TRAM

Part of the recommendations from the parking study that was completed was the introduction of a fixed route mini-transit system. While it was being done to some degree, the tram drivers would still take phone requests from users to pick them up at their homes within the downtown area and deliver them to their destinations and then return the riders home when they were ready.

If you live on California or Akron Streets, that is a great way to have free cab service, but it is not what those who advocated for our mini-transit system had in mind. When the City Manager stopped the on-call service, then “government by tee-shirt” sprang into action. At the meeting, a half-dozen people spoke about how great it was to be picked up and brought to Osceola for a meal.

I would love to be able to call the tram and be picked up and transported home also. Unfortunately, like 15,000 other Stuart residents, I don’t qualify for that service. If I don’t want to drive or walk the ¾ mile, then I need to call an Uber. Not very fair for me and my neighbors to subsidize the individual rides of the few.

A fixed transit system needs to be reliable and on time. That can’t happen if it is diverted from its route, which is a route that serves citizens and tourists who park in our parking lots and then are picked up in an expeditious way to have that meal or to return to their cars. That, in my mind, is a good use of tax dollars not being the chauffeurs for a few.

The City Commission voted to implement those recommendations contained in the first part of the study. It was a good call then, and it is a good call now. I am happy to see that they have stuck to that plan. The City should look to expand service and routes so that more and more residents can take advantage of our mini-transit system. People who want a cab should call a cab and leave government to provide a service that does not compete against private industry.

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