Just dealing with Gwinnett County, I don’t find the situation for local riders that great, but that’s because of budget limitations. On a scale of zero to 10, I would say it’s a three. There are not enough routes, and of the routes we do have, the service stops so early that people are left stranded. I get a lot of complaints about the service. Riders are very disappointed.
Even though those routes stop early, people still get off work at night. So they have to find a way to get home. Or walk. They have no choice.
The Route 35 bus quits at 7:10 p.m. as people are still trying to get home to Peachtree Corners and Holcomb Bridge Road. They have to walk from Buford Highway to that area. Sometimes you’re talking about young mothers with babies pushing strollers down Jimmy Carter Boulevard trying to get home at that time of night.
Route 20, which stops at 7:40 p.m., services the Singleton Road and Graves Road areas. Without that route, riders have to walk from Buford Highway to Singleton Road. You’re talking about a good 5-, 6-mile walk. But people do that. Every day. They have no choice.
Most of my passengers are regular hardworking people. I have quite a few low-income riders, and a lot of people without jobs. Basically, that’s what I carry. Just the real, regular local people. I would say 70 percent are hardworking, good people. The other 30 percent, you can get a little riff-raff sometimes, but they’re okay. It’s no problem.
The people without jobs are using public transportation to seek employment. Jobs are hard to find and all spread out. I can tell from some of the people I talk with, they have a little frustration going on. The unemployed are really having a hard time.
The worst thing on my route right now is Buford Highway traffic. With the HOT lanes on I-85 in effect, it’s causing a big problem on Buford Highway because people are diverting from I-85. They’re getting on Buford Highway and causing congestion. It slows down operation of the route.
If I could fix one thing with our transit system, I would try to extend the service time and give people a little more time to get home on public transportation. I would try to make the routes connect on time with one another. That alone would be a great help. More buses and more routes would help a lot.
As told to Tom Sabulis, tsabulis@ajc.com
About the Author
