haven't voted yet I would encourage you to their website and read the City Council and Mayoral candidates' responses to transportation issues. The site has been a little difficult for me to navigate...but be persistent and you can get to the info you want:

http://getthereasheville.com/?page_id=2.

Looks like they have one more meeting before the election on October 30, 5pm, Get There. We Vote. We Count. Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville.

I'll add more about this group if I can find out more. Also to see if they plan to be active after the election. In the meantime, please vote for candidates that will help Asheville improve our transit system!

First Ride in Awhile

Rode the bus today for the first time since Bele Chere in July. It was a beautiful windy fall day. A nice day to walk up to one of the Haywood Road bus stops. The ride into town was quite uneventful. Not very crowded. Mixture of quiet people including a cute baby in a baby carrier and a toddler sleeping in his Daddy's lap.

Ride out of town was quiet and uneventful also, except for a short delay at PVA due to a potential rider standing at the door of the bus yelling to her friends to come on if they wanted to get on the bus...her friends didn't show up so she eventually waved the driver on. By the time we got back on Haywood Road I think there were only 4 of us on the bus. A shame.

The most recent transit news is that the Weaverville-Asheville route is in danger of being terminated. City council is apparently considering if it can be saved. Here's the link:

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091024/NEWS01/910240325

I don't want to see routes lost. I want to see routes added and more people riding!

PS. Let me clarify. Ken rides the bus to work with some regularity. It's just me who has fallen off the bus wagon. I am still going to figure out how to ride it to work someday. In a new post I'll lay out the logistics of getting somewhere where the bus doesn't go.

Wednesday's child

As the old saying goes, Wednesday's child is full of woe. Not me, not today. Nor does this Wednesday's child have far to go. Lately, I've been working every Wednesday, but I have been free of other duties which would require a car. So: to the bus stop. This morning I hoofed the .4mi up to the business district so that I could catch #1 bus headed downtown. The riders were a sorry and sullen lot. This was 10:30ish, after all. We should have been happy! After days and days and days of rain, our fair city was experiencing sunshine! But nothing could turn our frowns upside down. We weren't particularly happy, but we weren't fired up either. We were quite a contrast from the unhappy lot that rode a #9 bus one day last week.

One day last week I hustled away from work a few seconds early so that I could be "on time" for #9 as it left the transit center headed west. Ha ha. "On time" in this case meant about twenty or twenty-five minutes late. What a joke. After waiting so long at the station, I boarded the bus. I reached for my county ID to show the driver. Oops-- a credit card. I held the line up for about ten seconds while I fished out the county ID. The bus driver asked me "how long you been waiting for the bus"?

I said, "maybe twenty minutes".

He snapped back with a near-automatic "In all that time, you could have already had your ID ready". Ouch. Snap.

I could not help myself: "I don't suppose the bus could have been here twenty minutes ago, could it have?"

Oh, but that's not his fault, he was quick to respond.

I just walked away. No, I suppose that it was not his fault. But it's somebody's fault. Did anyone walk on the bus and apologize to the riders for the error? Of course not. Is anyone accountable?

By contrast, I work in a public facility. Suppose it was a bright and sunny day. I'm not talking about a snowy day when the roads are bad. If, on such a bright and sunny day, our agency opened its doors twenty minutes late, inconveniencing dozens of people, we would find some way to apologize. We feel like we're accountable.

It's not about me. I wasn't in a hurry. Ho-hum so what. But what about the people who are depending on this bus to get to work? To get to their children?

I do feel sorry for those people. They deserve better.

Inglés Market. (whoops!)

I rode twice this week, in and out of town on Tuesday and Saturday. The rides were without incident and easy. Aside from the schedule delays, they were fine.

Oddly enough, the Asheville Transit buses are now equipped with a speaker that pushes a computerized "female" voice into the bus at certain times. The "lady announcer" says "stop requested" after a person requests a stop. The same voice keeps riders informed about the bus location, with phrases such as "approaching Haywood and Michigan" and "Ingles Market". One announcement was quite funny, because "she" pronounced Ingles as "inglés". For those outside the general region of Southern Appalachia, Ingles is our leading regional supermarket chain. Ingles rhymes with jingles. I hope all the Latino riders realize that Ingles isn't your best stop for Mexican or Latin American foods. (because it's not).

