Poverty and public transportation: “If you miss your bus,” Ferrell repeated, “well, there’s an hour out of your day at best. But what if that makes you an hour late to work, or causes you to miss a doctor’s appointment or a meeting? What if it costs you the opportunity for a job? Or what if you just miss your bus and have to sit in the hot sun or the freezing cold or the pouring rain and wait an hour for the next one?
“If you’re a person of low income, or limited income, and you depend on the bus, that’s the world you live in. That’s the real world.”
This following can
be a typical day while riding on a MATA bus for many others and me. Yesterday,
I was at the bus stop to catch the 4 bus at Lauderdale and Mississippi at 7:55
AM. The bus came late at 8:15, should have been there by 8:10. The bus was late
to the terminal and I also missed the transfer over to the 53 Summer/ Binghamton bus for
8:27 and the next 53 usually comes late or not at all or I have to catch the 19
Valentine out to where I wanted to go and then walk several blocks to my
destination. The good, timely trip is four hours long including wait time.
However, on my way back to the starting point at 10:15 AM, the 53-summer bus
passed right by me and several other riders so fast that we could not even tell
who was driving the bus. We had to wait another hour for the next bus, which
was also late. I arrived at the terminal at Noon and we asked the driver to
stop the 4 bus and they ignored us. The 4 took off without us and the next one
did not come until 12:37. The 5 U of M bus came so I got on it. It got me close
enough to home to walk two long blocks home by 1:10 PM --- this was a 6 hour
day with MATA to go do one simple thing --- return a package of socks to Ross -
Oh and to go to the Kroger since I was out that way. It is just as hard for
many people finding a job or keeping one while depending on MATA’s system.
Perhaps, we need to scrap MATA and privatize our transit system here in
Memphis, TN. Now before you begin to think of me as a common vagabond walking
around with a backpack like on that show Kung Fu trying to resolve all our
problems, I am not like that person. What I am is a Car-Free Citizen. I have
been for several years by choice. And yes, I do know it all - simply because -
I actually live the lifestyle that so many of you are only talking about in
various community meetings and so far, many of you do not have one clue about
how to be Car-Free in Memphis, Tennessee, especially with systems in place that
do not work very well. That is why I started this blog
carfreememphis.blogspot.com, to provide many of you with valid support that
matters the most. It will save you from having to attend a lot of needless
community meetings. I mean, why have ongoing community meetings about bike
lanes, when the law already allows bike riders to ride down any street without
these lanes at all. The lanes are already there, at least in our own minds
because it is also pointed out this way in our Tennessee Drivers Manual. So
painting bike lanes on the street should not take an act of congress or even
asking a community's permission. The law is already on the side of painting
those bike lanes. By the way - a group of baboons is called a congress. Yes,
that is true, and even funny! But, how long are people going to keep laughing
at Memphians for acting just like those baboons. It has been 20 years since we
first had the funding of the DOT to do all of this and the powers-that-be here
in Memphis refused to do hardly anything for us pedestrians. Now, they want us
to have more meetings and do more community outreach, when it has already been
done to death. Now they want us to redo these meetings with our unsuspecting
young adults - how sad. You, younger folks may also have to wait another 20 to
40 years for your city to work well for you. And of course, it never will work
at the rate it is going now. That is, unless you learn from my wisdom. If you
do not learn anything, then you will grow older while wearing depends
undergarments and as you soil yourselves at bus stops wishing you had listened
to me. Meanwhile, other cities around the world will look futuristic and beyond
your wildest dreams and also behind gated walls, while Memphis becomes a
third-world stench. Now the third- world is not all that bad necessarily,
I was having a long discussion, on that very same day, at the MATA terminal,
with several older men from South Africa, a third world country, with first
world aspirations. These guys insisted that over there, the public transit
system is far superior to that of Memphis, despite the third world problems.I decided to find that out for myself and came across the
following document: 26th Annual Southern African Transport Conference
2007: http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/5868. There
were other documents that I found, but this one seemed to be the most
favorable, lacking having been there myself, and trustingthese guys at their word, as they were complaining about MATA
also, but still truly happy to be living in America. Once you begin reading up on such things, you will also begin to have a well researched opinion on local issues and develop a world view.
