Riders Concerns Validated by Public Square Results

Riders Waiting for Public Square to Reopen

We are glad to see our concerns validated by the recent traffic and safety studies. These studies clearly satisfy Mayor Jackson’s requirements to reopen Public Square. They demonstrate the closure has imposed operational and financial financial cost on GCRTA, and they demonstrate safety recommendations that can be easily implemented.

Based on the annual operating cost of $805,300 determined by Parsons Brinkerhoff; GCRTA has already spent $421,000* since August 1st, when Public Square was supposed to reopen. GCRTA also spent $60,000 on this traffic study. Overall, GCRTA has spent nearly a half million dollars already, they cannot afford to wait any longer. The studies also show that the only way to adequately mitigate safety concerns about Public Square is to reopen the Superior Avenue bus lanes.

Additionally, 40,000 GCRTA riders use Public Square daily. If we assume each one of these riders works downtown and only takes one bus round trip, each rider has still faced delays of nearly 5 hours** on the bus since August 1st. These numbers don’t account for the 20,000 riders that take multiple buses through Public Square daily. These delays will continue to accumulate everyday until Public Square reopens.

We need to make transit more convenient, not less convenient. It is well past time to reopen Public Square.