I wonder if the computerized voice utilizes GPS. After we exited Beecham's Curve and headed down the hill towards the river, the computer lady intoned "approaching Beckham's curve". The geographical and pronunciation errors aren't really a major problem, but they are funny. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad that the system exists. This system could be a big help to blind people. For the rest of us, it's just a big joke.

Come to think of it, on the bus, I was the only one laughing.

Round and Round Back to the Station We Go

I'm sorry to say that my bus riding has been non-existent since I have started working out of the downtown. No bus route down Long Shoals Road even though it's an extremely busy area.

But Friday night I was going to make an effort to ride again. I wanted to go into town for Bele Chere after work. I got home around 6:30 and figured I'd catch a 7pm bus on Brevard Road or a 7:35 bus on Haywood Rd. Well I waited awhile on Brevard Road and then walked on up to Haywood. There were no buses to be seen. I finally realized that after 6:30pm they don't run on the hour anymore. I had forgotten this little detail. And the bus stop signs were not helpful. They indicated that the buses ran every hour until 6:30, but didn't say what the schedule was after that. I decided to walk the 3 + miles and it's a good thing I did, because no bus passed me in the 45 minutes that I walked. No big deal I guess. I got into town by 8pm like I needed to; it was a beautiful evening to walk; I needed the exercise.

After Bele Chere, we needed to catch the last bus out of town at 10:30pm. Yes, believe it or not, the last bus out of town is that early on a weekend night.

There was a swarm of people wanting on that last bus. The most people I've ever seen trying to get on a bus in Asheville. So we started cramming ourselves in. I was lucky enough to get a seat, although I would have gladly stood up. Unfortunately, two drunk rednecks had to stand very close by. (They had immediately plopped down in the seats at the front reserved for the elderly and physically challenged, but the driver asked them to move.) The bus started filling up and the driver yelled to folks to move to the back. People started yelling and grumbling about how tightly we were packed. It wasn't really tight by big city standards, or even by college bus standards! But the bus riders of Asheville were wound tight that night. Continued grumbling, yelling at each other and at the driver. The drunk rednecks and some of the black riders were getting testy with each other. It seemed very possible and likely that a fight could break out. Finally everyone was packed in and we started up.

We drove just a little ways and the Stop Request light came on and didn't go off. The driver asked who was pushing it. No one admitted they were. Before we knew it, the driver had turned around and taken us back to the bus station! We stayed parked there awhile until the light went off. Then we started again with double the grumbling. Again the light comes on and back we go to the bus station. This time when we get to the station, an Asheville police officer is there. Then an Asheville Transit worker yells "Everybody off the bus." More grumbling, but off we get. Lots of angry people

This time Asheville Transit orders an additional bus. The Transit guy says 30 people can get on the first bus. He counts them. We wait for the second bus and leave around 11pm.

It's a shame. Bad PR. Maybe a deal breaker for any middle class riders who happened to be trying out bus riding that night. I'll ride it again, for sure, but I'll bet I'm not typical of people who have a choice whether to ride or to drive. And lots of people with a choice want to stay in town later than 10:30pm on a weekend night. And not have near chaos when the bus gets a little crowded.

the bus choice

It's hardly news when everything at Asheville Transit works as it should, but that's what happened this morning. I got on trusty bus #9 on Brevard Road, we rode into town together, and I got to work on time.

I haven't had much time for busriding lately. It does take more time than driving. (Example: this morning I intended to catch the #9 bus, because that requires less walking. I had to be ready at 8:05. Alternative: I could walk about half a mile up to Haywood Road with my heavy bag to catch bus #1; in that case, I would need to be ready at 8:20. If I drive my car, I need to get ready by 8:40). This is played out again and again. If I worked today and drove my car, I could be home by 5:15 or 5:20. Riding the next bus home would mean arriving at home closer to 6:00. It's frustrating. What is a five or ten minute trip by car becomes a half-hour or so trip by bus, and then you figure in the waiting. As Tom Petty sang, the waiting is the hardest part.

I avoided riding the bus all week for one reason or another, mostly because I wanted to go to the Y or I had some other activity planned, and it all made the bus choice (at least in Asheville) impractical. Getting the boy out to his camp location in North Asheville and then whisking myself to work? I haven't tried it yet. Car scenario: leave the house at 8:30, drive him to camp, drive to work. Bus scenario: leave the house at 7:15 (ouch!), walk half a mile, hop a bus to downtown, transfer to a bus going north, kick the boy out of the bus at camp, then ride the bus back to downtown to the job.

