The ride that never came
It was Memorial Day. She had flowers for her father’s grave at Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery.
The cemetery – located near the tip of Point Loma – and the Cabrillo National Monument just beyond it are on MTS bus route #84.
People passing by may have thought she was dead. They didn’t stop to check. Jim did. He discovered that the woman lying on the sidewalk at Canon Street and Locust was frustrated, forlorn and sad. Not dead.
She was not looking for a handout. She was not homeless or looking for a hand out. She was waiting for a ride that would not come.
It’s the only public transportation to those destinations.
Bus #84 is hardly a bus. It’s more of a shuttle. It runs Monday through Friday, but not weekends. Or holidays!
Worse news: MTS plans to eliminate the service completely as part of their new Transportation Optimization Plan.
Jim understood the woman’s frustration. His SUV became her bus.
He shuttled her to the cemetery and back to her bus stop.
Jim Canfield is a newly-elected member of the PLA Board of Directors. He has heard about the MTS plan to cut service to the monument and the cemetery and the neighborhoods nearby.
Jim and our other Board members share this woman’s frustration and are speaking up in hopes of saving #84 and even expanding the service to include weekends. If weekday ridership is light, perhaps weekend and holiday riders could boost the MTS bottom line.
Regardless, maybe this service to residents and guests is simply too important to abandon.
The Point Loma Association thinks so. We’ve expressed our concerns in the letter below. If you want to add your voice, these are the people to contact.