Anyway - I love America! God
bless America! God bless you!
POPE FRANCES is not only
frugal, having lived humbly in a small apartment, he also walks to many of the
places that he wants to go or either he rides on a public transit bus. We should
all follow this Pope's example whenever we can.
During the spring and summer seasons, the air conditioners on any given MATA bus is either broken down and never repaired and neglected; or perhaps, they are just shut off on purpose. In addition, all of the windows are bolted shut; the temperature rises above 100 degrees; and the bus riders clothing becomes soaked through with sweat causing the riders to become unrepresentable by the time they arrive to their final destinations. During the fall and winter seasons, it can be cold and wet and the buses are usually late, which leaves riders hanging out at the bus stop with no adequate shelter. One might as well walk or ride a bike. To enhance your walk-bike experience buy yourself a cart that you can easily push or pull around. Of course, a heavy duty cargo bike will speed up such a trip and it will hold both people and groceries at the same time. Custom made carts and bikes are the best way to handle this whole situation. If you follow my blog post, then you will always come across the best ways for saving time and money and your sanity by not riding on the MATA bus until you absolutely have too. If the majority of your trips are far beyond a 20 minute walk, then consider buying the very best green energy mode of transportation possible. Also install wind mills and solar panels wherever you can, among other energy saving devices.
Memphis, Tennessee, did not make the top ten list for being a car-free friendly city.
The key to having a more walk-able and bike-able city that is car-lite or car-free is to have a well organized mass transit system in place.
The City of Memphis, Shelby County, and the state of Tennessee has already had the funding in place to have planned for and implemented such a transit system long ago.
Yet the powers-that-be have not leaned in the right direction.
And here are the results:
Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is one of the slowest moving public transit systems in the United States of America, often causing passenger ride times and wait times to stretch out long past two hours each way, especially if one is making a transfer.
MATA is raising rates for passengers in December 4, 2011 to help pay for their new facility and to give administrative pay raises.
MATA is cutting back on how many times they make stops across all outlying areas and where nearly all the jobs are located.
Yes, MATA's officials have figured out how to provide less service for its poorest passengers, while giving themselves a big fat administrative pay raise.
It is no wonder that MATA and their cronies all have big smiles on their faces when they show up at community meetings to pat themselves on the back.
Of course, this has been ongoing on for several decades; and now, this is yet another ploy to make sure that the "have not's" stay in their places: in run down inner-city urban communities, in low-wage temporary jobs that fire them at the drop of a hat for being late to work when the MATA bus is late, to remain under contentious ongoing stress due to various poverty disparities, and to remain broke and poor forever more.
Yes, MATA's administration has built for themselves a lofty multi-million dollar complex from which to control their empire; and whereby, few, if any of them, will ever use the bus system themselves; and thus, the ongoing social injustice done towards the poor will still exist.
If that were not true, then simply put, MATA would have spent all of that money towards serving the masses of poor people by reducing passenger wait times at all bus stops to ten minutes or less; and, they would have reduced ride times to one hour or less no matter where passengers live within Shelby County or the City of Memphis.
Not to mention MATA would have provided adequate air controlled shelters and dedicated facilities like restrooms at key bus stops throughout the city; and, passengers would have gotten a GPS tracking system that told them where the bus is right now in relation to when it would arrive at any given bus stop.
To get a clear picture about how MATA can bring its transit system into alignment with those in other cities, click the following link:
I believe that unless the powers that be in Memphis, Tennessee, decide to redesign our cities entire infrastructure to accommodate walkers and bike riders in a serious way, that our city will never be better off in the future.
We could at least start off with a car-free day for the following street: Madison Avenue.
So many people have been debating over bike lanes for this street.
Of course, there will always be problems to resolve; and, they are brought up in nearly every argument against a car-free friendly city.
