The Problem: Large portions of Monroe County will not have any public transportation evenings and weekends
We are alarmed by RTS’s cuts to the On Demand service in the evenings and weekends, effectively stranding residents who rely on this service to access jobs and retail across Monroe County’s suburbs.
For residents in Greece, Henrietta, Irondequoit and other On Demand zones, trips are being restricted to banker’s hours, not hours when people need to get to retail jobs or can spend time grocery shopping. These cuts further exacerbate the declining quality of RTS’s suburban service. In our view, the changes implemented last year made using the On Demand service harder for residents with the introduction of ‘virtual stops’ and restrictive cancellation policies, not to mention more costly with substantial fare increases.
City of Rochester residents who connect to On Demand from RTS’s core service area to access jobs will now be forced to find alternative, typically more expensive, options to commute in the evenings and weekends. Residents may even suffer job loss, and certainly future job opportunities involving weekends or B shifts.
These cuts further exacerbate the declining quality of RTS’s suburban service.
This Will Affect Job Access
According to our 2018 report examining job access in Monroe County, jobs have sprawled out significantly from the City of Rochester to surrounding suburbs, particularly low-middle wage jobs that are increasingly located in job centers like Henrietta and Greece. More recent US Census data shows a continuing trend, with a 10% decline in job sites located within the city of Rochester from 51% in 2002, to 41% in 2022. The further dilution of public transportation service in the suburban mobility zones, effectively cuts off transit dependent Rochester residents from job opportunities, especially now those with any weekend or weeknight shift hours.
These cuts emphasize the need for New York State to fully fund transit in Monroe County. Since the pandemic, funding needs have not kept pace with the costs to run transit across upstate New York.
RGRTA and our peer upstate transit authorities need operating funding increases that keep pace with real costs of running their systems, as well as dedicated revenues to maintain and expand the transit service we need and deserve. With 12% of households in Monroe County and 24% in the City of Rochester without access to a personal vehicle, it is critical that Albany invests in a transportation system that gives people access to get where they need to go without a car, and essential that our transit system is fully funded in the next state budget.
In the meantime, we have strongly urged RTS, since last year’s On Demand changes, to explore returning to a fixed route service in the mobility zones that would offer better reliability to riders.
What Can We Do?
If you are concerned about the impact of these changes, and the state of public transportation in general, we urge you to immediately contact RTS and your state representatives to share how these cuts impact your life.
RTS Public Information Officer
Tom Brede
Work: (585) 654-0730
Mobile: (585) 489-4661
tbrede@myRTS.com
Find your state official and send them a letter
We are also hosting an event this Thursday night at 6:30 pm to discuss how we can win a better bus system for Rochester, precisely because the system is at risk for further cuts if we don’t act as a community to invest in public transportation. We’re inviting you to get involved to discuss your role in getting heard by policymakers to demand a robust bus system that connects people to jobs, healthcare, education, childcare and groceries.