County passengers need shelter too
Staff Writer Jenn Klein's article in last Friday's Enterprise-Record about the new transit center on Second and Salem in Chico is a good primer concerning this political costume jewelry. There is a major flaw with this installation which I tried to address with my September articles in An Internet Globetrotter. The first post in September read;
“In this morning's dispatches was one from Chico Capital Projects, which is supervising construction of the new transit center on Second Street between Salem and Normal. According to Jeff Jukkola, the professional engineer who overlooks the project, the county buses that park on these side streets will be afforded no protection for their passengers.”
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
Chico State freshman Jenny Vang waits on Normal Avenue for her B-Line 20 bus to Oroville last Friday after the new Transit Center opened on Second Street last Wednesday
When I interviewed Jukkola, he pointed out that the transit center had been in the works since 1999, had gone through a series of planning meetings including consultation with officials from the California State University, Chico. The result is the structure that began operation Wednesday.
It was during these meetings that the unit was planned around what was then the operations of Chico Area Transit Service, CATS bus lines which parked there. At that time those of us who used the Butte County Transit to go to Oroville and Paradise picked up our buses at First and Main, and thus our needs were beyond the ken of those planning this structure.
All that changed in 2005 when the bus operations of Chico, Oroville, Paradise and the Ridge consolidated into what are now the white B-Line buses. Soon after consolidation under the auspices of Butte County Association of Governments, BCAG, took place, the county bus lines for Oroville and Paradise began parking at Second and Normal for passengers.
After my discussions with both Jukkola and Jim Peplow of BCAG, it became apparent that the plans from which this transit center sprang had not taken the county buses into account. While Peplow tried to help by getting the three green benches installed on Normal, Jukkola pointed out that to change the plans in order to accommodate county passengers would cost the City of Chico seven more parking spaces and an additional $135,000 to build.
We who ride the county buses need the county buses need our own shelter. Klein pointed out "I like it (the transit center) because I'm not getting wet at all and it looks nice too," said Mikhail "Soko" Peterson”. Why should Peterson enjoy relative comfort and Jenny Vang, a Chico State freshman who commutes to Oroville, not?