By Sawyer Bailey, AdkAction Executive Director
I’ve ridden a songthaew in the Xiangkhouang Province of Laos, a bullet train across Japan, and most frequently, the CDTA bus into Albany, but until today I’d never boarded a bus in the Adirondacks. After several years hearing from our food security project participants that transportation remained a barrier to using some of our project offerings, AdkAction is spending more time learning about the public transit system across the Park: where it works well, and where there may be opportunities for action.
But before we do anything else, we believe it’s most important to ask questions, learn, and experience. That’s why I took the bus to work this morning.
I called ahead to Essex County Transportation Headquarters yesterday to arrange a route deviation from the Elizabethtown Stewarts Shops stop to pick me up at my doorstep. With a one-year-old at home, I’m no stranger to waking up at 5:30 AM (or earlier). I waited for the bus on my porch with the Christmas lights all lit up so the driver could see me. The Champlain Valley North bus arrived just after 6 AM. Only one other passenger was on board. I gave the driver, Bob, three dollars, two for the fare, one for the special pick up. Bob had talk radio on, pointing out the house cats and deer he saw in the fields as we rolled into Westport, and through the farmland of Wadhams, Essex, Willsboro, and Reber. We zigged and zagged over the railroad tracks and back several times. Four young Amish men got on the bus in Willsboro. “Good morning boys,” Bob said. Pennsylvania Dutch and English co-mingled while I closed my eyes and tried to keep my breakfast down on the winding road.
The drive between Elizabethtown and Keeseville takes me about 25 minutes by car on Route 9. Because this bus takes an indirect route north, it was nearly an hour and ten minutes until I got off at the Keeseville bus stop. From there, some passengers walked off with me, others waited at the stop for the Clinton County transfer bound for Plattsburgh, and others got on the bus as new passengers to take Bus 34 back south towards Elizabethtown for the first time that morning.
Today I’ll take the bus home, another long trip back putting me at my doorstep just before 6 PM. My husband will do the day care pick up, just like he did the day care drop off this morning so I could be a passenger. Riding the bus once is no replacement for relying on public transportation or rides from friends day-in and day-out. But we can’t fully understand something until we experience it ourselves.
Transportation in rural areas is extremely complex, with long miles between population centers, limited ridership from a small population, and intense seasonality. At AdkAction we’re still in the early stages of this discovery process. We want to understand who uses county buses, for what, how often, and whether there are others whose needs may not be met with current routes, schedules, rules, and fares. I know it would be very challenging for me to meet my family and professional needs without reliable access to a personal vehicle and consistent money for gas and service. At the same time, I want to live in a place where there are more options to get where you need to go other than car ownership. Not everyone has a license, not everyone can drive, and not everyone can afford a car and all it takes to keep it running smoothly.
If this topic is meaningful to you, if you are a user of public transportation or rely on rides from friends and family, if you want to take the bus and share your experience, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Let’s learn together, share what we know, and discover what is possible. We look forward to hearing from you.
