One of the things I was looking forward to as a part of moving back into the City of Toledo was being able to use TARTA. When I lived in both Toledo and Maumee years ago, I used TARTA often. At one point I worked downtown and I rarely drove my car to work. I'd walk a very short distance to the end of my street, and had several options of which bus route I wanted to take to ride downtown to work. I had visions of all of the places I could go using TARTA now that I was back in the City of Toledo, including believing that my fourth youngest who is taking Post Secondary OP classes at UT would be able to easily get from where we lived now via TARTA to UT.
Until I looked in detail at the bus routes and the times...Granted, it is better than no bus at all but there is only one Bus route that comes down close to my part of Arlington and it runs one time an hour. You can transfer at Medical University to get to UT but at times it will be a very close call and if for some reason your bus is late or that one is a bit early? Depending on the time of day you could have to wait from 20 minutes to an hour for the next bus to get to UT. Now I know UT offers various shuttle buses so there may be an alternate situation for Erin but as far as my own personal use? Even if you take the bus to downtown, time will be a huge factor due to the one hour until the next bus.
It's pretty obvious to me that the way to make public transportation a viable option is make it so people can actually use it. So while once an hour is better than no bus at all, and I'll be sure to report on my experiences from days past to the present once I do have the option of just walking a short distance to the end of my street to pick up a TARTA bus...I guess this is lesson one as to how my former stomping ground has changed.
If you want to see what is available in your neighborhood...TARTA does have that information on line.
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When I was seriously hurting for a vehicle to drive, I looked into Tarta for work purposes. Every route would have added at least an hour to my commute time. It reminds me of that episode of "30 Days" by Morgan Spurlock... the people who most need public transportation are the ones most inconvenienced by it. Doesn't seem right.
Everybody talks about pulling up rails for bike paths. What I'd love to see is someone develop a light rail system in NW Ohio. I don't know how difficult or costly it would be, but I sure would like to hear that someone has looked into it, at least to find out if there *is* any kind of interest in such a thing.
Val, Light Rail has been talked about and supposedly is in the plans still for the future, one example.
Toledo Free Press 8/24/05
From that article:
ES: Is there some consideration for putting in light rail?
PG: This is more than consideration. There has been a process managed by the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG) called the Regional Core Circulator Study.
Conclusions have been drawn as to where light rail potentially could be valuable; where extensions in the future as the density of the city grows could be useful. This has been a public process, and I strongly support it. This is another example of where Toledo needs to stop planning and start implementing.
ES: Is this 10 or 20 years off?
PG: It could be a candidate for some form of federal core funding, and it could be a lot faster than that to see things starting.
I had no idea. Thanks! This gives me hope. Even though I'll probably be dead by the time anything happens. ;)
We probably will be dead given back October 10 1997, the Toledo Blade reported this:
A bill that provides $1.7 million to design an air control tower at Toledo Express Airport and study creating a light rail link from the downtown to the Toledo Zoo won congressional approval yesterday.
The Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments would get $1 million under the bill to study a light rail system to connect downtown with Central Union Plaza, the Toledo Zoo, and other key sites near the city's core.
``The renovation of Toledo's Central Union Plaza, the development of the Erie Street Market, renovation of the Valentine Theatre, and revitalization in the city's warehouse and central business districts make this the right time to study alternative means of transportation for tourists and residents wishing to visit these sites,'' Miss Kaptur said.
Given almost ten years have past?
Somehow in this area we need to get beyond doing study after study and actually deciding either to go for it or quit studying it...
:-)
A great number of black Toledoans must depend on TARTA each day for jobs and schooling. They have no alternative.
We who have cars don't fully understand how fortunate we are.
LD, I don't have a car, so I rely on others to take me where I need to go which is one of the reasons I was looking forward to having some independence. While I am lucky enough to have a husband who when he's off work and kids who when it fits in their schedule can take me places I know first hand how it feels to not be able to go where you want when you want.
That for me was one of the things I was looking forward to. Granted as I said, once an hour is better than Springfield where there is no option unless you can walk all the way to St. John's High School.
Kate, they spent it on studies like they were supposed to. Then had a later study that cost more.
I expanded on the Light Rail issue over on Progressive Toledo.
When I was younger (and, so was T.A.R.T.A.) we often joked that it would be cheaper to buy everyone riding the busses a cab ride instead of running those big ole empty (or, nearly empty) buses all around town.
Sometimes I wonder it that wasn't pretty close to the truth (school bus runs excepted).
As I recall, T.A.R.T.A. did experiment with smaller busses, but I don't think that they did so seriously.
So much for the wise spending taxpayer’s money...
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