By contrast, today was easy. Easy like Saturday morning.

Friday, Saturday

I managed to ride the bus Friday and Saturday of last week. I got good service both days. Saturday morning's bus is always uncrowded. It's nice, probably ten passengers on the way into town. Friday's is a different story, but it's good in a way. We're packed into the #1 bus along Haywood Road, into PVA, and back onto Haywood on the way to downtown. Either way, it's good.

Asheville Transit is supposed to be testing out some new routes (no passenger service while they test how long it takes a bus to get from point A to points B, C, D, etc.). One of the proposed routes (I think) includes Bingham Heights, PVA, and Wal-Mart, but it doesn't go downtown. As every single route involves downtown now, this is a big change. I hope it works.

Strive not to Drive

It is Strive not to Drive Week!

Yesterday was Monday, and I drove my car due to a scheduled soccer game in the Enka area.

Fortunately, I was able to ride the bus today.

Overall, the ride in was fine, but there was one incident worth noting. A man rang the bell on Hilliard, and he wanted to get off at a stop on Hilliard. The bus driver drove right past the stop, and people started yelling "you missed the stop! and "you're supposed to stop back there!" The driver slowed down and stopped. The man got off without a word.

Now everybody makes mistakes, and I guess this was a mistake. That's fine. But after the mistake, why not apologize? Why not say "my fault" or "sorry about that"? The driver said nothing. The same driver, earlier in the trip, was quick to point out a bus rider's mistake. The rider immediately apologized.

Anyway, all in all, it was a good ride.

#9 in

This morning I lined up for the #9 on Brevard Road, right near my house. Of course, students also catch a bus at the same spot. It's a school bus, and usually that bus scoops the kids up around, oh, 7:55 or so.

For the first time, as I walked towards where I stand for the bus, I saw a group of high school and middle school kids waiting for the bus right there! They were waiting at my bus stop. Well I wasn't going to hang out with a bunch of teenagers who didn't know me. They would surely have me pegged as a creep. So I walked back home, sure that I had enough time to make the bus even after this detour. I then spun around and headed back towards the bus stop, thinking that maybe, just maybe, the school bus would be along shortly.

Thankfully the yellow bus came along straight away, so I had the stop to myself. I usually expect the city bus around 8:08, but it ran a few minutes later than that this morning. When I boarded, I expected to see some reason for this delay, like a person in a wheelchair. I still don't know why the bus was a bit late. In fact, the bus was nearly empty. Then, one guy got off near the corner of Fairfax and Haywood, and three of us (driver included) rode on towards PVA. Of course, there were riders waiting in PVA. The bus takes a new course these days, omitting Michigan Avenue altogether, so it plunges into the neighborhood via State Street and it rises back out via Hanover Street, which makes for a change of scenery.

To my surprise, the bus, travelling less than half full and in very light traffic, pulled into the station late. Mind you, it was just a few minutes late, but late it was. Luckily, #6 was waiting out on Asheland Ave. for a few transfer riders.

As for other non-car travellers, I can add this: While I waited near the corner of my street and Brevard Road, I noticed three people biking to work. And, late in the bus trip, I spotted one of my neighbors biking up the hill on Clingman Avenue. Four cyclists!

three days in a row

I managed to ride the bus (and avoid using a car) three days in a row last week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Mind you, my responsibility on Thursday amounted to child care only, and I only had to work on Friday and Saturday. Any day which involves child care AND work is very unlikely to be a bus day.

Asheville Transit Master Plan Meeting: April 2

Here is an update on the Asheville Transit site. Please attend the April 2nd meeting!


Transit Master Plan Preliminary Recommendations to be Presented to Public

The consultants, HDR Engineering Inc. of the Carolinas, creating Asheville’s first-ever Transit Master Plan are presenting their preliminary recommendations to the public on Thursday, April 2, from 4pm to 7pm at the Civic Center Banquet Hall. Attendees will be able to view and comment on proposed bus routes, schedule changes, and potential new services. The event’s purpose is to receive feedback from the public before the plan is submitted to City Council.
According to city staff and steering committee members who have seen initial recommendations, the Asheville Transit System’s (ATS) new route structure will feature 30 minute service along parts of Patton Avenue, Haywood Road, and Tunnel Road. There may also be a cross-town route to connect Louisiana Avenue in West Asheville, with neighborhoods in east Asheville.

