Campaign aims to show public support for improving county transit system

Buses, trains, bike lanes – what kind of public transportation would you like to see in Berkshire County?

That is the question being raised by a new campaign aiming to “demonstrate the unmet need for local transit.” The “Wish I Had Transit” campaign, initiated by the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, has taken to Twitter in an effort to engage Berkshire County residents around the issue of improving the local public transportation system.

Citizens are encouraged to participate and express their wishes for better transit options through Twitter. People can tweet their ideas for transit options using the hashtags “#wishihadtransit” and “#berkshires,” or tweets can be sent directly to @wishihadtransit.

According to the campaign website, wishihadtransit.org, the idea was first conceived back in September among participants at Imagining North Adams. It was brought up again at a transit forum hosted by the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on March 8, and 10 days later, the campaign had officially launched.

Tweets have already started coming in, including one from Massachusetts State Senator Benjamin Downing. Just last week, Sen. Downing expressed his support for the campaign, tweeting “@WishIHadTransit great way to let us know where we need to expand transpo services in #Berkshires.”

“The campaign includes all of Berkshire County and we hope, all of Massachusetts,” said Northern Berkshire Community Coalition Executive Director Al Bashevkin. “We are hoping that we can help spur rural areas like ours to speak out for what is needed for a public transportation network.”

The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA) currently provides 14 fixed bus routes throughout twelve towns, from Williamstown to Great Barrington, Monday through Saturday. The BRTA bus service, however, is limited in that it provides no Sunday rides and stops running after 7 p.m., leaving folks who work late night or Sunday shifts scrambling for other options.

Scott Laugenour, chair of the Lenox Green Party Committee, is a member of the BRTA Board and an advocate for public transit. He said he would like to see public transportation service in Berkshire County “run into the evening” and also would like to see service on Sundays.

“The biggest work day in Berkshire County with our service economy is Sunday, and it’s the day we don’t have any public transportation running at all,” he said. “But we also need it to run – right now it stops at 6 o’clock – we need it to run until at least 11-11:30…Mobility is part of economic development. If we are ensuring mobility through public transportation, that’s good for economic development, it’s good for the environment.”

Mr. Laugenour also brought up the point that “many jobs now do not pay enough so that people can easily afford a private automobile without going into ridiculous amounts of debt…We lose population here in Berkshire County because we don’t have a good public transportation system. We lose populations of young people, we lose populations of students.”

“From a justice standpoint and an economic development standpoint and an environmental standpoint, to have a public transportation system that serves the real needs of people is necessary,” he added.

One of the challenges to improving public transportation is the lack of adequate funding. According to Mr. Bashevkin, one percent of our sales tax, equaling roughly $28 million, gets put towards public transportation in Berkshire County. Of that $28 million, less than $2 million goes towards the BRTA.

“It starts with more equitable funding throughout the state for public transportation. With adequate funding, lots of good things can happen,” said Mr. Bashevikin. “We can do better for our rural transportation network, and we are asking those that need public transportation to speak out.”

Posted by Dana Drugmand on April 4, 2013. Filed under Community Events,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry