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RTA Must Act to Prevent Spread of COVID,
Vinyl Curtains Are Welcome But Not Enough
Cleveland, OH, May 12, 2020
Prior to today’s 9 a.m. Greater Cleveland Transit Authority Board Meeting Board Meeting, CPT is calling on RTA to implement rear-door boarding system-wide to allow social distancing and immediately restore proof-of-payment to the HealthLine. After COVID, all-door-boarding can continue to be implemented with rear-door fare readers used for years by cities like San Francisco to improve rider experience year-round.
Last week the Greater Cleveland Transit Authority announced that clear vinyl curtains were being installed on buses and paratransit vehicles to separate operators and riders and help reduce the spread of COVID. Yesterday, RTA announced three new positive cases of operators with COVID. This is a predictable outcome since RTA delayed measures to allow riders and operators to practice social distancing such as rear-door boarding.
Although Clevelanders for Public Transit welcomes the installation of vinyl curtains as a baseline protection, paying a $2.50 fare is not an act that should risk transmitting a deadly virus, especially since RTA operators have been putting their lives on the line without hazard pay. RTA is receiving over $100 million dollars from the Congress for COVID related revenue losses. RTA can afford to keep riders and operators safe by temporarily suspending fare collection.
CPT called on RTA to implement rear-door boarding on buses on March 23, in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the Ohio Department of Health. Instead, RTA has doubled-down on the current procedure.
Euclid Avenue’s HealthLine, the highest ridership line, now requires fares to be validated with the operator despite millions of dollars spent on special buses and reconstruction of Euclid Avenue to allow for a special fare system to speed up buses by minimizing contact between operators and riders. Riders have to board on the left side of the bus and crowd around the operator and each other, creating a full on transmission vector. There is no way to social distance this process.
Other transit agencies across Ohio and around the country took steps to reduce contact between operators and riders as early as mid-March. Several agencies that have accomplished this through rear-door bus boarding include:
Ohio Agencies:
Akron Metro March 17
PARTA (Portage County/Canton) March 18
TARTA (Toledo) March 18
COTA (Columbus) March 19
Laketran (Lake County/Mentor) March 25
Non-Ohio Agencies:
DDOT (Detroit) March 18
Baltimore MTA March 18
Valley Metro (Phoenix) March 21
Sound Transit (Puget Sound/Seattle) March 21
King County Metro (King County/Seattle) March 21
NJ Transit (Statewide) March 22
WMATA (Washington, D.C.) March 23
MTA (New York) March 23
LA Metro (Los Angeles) March 23
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Clevelanders for Public Transit is a riders’ organization that builds power for affordable, accessible and equitable public transit in Northeast Ohio. For more information, visit clefortransit.org or find us on Facebook or Twitter.