Why Jackson, MS needs better transit and complete streets

December 17, 2008
By Stephen Lee Davis

As you’ve (hopefully) seen on the front page, we’ve been asking for your photos of anything transportation-related in your community, and you’ve responded with photos of new light rail vehicles in Phoenix, bike boxes in Portland, Safe Routes to School in Ohio, and many others that are being spotlighted on the front page and in the sidebar just to your right.

But we especially wanted to share this story and photos we received yesterday from Dr. Scott Crawford in Jackson, MS. Hit the jump to continue.

I know you asked for pro-transit photos at your Transportation for America site, and believe me, I’m as supportive as I can be. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of positive photos for you, because Jackson Mississippi isn’t exactly a pro-transit city. They recently cut the budget for our transit system by 1.5 million dollars, and they are being sued by a consortium of people with disabilities for violations of civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (me being one of the plaintiffs).

The first and last photos are of one of the *BETTER* bus stops in Jackson, but as you can see, it is not accessible to people in wheelchairs. The second picture is of me being told, yet again, that I can’t ride the bus because the lifts don’t work. The third picture is of a friend of mine trying to cross a busy street in traffic because there are no accessible sidewalks or crosswalks in a busy shopping area.

You can certainly understand the importance of sidewalks, curb ramps, accessible buses, and accessible bus stops to people like me. Now, if we can just convince our leaders that they are good for everybody else too!

This is the state of transit in many of our smaller communities like Jackson. Underfunded and neglected by city or county governments, and more often than not, woefully ignored by State Departments of Transportation mostly concerned with pouring new asphalt and opening new highways.

Transit is not just something for big cities like New York or Chicago or Los Angeles. For residents like Dr. Crawford (and millions of others) in communities big and small, who either can’t drive or choose not to drive, it’s a basic question of equity.

Jackson did submit their “wish list” to the U.S. Conference of Mayors for potential economic stimulus money. Their $560 million request does include $6.1 million for 18 fixed route buses, and $720,000 for 12 demand response buses, but it also covers $188 million for street and road work. I wonder if the $800,000 for “JATRAN Shelter Improvements” includes making those terribly-designed curbs compatible for the disabled or elderly?

If you haven’t already, go and weigh in with your elected leaders and tell them that you want economic stimulus money for transportation invested in the smartest way. If you’re from the second or third district of Mississippi, you might want to tell your representatives to complete Jackson’s streets, making them safe for all users, and help upgrade Jackson’s buses to serve those who need them most.

What’s the view in your community? Send photos and/or your story to photos AT t4america DOT org

Filed under: Campaign Blog
Tags: complete streets, disabled, featured, mississippi, sidewalks, stimulus

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Ben

Great post highlighting an often overlooked aspect of transit. These are low cost, quick improvements that can really help make access to public transit so much easier for many people.

In Toronto, RFPs are currently underway for new streetcars, and consideration actually seems to be given to making them as accessible as possible (street level floors, wider aisles). It’s just amazing how, even today, so little thought is given to incorporating these things, it should be a matter of course.
http://www.bike-pgh.org erok

that looks bad, but check out what we have to deal with in Pittsburgh:

http://bike-pgh.org/2007/09/07/action-alert-demand-a-safe-route-into-oakland/

this has been this way for a long time. they are beginning to fix it, but has seriously taken years.
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http://www.sidewalksamerica.org Holly Ford

I just began my campaign for side walks.
My son died 2months ago; he was hit by a car while riding a bike!
He was only 15 and it’s so sad living without him. People go about
their daily lives not really thinking about the consequences of
what could happen. I did always remind him to watch for cars; but
a child doesn’t really think that the car will actually hit him.
The side walk ended and so did his life!
He was hit at the rate of 45 mph and he died instantly!
This was in a school zone area too. Last week, another child got hit
on the same street. But he’s ok. The local news did a report on it
and finally the city is going to put in side walks!
I found your article Dangerous by Design, and that is exactly what
our city is. Too many fatalities in our city. The really sad thing about
my story is, I just moved here in April. I didn’t think about side walks!
Now my whole life is about side walks.
Please visit my website and blog; I’d like to help!

Holly Ford
Chris

Here in Jackson, Population Loss makes makes almost every inner-city neighborhood look light that, and in most places there isn’t even a sidewalk to complain about.