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Chattanoogans Continue To Opt Out Public Transportation

472 views · Published 22 June 2012 · 2:54 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: WTVC NewsChannel 9 · 2012 · News & Politics

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by Alyssa Spirato Thursday is National "Dump The Pump" day, a drive that urges you to ditch the gas pump for a day, and hop on public transportation."It cuts into people's budgets, and we can save people an immense amount of money when they dump the pump," says CARTA'S Executive Director, Tom Dugan.But Chattanooga's public transportation hasn't gotten the best reviews. In fact in 2011, a Brookings Institution study finds Chattanooga ranks 87 out of 100 when it comes to public transportation access and coverage. Dugan says some suburbs like Soddy Daisy did have access at one point but when the city stopped paying into the CARTA fund.. CARTA stopped making stops in places like Soddy Daisy. "If you were to measure our system twenty years ago, when many of the small cities were in, while we wouldn't be in the top twenty five percent, we certainly wouldn't be in the bottom ten percent," says Dugan.But it isn't just public access that's turning away many Chattanooga residents from dumping the pump and boarding buses. Jonathan Beardsley works Downtown, but lives about twenty minutes away. He says he even has a bus stop right by his home,  but says taking the bus to work is not something he's into."It's easy to hop on the highway and get to work. If I wanted to ride the bus, I would probably have to get up an hour earlier to go find a bus stop and wait for the bus," says Beardsley.An hour earlier he says, to him,  isn't worth it."I don't think it's a real pleasurable experience to ride the buses. Maybe it has something to do with who's on the bus already, maybe it has something to do with the convenience factor,"  says Beardsley.Dugan says as of June of last year, 1.8 million people ride CARTA'S buses each and every year,  not including the 900 thousand that ride the shuttle.

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