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WILMAPCO advisory body to ask DART about Rodney Square bus hub

Sophia Schmidt, Delaware Public Media
A bus pulls up to Rodney Square in Wilmington

The Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO) Public Advisory Committee made a motion regarding the Rodney Square bus hub Monday night.

Rodney Square bus advocates D. Marque Hall and John Flaherty presented to the Committee.

“Coalition to Keep Bus Service on Rodney Square urges the WILMAPCO Public Advisory Committee to fight for the public interest and not for the special interest, and support the restoration of the Rodney Square bus hub,” said Flaherty.

Flaherty and Hall recounted their accusations that bus route changes were influenced by special interests—and called last winter’s reduction of bus service on Rodney Square discrimination.

Committee members who spoke shared the Coalition’s dissatisfaction with last winter’s bus route changes—and wondered, as a purely advisory body, how to do something about it.

One member suggested the Committee investigate whether the changes constituted an ADA violation. Another suggested asking the private businesses who lobbied for changes to the Square to donate bus shelters until the new Wilmington Transit Hub is built.

Mark Blake of the Greater Hockessin Area Development Association sits on the Committee.

“What [DART] should do is restore the shelters that were taken out at Rodney Square, and work to get the new shelters and the new hubs up in the new location. And in the interim, just keep the service the way it was,” he said. “That would serve the community best.”

 

At Monday’s meeting, Blake made a motion for the Committee to ask DART why bus shelters were removed, and why they can’t be restored for the time being until the new Wilmington Transit Hub is operational.

“It’s unusual for any state agency or taxpayer-funded agency to take out infrastructure or facilities until the new one or replacement is in place,” he said.

The motion passed the committee with eight votes 'yes,' zero votes 'no,' and three abstaining.

Randi Novakoff, outreach manager at WILMAPCO, says that the Public Advisory Committee will present the question to DART soon, and meet with the WILMAPCO Council—which Delaware Transit Corporation director John Sisson chairs—in mid-September.

 

Sophia Schmidt is a Delaware native. She comes to Delaware Public Media from NPR’s Weekend Edition in Washington, DC, where she produced arts, politics, science and culture interviews. She previously wrote about education and environment for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA. She graduated from Williams College, where she studied environmental policy and biology, and covered environmental events and local renewable energy for the college paper.
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