I was impressed by all the people who attended the Perry Street Fair at Grant Park this past weekend. Generally at these kinds of events, many people are just there for the bounce houses, music, games and food and don’t want to think too hard about the tough topics like transportation. At the Perry Street Fair though, I was busy all day with people wanting to know what our booth was about and most were eager to give me their thoughts and suggestions regarding the Horizon 2040 plan we’re working on. While some of the ideas are not feasible, a lot of the comments were funny. So thanks for keeping me entertained. Here is a sampling of what I heard:
- STA should offer area businesses the opportunity to sponsor bus stops to raise additional revenue. The businesses could place advertising at the stop and in buses.
- The Industrial Park in Spokane Valley needs a more regular bus route. A woman who helps refugees get jobs said she has many clients placed at jobs there. Most don’t have cars and the route that serves the area doesn’t work with many of the shifts.
- Heard LOTS of requests for lightrail.
- For STA routes with low ridership, somehow use Smartphone technology to let bus drivers know when you’re at a stop. This way maybe two routes with low ridership could be combined for an ‘on demand’ system. This concept needs some development but it seems like there could be something there.
- Police should give out courteous driver citations to people they see obeying the law, in an effort at positive affirmation. This reminds me of the commercial below, which I saw for the first time recently and thought was pretty funny, considering I’m a transportation nerd and all.
- Pass a bond to specifically fund transportation for seniors and disabled people.
- Have sponsors pay for bus trips that take seniors to certain destinations. For instance, Rosauers could pay for the gas one day for a bus to bring a load of seniors to Rosauers to do their shopping. Another day they might go to the mall or a casino, but the costs to transport the passengers would be paid for by the destination.
- Implement a luggage fee on buses. This one kind of makes sense to me as there have been several times I’ve had to stand because the last seat was taken up by someone with a purse, gym bag, laptop, stroller, etc. in the seat next to them.
- Law enforcement needs to start ticketing people who jaywalk.
- Put a bus stop or small satellite park and ride lot somewhere in the vicinity of Hatch and 395.
- Widen bike lanes a little so power wheel chairs can travel in them.
And finally, I heard a story from a man who says when he travels by air, he keeps a rubber chicken in his pants to surprise the person manning the body scanner. He said he does this because the TSA has a sign that says joking is discouraged while in line, but this is more of a sight gag so he doesn’t get in trouble for it. I don’t know if it’s true folks, I’m just passing it along.