The People Voice a Call for Transit

Two years ago I witnessed a good friend succumb to ravages of time and failing health. For years, until he became too disoriented and weak, he could be seen trudging Petit Avenue down the hill to the store and back up the hill, carrying his bags of groceries. That hill got ever longer and ever steeper, not only for him but for many others here at Silvercrest Residence.

Then it finally hit me: Why isn’t there a bus line serving a senior complex at the corner of Darling Road and Petit Avenue?

In 1991, a petition with more than 500 signatures was offered to SCAT headquarters, urging use of Utica Street, Darling Road and Petit Avenue to accommodate the frail elderly at Silvercrest. The request was turned down. Why? It would disrupt the bus schedule by seven minutes.

Here it is six or seven years later, and despite many pleas--verbal, by letters and even a petition by Silvercrest residents, the response remains the same: No. Too much time . . . seven minutes.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are still living in America, the land of “We the People,” the land that beginning in late 1941 sent every able-bodied man to maintain our way of life and freedoms. We won the war then, but are we losing our freedoms and way of life now?

If we are not careful, we may be doing just that. The seeds that were sown in the late ‘40s, our sons and daughters and even grandchildren, are coming into positions of power and influence. With the pressures building from special-interest groups, whether internal or external, it is harder to keep a clear objective in mind.

The best objective is a phrase found in many documents, and it is “We the People.” It keeps a focus on the larger picture. Think about it.

Part of the problem is confusion over the terms “transit” and “transportation” and interpretations of the law applicable to their relationship.

The Public Utilities Commission, Section 99401.5, and an Administration on Aging admonition regarding transit, spell out a compelling priority for mass-transit needs over transportation needs, such as road repairs and improvements, bike trails / lanes, gutters, sidewalks and the like.

Our Transportation Department in Ventura is doing a tremendous job in transportation administration except for one area: transit.

Last month more than 100 people--most of them elderly or disabled--attended our first public forum on transportation. Multiply that number by 10 for the ones who couldn’t get there because of the lack of mobility and you have a sizable number of unhappy transit users.

Over the years, transportation officials seem to have great difficulty understanding the terms “unmet needs,” “reasonable to meet” and “priority.” Each year they struggle with these and each year they throw up their hands and say “To heck with it . . . we’ll put the money into transportation improvements.”

The warning signs are here: The elderly population is growing steadily, the disabled numbers are keeping apace and transit is stagnant, despite all laws being in our favor. The elderly want to be as independent as possible, and they shop pretty darned well.

Where are the merchants in this equation? One of the most fatal errors in planning the downtown redevelopment area is to ignore a means to put consumers on their feet to browse and shop. People in cars and sacrificing valuable real estate for parking structures are not going to hack it.

More vision, encompassing all aspects of moving people, such as shuttle vans, minibuses, people movers and taxis, would provide versatile methods. With Ventura elongated in shape, and consumers isolated on the east side, hungry merchants more or less on the west side and medical facilities midtown, the common link is transit.

Transit caters to two markets. The first is the work crowd from 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. The second is a more relaxed crowd--the elderly, looky-loos and shoppers, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. SCAT has a rigid schedule that favors the work crowd and ignores the other.

The Transportation Department has an ample budget to relieve the transit problems, and with prospects of a windfall of $19 billion over six years (California’s share of the transportation surplus our economists in Washington found), let us see how they spend it.

If we work together as a community, our transit problems can be resolved with honest interpretation of the laws. If you and I, “We the People,” don’t participate in the civil process, we are shirking our duties and endangering our liberties.

At the forum on public transportation, “We the People” gathered in a common cause, and our duly elected should take heed. Our patience is wearing thin. The old, the halt and the blind do go to the polls--we do vote.