the verdicts Restart the Palo Alto Free Shuttle
PUBLIC TRANSPORT NEEDED FOR PALY STUDENTS
A
S SCHOOLS REOPEN and more members of the community get vaccinated, Palo Alto is slowly returning to a new post-pandemic normal. However, one essential service that is yet to return is the Palo Alto Free Shuttle. While decreased ridership and lack of funding due to COVID-19 forced the city to shut down the shuttle, declining cases and the reopening of schools makes it imperative that the shuttle resumes its service by the start of the 2021 school year. As stated in the Palo Alto Operating Budget, ridership in 2019 averaged 140,000 shuttle boardings, providing a number of students and other local residents with convenient, safe and reliable daily transportation to and from school and work. According to a Verde opt-in survey of 213 Palo Alto High School students from May 10-16, 11.8% of students relied on the shuttle for transportation to and from Palo Alto High School, pre-COVID. “It’s possible that we will have to go in-person next year, and if the shuttles aren’t running I don’t know how I’ll get to school,” sophomore Reed Jadzinsky said. Additionally, the Embarcadero shuttle connects to the East Palo Alto shuttle, which is a critical method of transportation
for many students who live further away. With the absence of the shuttle, students from East Palo Alto will face difficulties in commuting to Paly, thus decreasing the accessibility of attending school. Current plans Palo Alto’s 2022 Fiscal Plan states that a plan for the shuttle or an alternate transportation service to return is in the works. The city recently received a $2 million grant towards “on-demand transportation” from Santa Clara County. However, the public transit funded by the grant does not include the shuttle; instead, the grant provides funds for a new, different system of transportation within the city based on the Uber concept. “Think of it as UberPool but with vans,” Transportation Department Planning Manager Sylvia Star-Lack wrote in an email to Verde. “There will be a mobile app that riders can use to schedule rides almost anywhere within Palo Alto. Fares will be charged, but we intend to have discounts for rider groups such as youth and seniors.” Though we appreciate the city’s innovative efforts to increase public transportation, without regular stops like the shuttle, as well as a required fee, the van service will be less accessible to students.
Furthermore, the service is set to start in the summer of 2022, which is too late with school returning this fall. Possible solutions As COVID-19 cases continue to decline and the number of vaccinations among local residents rises, the shuttle can safely resume its services. Moreover, since the shuttle would not require a fare, less physical contact is required compared to other bus services. Certain precautions should still be set in place to ensure the safety of Palo Alto residents. Daily sanitization and temperature checks must be implemented along with a decrease in the maximum capacity. Windows can also be opened to increase ventilation. According to data from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Medical, robust ventilation systems combined with short ridership times make shuttles like Palo Alto’s unlikely to induce large COVID-19 transmission events. With safety measures in place and COVID-19 cases declining, the Palo Alto Free Shuttle should be reinstated as soon as possible to provide accessible transportation to students and the greater Palo Alto community. v Art by David Tomz
6 JUNE 2021
