Starting Monday, the Vineyard Transit Authority is piloting a new microtransit service for up-Island passengers, available seven days a week.
Thank you so much to the honest, hardworking, helpful people of the Vineyard Transit Authority. You are heroes. You saved me seven years ago and again on Monday.
The bus stop across the road from Alley’s General Store will be slightly relocated for safety reasons, the West Tisbury selectmen agreed this week.
At their meeting Wednesday, the selectmen voted to move the stop about one bus length south on State Road from its present location near the front of Howes House. The move still needs approval from the state highway department.
Selectmen, police chief Dan Rossi, Vineyard Transit Authority representative John Alley and Field Gallery owner Chris Morse met Wednesday afternoon to inspect the new location.
West Tisbury selectmen decided this week they will continue to purchase fuel for town vehicles from the Vineyard Transit Authority, despite complaints from the owners of Up-Island Automotive who told the selectmen last week the switch to discounted gasoline has hurt their business.
It was a banner year for the Vineyard Transit Authority, which posted its highest ridership numbers ever. But while an unprecedented number of passengers chose public transit on the Island this summer, transit authority administrator Angela Grant said her organization could use some relief.
“We should be running more bus service than we actually are, but we don’t have the funding to do it,” she said.
Richard Doyle of the Federal Transit Administration recently presented the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority with the FTA Region 1 Thinking Outside the Bus 2008 Milestone Achievement Award. The VTA reached the milestone of carrying over one million passengers (1,031,197) for the first time in its history during fiscal year 2008.
VTA passengers have kept it going into the new fiscal year, climbing aboard 261,735 times in July, a new record for the month. The Island’s busiest August week may be a good chance to try riding instead of driving.
The automobile has long been an integral part of American life; there are 40 million more registered motor vehicles in this country than licensed drivers.
Yet on Vineyard sidewalks and bike paths this week, people cruised along on bicycles with no worries about traffic and congestion. The parking lots for the Tisbury and Edgartown park and ride programs were jammed full, while bus stops for the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority were packed with people waiting to be picked up at all hours of the day.
