After more than 30 years with little to no public transportation options, East Ridge residents could soon see more bus routes running through the area.
The Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority invited East Ridge residents to share their transportation needs during a public input meeting at City Hall March 30.
The goal of the meeting was to gauge how the transit authority could improve the quality of life for locals as federal funding for the Enterprise South route - the only bus line to pass through East Ridge - is about to come to an end.
The line is currently funded by a $1.7 million Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant that has allowed CARTA to test new services, and the route was threaded through East Ridge specifically to start a conversation about residents' transportation needs, said Philip Pugliese, CARTA transportation system planner. The three-year grant was acquired in August 2015 and will expire in August 2018. As transit officials prepared to re-evaluate the line and determine whether it is self-sustaining, they also saw an opportunity to potentially improve the service.
"We wanted to make sure we reached out to East Ridge well in advance so that we could hear thoughts of either expanding the service that we have, keeping the level of service that we have or making changes to what we have," said CARTA Director Lisa Maragnano.
During the meeting, attendees were presented with three transportation concepts for the city. Each was an example of a different bus route that could run through East Ridge, and residents were encouraged to leave comments and place dots on the mapped routes to signify places they'd like the bus to go.
The first option displayed was the Downtown Connector, which would run from Downtown Chattanooga to Camp Jordan then back again, traveling along Ringgold Road.
The second option was the East Ridge Shuttle, which would only run from the east-to-west corridor of the city, also traveling along Ringgold Road, providing a more internalized solution to transit issues.
The third option was the Eastgate Neighborhood Connector, which would run from Ringgold Road to Eastgate, providing easy access to Parkridge East Hospital, Eastgate Town Center and the nearby Wal-Mart. It would only cover a portion of the city, but feed back into a main bus route.
Of the three options presented, the Downtown Connector seemed to be the most popular during the March 30 meeting, said Veronica Peebles, CARTA's manager of communications, who was manning the displays. Attendees flocked around the option's map, and Peebles said residents believed a bus service in the area would be more readily utilized now than it was 30 years ago.
But the Downtown Connector wouldn't only be good for residents, said local Erin Rickman, a single mother with no access to a vehicle. It could also be a win for businesses and restaurants in East Ridge, stimulating economic growth throughout the city.
"If we had a line like the downtown line that went from East Ridge to the [Chattanooga] Choo Choo people staying at the Choo Choo could jump on the shuttle and just come straight to East Ridge and check out our restaurants, go to our parks, utilize things that we have," she said.
Attendees also left comments asking for more handicap accessibility, and Rickman, whose father is a veteran who only drives sparingly, said any of the three bus routes would be a perfect solution.
"For people like him and other disabled people, it would open up so many chances - even if we just have a line going just from the tunnels to Camp Jordan - just to be able to get groceries or get medicine or do anything that they need to do," his daughter said. "It would greatly improve quality of life for some of these people."
Feedback from the event and future meetings will be used to map out possible routes based on areas to which community members indicate they wish to travel, said Pugliese. CARTA will then present cost proposals and offer feasible route scenarios to city officials, the transportation system planner explained. If there is enough interest, further questions regarding operation times and frequency would be addressed.
Anyone interested in offering additional feedback is invited to email their comments to information@gocarta.org or philippugliese@gocarta.org.
"We want to hear what you have to say and really try to provide a service that will meet your needs," Pugliese said.