There has been ongoing problems with not having enough room to park vehicles within our city spaces, and there is also a problem with keeping property within those vehicles safe from would be criminals; or, what about the car-jacking at various corners that no one can hardly escape, as they pass through certain areas of town.
Those who can avoid these sections of our city do so with in-depth pleasure.
Those who cannot avoid it, actually run stop signs and red lights to avoid the people who hang out at these corners, making these intersections far more dangerous for everyone.
In fact, our jail cells, here, are full of this group of people; yet our court systems are firmly fixed for making some serious money off this scenario; so they may not ever resolve this root problem.
On the other hand, if I am not mistaken, there are several new bridges and bypasses being planned, so that no one ever has to visit this city again; not even by accident.
Even if, or when, we redesign this cities infrastructure, there will also be bicycle parking problems eventually; and not to mention, there are few or no safe places to protect all the extra baggage that both walkers and bicycle riders bring along with them as they travel.
The market, nor the laws of our land, hardly caters to walk-bike citizens anyway - hint, hint, hint!
This is because most communities are simply not well designed to accommodate walkers or bike riders; and, until this actually happens, people will have to bike and walk much further away than ten minutes from their homes and businesses to meet most of their essential needs.
To offset these longer trips, walkers and bikers are forced to supplement their walk-bike needs by taking public transportation, which is at least 40 years behind the times in comparison to transit systems in other cities within the same region.
Nonetheless, few public transportation systems in America accommodate large groups of people who have a lot of extra baggage, like grocery getting push carts, bikes, bike bags, groceries, and huge backpacks.
As a car-free citizen for ten years in Memphis, Tennessee, I have tried every means of combined transportation methods to get around in this town comfortably.
Few of these methods work very well due to the fact that this city is designed to fill up spaces with personal vehicles whereby several bikes could be parked in these same spaces instead.
I will share only one method I have used to get around this crazy town and allow you to imagine the other methods while you squirm in your seat.
To illustrate, I have owned and operated a fold-up bicycle for several years.
This bike worked very well for me, but only when I took some of my shortest trips, which did not require me to use mass transit or carry along a lot of extra bulky and/or heavy baggage.
I found out the hard way that these small bikes are not made for people like me who are over 6 ft. tall and who weighs in at around 180 lbs. --- OK, sometimes I weigh far more --- HAAAA !
My fold-up bike weighed about 30 lbs.
A couple bags of groceries weighed between 30 lbs. to 50 lbs.
My backpack often weighed around 10 lbs. to 20 lbs.
Between me and all my baggage, it sometimes averaged around 230 lbs.
Moreover, one needs to be in fairly good physical condition to maneuver and balance a load like that for long periods without plenty of rest for recovery, good food, and water.
Putting on more weight nearly caused my fold up bike to shake uncontrollably, especially when I was going over ten miles per hour or applying the breaks down big hills.
Traveling any faster, and I swear, this bike would have collapsed right beneath me.
On another note, when the bus was over crowded, my fold-up bike and all my baggage was far to cumbersome to put onto my lap for long periods.
When the bus was over crowded, getting on and off the bus was difficult, as I was often blocked by those stinky ass butt to butt crowds who hardly moved to let anyone pass by them.
Ok --- my own ass might have been stinky too, but I will not admit it!
Anyway, most mass transit systems are simply not designed for moving people's extra baggage, and I did not mean my big butt.
Even still, if all these same people were to put bikes on the front of a bus, or inside of the bus, then there would not be near enough space to accommodate this large number of people or their baggage.
Seems that space is at a high premium no matter if we choose to drive, bike, use mass transit, or walk.
I have studied the car-free phenomena at the grass roots level for several years by participating in the process.
And, I must say to you that being car-free in Memphis, TN, is not easy when mass transit does little or nothing to enhance this process, nor does this cities design.
However, redesigning our communities for a car-free lifestyle is absolutely doable, whereby personal vehicles and mass transit are a mere afterthought to most anyone's walk-bike transportation choices.
As for other bicycle parking ideas, click the link below:
