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One of the six topics at last week’s
community leadership summit was
transportation and, unfortunately, the
people randomly chosen for that table
were not very familiar with the town and
veered off to talk about the need for
greenways and sidewalks. I guess they
did not know about the town’s greenway
system – still growing, not all
connected, but ambitious – and its
insistence on sidewalks in new
subdivisions at the same time it plans –
and builds – sidewalks in older areas.
But people cannot use
greenways and sidewalks to get where
they need to go: to grocery stores, to
schools both for their classes and for
parent and PTA meetings, to medical
offices here and in Raleigh, Durham and
Chapel Hill, and to shopping at the
malls and big-box stores.
What we need in Wake Forest
is a system that will provide affordable
transportation for people without
vehicles at a reasonable cost.
It is a need that I believe
the area churches, civic clubs and
individuals can fill if they join forces
and use all the talents, information and
access Wake Forest people have.
We need a coalition,
probably incorporated, that would
purchase a handicapped-equipped van,
hire at least two drivers (preferably
local people who are out of work because
they have no transportation), and hire
an administrative person to handle the
schedules. It should operate seven days
a week – people need rides to church,
too – and into the evening hours because
church and school programs and other
events are at night.
The van could handle local
trips five days a week and set aside two
days for trips to doctors and other
vital needs (dialysis is one) in Raleigh
and the Triangle area.
The cost to riders should be
nominal, like $1 for local trips, $2 for
Raleigh or Durham.
But that is not going to
recoup the cost, you say. Of course not.
Neither has the Triangle Transit
Authority, which received $7.1 million
last year from a 5 percent tax on rental
cars but may never build that $810
million passenger rail that avoids the
airport. (The TTA’s other funding
source, a $5 registration fee on
vehicles in Wake, Durham and Orange
counties which collected $4.9 million
last year, is used for its bus system.
Do you see a bus out here?)
If we spread that $7.1
million around each year, it could
provide the operating funds for
individualized, responsive
transportation systems in all the towns
in Wake County.
If we cannot tap into that,
we turn to the people who have the
talents, information and access
mentioned above. We ask them to find the
funds for small transportation systems
that are probably squirreled away
somewhere in the state Department of
Transportation of Health and Human
Services. We look to the federal
government and all its nooks and
crannies and involve our congressman and
senators. There is enough pork up there;
let us at least get a few crumbs from
the trough.
There is a lot of need in
our community for transportation. We
need to find a way to meet it. |
