County's new fixed-route bus service expected to be a boon for people in need
The county's new transit service features regular stops and a set schedule, helping link transportation-disadvantaged residents with jobs, shopping and services.
By Dan DeWitt
BREVARD — Need to get to class?
Joan Ziegler, masked, gloved and safety-belted behind the wheel of a white Ford passenger van, stops at Blue Ridge Community College precisely 14 minutes into her one-hour loop through Brevard and Pisgah Forest.
Ingles is a destination for both shopping and employment. Ziegler, or another driver on Transylvania County’s new fixed-route bus service, pulls into the store’s parking lot 11 minutes after the hour, eight times a day.
For the growing number of residents scrambling to make ends meet during the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a stop at the Sharing House food pantry. And developmentally disabled residents without driver’s licenses — but with steady jobs at Transylvania Vocational Services — can depend on the van’s regular arrival outside the non-profit’s doors on Old Hendersonville Highway.
A sign on the side of the van says “TIM Transylvania in Motion,” the new name for the county’s public transportation network. But the van’s regular presence on county roads starting last month is itself a sign.
It announces that public transit, the traditional kind with timetables and regular stops — the kind often associated with cities — has arrived in Transylvania.
Though anybody with a $1 fare can board the bus, it’s aimed at serving, and in some cases, changing the lives of people who can’t afford a car or hold a license.
The need for such a service in Transylvania was identified in the county’s 2011 Comprehensive Transportation Plan, and creating it was recommended by regional planning organizations in a 2018 document. Though Allen McNeill, the county’s planning and community development director, said he did not have a current estimate of the number of transportation-disadvantaged residents in Transylvania, Shelly Webb sees them all the time.
“People on disability, elderly folks who can’t drive, people who don’t have enough stability to own and maintain a car,” said Webb, executive director of Sharing House, “Those people need public transportation that’s reliable.”
Commissioner David Guice and Brevard City Council Member Maurice Jones, both members of the nascent Community Relations Board, said that several groups in the county had asked for improved transit in early discussions with the board.
“Transportation came up big,” Guice said.
Though bus service is often associated with urban areas, some form of public transportation is available in all 100 countries in North Carolina, according to the state Department of Transportation. And the need in rural counties can be particularly acute because housing is often far removed from shopping, social services and job opportunities, said Guice, who voted with the rest of the commission to create the fixed-route service in November.
“We’ve got (residential) pockets in this community where, unless you have a car, you’re there,” Guice said.
Health and mental health problems become bigger problems without access to treatment. Missed court dates can turn minor legal issues into major ones. And it’s impossible to pass a class or hold a job you can’t get to.
“If you don’t have transportation, the likelihood of you being successful — it’s just not going to happen,” he said.
Transportation coordinator April Alm built the network based on demand from existing county transit programs, and the result connects hubs of housing with a wide range of services and opportunities, including several stores, Transylvania Regional Hospital and the offices of Western Carolina Community Action.
The bus begins each day by heading toward Rosman, with its first stop at 6:30 a.m. It returns there three times each day between hourly rounds through Brevard and Pisgah Forest.
This service supplements the county’s existing demand-response service, which delivers users point to point but requires them to book rides before 10 a.m. at least one workday in advance. It provided 24,000 trips in fiscal year 2020, which was down slightly from recent years due to the spread of Covid-19, Alm said. But, hinting at rising long-term demand for transit in the county, ridership in the pre-pandemic fall of 2019 was nearly 20 percent higher than in 2018.
The county’s transportation system, which is mostly funded by federal grants, already owned the vans for the fixed-route service, so the primary costs were in hiring two part-time drivers and budgeting $660 per month for fuel.
Those expenses will be partly offset by an estimated $7,000 to $10,000 in fares, McNeill said.
So far, Ziegler said, not too many people have laid down their $1 for a ride. She’s seen a several out-of-town visitors who, having arrived by plane, need transportation to run errands. She ferries a pair of customers on regular trips to Walmart.
But on an hour-long circuit Friday afternoon, in the kind of steady rain that tends to discourage riders, she picked up a NewsBeat reporter and no one else.
Ziegler, 66, who previously worked as housekeeping supervisor at the regional hospital, said driving the bus several hours a day is a good retirement job. It will be better when news spreads through word of mouth and a planned marketing campaign, and this “great service” reaches the residents who need it most, she said.
“It’s the people who make it.”
Look at Transylvania get with it. What’s next, Covid shots for the elderly? Getting behind Ecusta Trail? Before you know it we will be a functioning county! Being sarcastic of course but this was sorely needed for marginalized residents. Good job!
Native of Brevard/Hendo and new subscriber. Appreciate you filling a sorely needed niche for substantive local news.