“The consultants will give multiple presentations to precisely lay out their recommendations,” said ATS Transit Manager, Mariate Echeverry. “The hope is that the public will point out shortfalls in the overall plan before the report is complete.”

The City currently operates with 20 buses. The system is configured as a Hub-and-Spoke system, with service on each route originating and terminating at the downtown transit center. The vast majority of ATS customers are those for whom transit is their main if not only means of transportation. About 30% of all passenger trips made on the ATS are transfers made at the downtown transit center. The other 70% of users either terminate their trip at the transit center or are moving along the routes they originally boarded. About 10 to 14% of current customers say they have a vehicle which could have been used for the trip being taken on the bus.

The final report is expected to be delivered in late summer of this year.

from: http://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/news_releases/default.aspx?id=16414

When Will I Be Able to Ride the Bus to Work Again?

I have been neglecting this blog because of shame!!!!! The bus doesn't go where I need it to go so I have been driving to work (off Long Shoals Rd.) I've been hitting road along with all those other drivers one to a car.


Okay. So enough for excuses. I do need to do some updating. I did attend the Transit Master plan meeting back in January. It seemed to be well-attended. More people than I expected. Of course, those attending were, in my opinion, those who ride the bus out of choice, not necessity. It was set up so that you could drop in, talk to members of the consulting group, write your suggestions down, etc.

Before this meeting, there had been two surveys done. A paper survey that was given to riders on buses. I missed that one. Not sure how long the papers were given out, etc. And there was an online survey, which I took. An Asheville Transit Employee at the meeting told me that the priorities in the surveys were distinctly different. The #1 change people who took the paper survey wanted to see was bus service on Sunday. The #1 change people who took the online survey wanted to see was more frequency. This makes sense, considering that riders of the bus who took the paper survey were probably people who ride the bus mostly out of necessity and they need Sunday service as well as service all the other days of the week. Those of us who took the online survey can hop in our cars on Sunday...but would like for the bus to be more convenient during the week...running more often.

As I recall from the meeting, one of the things we had the option to do was vote for our top 3 priorities for Asheville Bus Service. Things to choose from were: Sunday service, more frequency, more routes...and I can't remember the others. (A clue to which 3 I voted for!)

At other tables, we wrote suggestions on post-it notes. I saw A LOT of suggestions that Long Shoals Road get a bus route. Of course, I would notice that, since that's what I want!

Another question I have is if Asheville Transit will get any federal stimulus money?

I guess I came away feeling that there is not enough money for all of us to get what we want. We need more riders to have more money to operate buses more and to get more riders, especially middle class riders, the bus needs to be more convenient, but it won't be convenient till there are more riders who buy more tickets...

The notice about the findings of the consultants is on the Asheville Transit site. I will copy and paste it into a separate post. What I saw on the site didn't help me at all, but I am still staying hopeful.

Next Transit Master Plan meeting - at the Asheville Civic Center on Thursday - April 2nd from 4pm - 7pm.

A Walk in the Reeds

I would completely leave this one to the rats, but my co-blogger insists that I write up this particular experience, so here goes. My memory of it is hazy.

Four weeks ago today, I attended an event on the A-B Tech campus, and sheer stubbornness compelled me to ride the bus to work, then take #8 (I would have had to wait another 30 minutes for a better bus) down Biltmore Avenue. As it was, I had to walk about a mile to get from Biltmore Avenue to Ferguson Auditorium on the A-B Tech campus, then I enjoyed a prrogram with Indian Masters.

I totally underestimated the walk home. I could have walked back to downtown (this was after 6:30 PM, and dark), but I aimed to save time by walking home along Victoria, Meadow and Amboy Roads, then State Street. After all, I could have walked back to the transit station (which is probably a twenty or thirty minute walk from Ferguson), then waited for the 7:30 bus, but I thought I could walk home and arrive before 8:10, which would have been my ETA, had I walked to downtown and ridden the bus to Haywood Road.

