Louisville, KY: VOCAL-KY
I am from Louisville, Kentucky. I have lived around Louisville and spent time outside Kentucky and outside of Louisville. My family is what brought me back to Louisville. I am seeking to enjoy and create life with my family.
I was born in west Louisville. I have been staying in the south end or east end of Louisville. I take the Tarc for all of my transportation needs. From personal reasons to going places to see friends to professional. Also, back and forth to work or meetings or services that I attend. I have no personal transportation, so it is my only mode of transportation.
When it comes to challenges, I have experienced using public transit, it depends on the Tarc stop in relation to how close it is to a job. It is one thing to be able to get a job, but also to get to and from the job. You must get a Tarc bus close to where you work. Then, you must walk from the Tarc stop to your job. Then your job back to the Tarc stop. The only main factory that I know of that has an actual Tarc route is UPS. For the most part, you get in proximity of your destination and then you walk from there.
When it comes to being on time. Lately, it seems less frequent. I have no understanding of it because a bus driver says they cannot be early but cannot be late and very rarely are they on time. Most of the time, they are just late. By the bus being late, it gets you to your destination late or you must catch an earlier bus and then you must wait.
Even though I am in transition with my housing. I have not had much experience getting treated poorly on the Tarc. I try to carry myself in a way that is above my situation. My situation is dealing with homelessness and unemployment, but I do not treat myself that way, so I try not to carry myself that way. I really have not had any discriminating experiences because of this.
When it comes to the bus being late, I think it is due to maybe traffic or extended breaks.
There is a lack of routes because they have been short on bus drivers and there are fewer buses running. That is a big one, not having enough staff to drive the buses. It cost me a job. It has cost me to be late getting to meetings or cancel meetings. Missed opportunities and interviews.
I think that it would make a big difference to have more bus drivers, more direct routes, and more bus stops. It would make productivity in terms of getting to where you need to and when you need to get there instead of having to leave super early. You can leave at an ok time and get there on time. I think that it would help encourage us to branch out to different areas for different jobs that are better paying and have better benefits. You can get there with convenience and as much assistance as possible to make your commute pleasurable and enjoyable.