Advocacy & Education

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Gino, and I am here tonight to speak about the redesign of our public transit network and the human cost of removing routes.

The city’s ART Choices Report states that ridership and coverage are competing goals—you cannot spend the same dollar on both. In that report, the city’s transit consultant defines coverage as ‘insurance against isolation’.

Yet by putting ridership first, the new model throws that insurance away. It cuts the share of residents near transit from 61% to 40%. That means one in three people who today have transit will lose it.

Hardest hit are the most vulnerable. The ART Concepts Report admits that a ridership-first model strips transit access from nearly one in four low-income residents and people of color. This is abandonment by design.

For seniors and disabled residents, your route map decides who gets paratransit and who gets left behind. By law, ADA van service can only go where your buses go. When the bus map shrinks, the ADA map shrinks with it.

For a senior on those routes, that means losing two lifelines at once: the bus stop that once was within reach, and the ADA van that served that route. When that van stops coming, the city ends at their front door.

Older adults make up nearly one-third of Buncombe County. In a county this old, in a city this old, your planning must prioritize coverage. Because when you cut a bus line, you cut twice.

Before you is a choice to define what the city of Asheville values. Above all else, value our people. Thank you.