I was probably correct about the time savings, but this route was far too dangerous. First of all, there is no sidewalk along part of Victoria Road. In fact, I had to huddle against a guard rail with oncoming cars swishing by me. Then, on Meadow Road, where there is again no sidewalk, I chose to walk outside the guard rail for part of the distance (again, it was dark), stomping down on waist-high reedy plants. Much of the time I could not see where I was putting my feet. Scary. Walking in the grass along Amboy Road was a bit safer, though I could see very little, due to the combination of darkness and headlights shining directly in my eyes. At least, along Amboy Road, I did not have tall plants in my path. The walk up State Street was safer still (there is a sidewalk on State Street, and there are street lights). I can't remember exactly, but I think perhaps it took me an hour and twenty minutes to walk home that night.

Of course, if there had been a city bus coming through the A-B Tech campus at 7:00 (or even if there had been a bus travelling along Biltmore Avenue at 7:00), I would have surely chosen to use it. But no.

Oh, and even though it was cold, I walked with my jacket open, so that drivers might see my white shirt rather than crash into me. When I got home, I was tired.

chill out, bro.

One day last week I was riding the bus. I sat about halfway back. The bus started to fill up in PVA, as it usually does. One man got on, and I swear he had the loudest speaking voice I have ever heard. This was morning. The guy was giving a shout out to everybody he knew on the bus. Then he started greeting everyone he knew as they boarded the bus. This included slapboxing matches with young children, hugs, etc. People all over the bus were rolling eyes. Some people were yukking it up with the loud man, but not many.

Eventually, with the bus on Clingman, the driver let out a solid "you better chill out, bro." At least, that's what I thought the driver said. One of the loud man's companions told him that the driver said "you better calm down, bro." Either way, the message was the same, and from that point on I heard only muted grumblings from the rear of the bus as The Loud Man contemplated (aloud, of course) his fate during the driver's newly instituted reign of control.

The driver impressed me. He only said what was needed.

When I got to the station, I hastily exited the bus lest I witness some sort of fracas.

The Loud Man may be The Paterfamilias, but I am not sure.

If you’ve ever wanted greater bus frequency, Sunday service, longer hours of operation, or new routes – now is the time to make your voice heard.

Please come to this meeting!

(ASHEVILLE, NC) – There will be a Transit Master Plan public forum on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009 from 4pm-7pm, in the Asheville Civic Center’s banquet hall. The meeting will be held in an “open house” format with no formal presentation. Instead, attendees will be able to offer in-person feedback to consultants, ask questions of staff, and see preliminary data first-hand.

Interim Transit Manager Mariate Echeverry believes the forum will help determine what kind of public transit system the community wants. “The public’s input will help craft a transit plan that will be responsive to the city’s needs, and suggest sustainable transportation options.”

In 2008 the City of Asheville hired Nebraska-based consulting firm HDR to perform a thorough scientific analysis of the Asheville Transit System and create a comprehensive Transit Master Plan.

A Transit Master Plan is a document that analyzes existing transit services and develops data to support planning and decision making. In the case of Asheville, this will mean studying Asheville’s 24 bus routes and comparing them to long-term trends. The study should be completed by July 2009, and will offer short and long term recommendations on how the city could improve public transit.

To supplement the information for the Transit Master Plan, ATS staff created an online survey to get feedback and suggestions.

Dodging Fumes and Doggy Bombs

It's my day off and I'm going to strive not to drive. I've already ridden the bus to West End Bakery. I walked back down Brevard Road to come home. It's a beautiful sunny day, although still cold, but not frigid like it has been. There were two notable negative things, however, that afflicted my walk: a lot of noxious fumes from vehicles...I mean dark smoke that you could actually see. At one point I stopped and just stood for awhile, waiting for the air to clear so I could walk through it. Also, there were lots of doggy bombs all over the sidewalk. People, please, can't you carry little baggies with you and clean up after your little darlings? Give a thought to other people!!

Oh, by the way: one more positive thing. A driver actually stopped for me to cross at the crosswalk on Haywood Road. This is the crosswalk near the bakery where there is no traffic light. Many, many many thanks to you drivers who pay attention to random crosswalks!

Will go to the Asheville Transit Public Hearing for Transit Master Plan meeting today! Please come! It's 4-7 at the Civic Center and is drop in so you don't have to sit through 3 hours of meeting! Come make your wants and needs known!

MLK holiday

Monday is the holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Will the Asheville Transit buses be on a regular schedule?

milk to the airport

A woman with a bulging backpack asks me when the last bus leaves the transit center for the airport. Yikes! It's 3:45, and I tell her the next one leaves at 4:00. I verify that the bus is indeed number six. It will leave at 4:00.

She asks me when number six leaves after 4:00. I tell her 5:30. She explains: "I don't think I'm going to make that first bus, not with a backpack full of milk!"

Why Don't the Buses Go Everywhere, All the Time?

So I got a promotion and am now working in a different part of town. There is no bus service near where I work. The closest stop is nearly a mile away and the road I'd have to walk up to get to work from the bus stop has no sidewalks. Also the times, even if I decided to walk the mile, would be pretty inconvenient.

So I'm wondering why the bus doesn't go down Long Shoals Road. Someone came into the library yesterday and said that her friends had told her that it did indeed stop at the Ingles on Long Shoals, but looking on the route maps, I couldn't find any evidence of that. The library is at the convergence of an elementary school, a middle school and a high school (I'm thinking staff here--teachers, cafeteria workers, custodians.) Long Shoals is a busy, busy road. A hotbed of activity and people going to jobs. All the new businesses in Biltmore Park, also the YMCA is out there. The Waffle House, Ingles...Surely it's just a matter of time...On the other hand, it's quite upper middle class out there...

If I'm wrong and a route has been added I will be very very happy. I'd still have to walk a little ways from the corner of Overlook and Longshoals, but it wouldn't be bad. If I'm wrong, someone out there let me know!

I want to go downtown today. I would ride the bus today if I could, but, alas, it's Sunday and there is no service. Do buses run on Sundays in other cities the size of Asheville?

Asheville Bus Riding Survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=IbMVkOkYW4uWw8K0C5cHFQ_3d_3d

This is the link to a survey that the Asheville Transit System is doing. Please take it and tell your friends to take it. Especially if you think you might ride the bus if it went where you wanted to go and when you wanted to go.

Also, please remember to go to the meeting mentioned in the previous post.

A Meeting of Interest and Importance

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901040352

This is a link to a Citizen-Times article in today's paper reporting on a meeting yesterday at the West Asheville library. The meeting was called a "car-free conclave" and in it, people discussed improvements needed for biking, walking and riding the bus in Asheville. Unfortunately, the meeting was not publicized. I work for the libray system and didn't know about it even though it was at a library.

A bigger meeting is coming up though that I would encourage everyone who is concerned about getting around in the Asheville area to attend. That meeting is January 22nd, 4-7pm at the Civic Center. They must have really wanted a lot of people to come since they chose 4 in the afternoon when most of us work. Unfortunate. But I'm going to try to get time off to go.

Here is the meeting info from the Asheville Citizen:

A public meeting to discuss a master plan for the Asheville Transit System will be held 4-7 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Asheville Civic Center. For information, call the transit system office at 253-5691 or e-mail iride@ashevillenc.gov.

two buses and one drunk

Monday I drove because I had to get Walter over to his Mom's house, then I had to go to work. The bus is simply not the right tool for that job. Then after work I went for a run, then we went up Merrimon for dinner and a movie. More driving. We did, however, leave the van downtown Monday night. On Tuesday we rode the bus into town, and then at the end of the day I rode the bus home directly, but Sherry drove to Earth Fare on her way home.

On Wednesday, we missed the outgoing #9 from downtown at 5:30. Usually that bus is late, and I had come to count on it being late-- big mistake. We arrived at the bus station at 5:33, just as the bus was leaving. I saw it, waiting at the edge of Coxe, but I didn't realize that it was #9. We surely could have made it, but we didn't know it was #9 so we didn't run for it. Anyway, #1 was along at 6:00. We spent the interim in a packed waiting area.

One of those days there was a drunk on the bus on the way home. I guess that was Tuesday. So transit drivers allow drunks on the bus? I mean drunk. I don't mean buzzed or tipsy. This guy was staggering, slurred speech, the works. If someone comes in my workplace drunk like that, we insist that he (and it's always a he) find his way to an exit. Why are they allowed on the bus? He wasn't causing any particular problems, I suppose. He stayed in his seat. He didn't challenge anybody to a duel or anything. I guess that policy amounts to waiting until a drunk causes a problem, then telling the drunk to get off the bus.

Thursday was New Year's Day.

Friday was another driving day, because one stop was Walter's mom's house, where he spent the day while I worked. I wonder if my busriding days are more limited in the future. It's hard to hold down a full-time job and get a child back and forth all while on the bus schedule. I'll do it when I can.