Transit Tuesday: Rachael Haskell

Portland, ME – Maine People’s Alliance

I live in Portland, and I’m one of seven kids. I’m currently getting my master’s degree in social work at the University of Southern Maine. One of the great things about the program that I’m in is that I was able to intern with Maine People’s Alliance last year, which I loved. I really like to be involved in research and policy, and I hope to use my degree to work in the field of intimate partner violence. In my free time, which I have very little of while going to school, I like to write.

Growing up, I never had much experience with public transit given our system isn’t very well developed in Maine. Life in Maine is really built around having access to a car. I don’t drive. At first, that was because I couldn’t afford driver’s education, but then I started to encounter vision issues that made it impossible for me to be behind the wheel of a car.

It wasn’t until I left to get my undergrad degree at Boston College that I started to use public transit. It was nice to have more of the world opened to me while I was in school because of public transit. The T, which is what they call Boston’s subway system, runs to a lot of different places in the city. The sense of freedom that it gave me was wonderful.

After graduating from Boston College, I moved back to Portland. I’ve always been a big walker, but I started to notice that it was getting harder and harder for me to walk. I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS for short. EDS causes loose connective tissue in the joints, allowing them to move beyond their normal range of motion. This leads to unstable joints which makes me more prone to dislocation and chronic pain. Right now, I can walk about fifteen minutes before my joints get mad at me.

The fortunate thing with having a large family in the area is that most of them drive and can take me places that I need to go. The unfortunate thing is that they all lead busy lives too, so often, I’m stuck at home given Portland’s buses don’t run everywhere and not very often. I also feel some shame and sorrow to have to rely on my family to get around town or if I want to travel outside of Portland. 

Lack of good public transit also impacts my social life. It’s harder to go out and see people, If I want to go out and meet people for dinner, I must carefully plan out my bus route. If the location is in a place in town that isn’t serviced by public transit, which is a lot of the city, I simply don’t go. I’m limited on how far I can go and where I can go. It stinks.

I would like to see more frequency, and I would love it if Portland had a subway. One aspect that I also think about when it comes to public transit is that we’ve got a lot of new Mainers, many of which are asylum seekers. Because they are new to the country, they can’t drive. These are families that want to get to work more easily and experience the new place that they are in. It’s difficult for them to do so. Not only is it hard for them, it’s also kind of confusing for everyone now. Our bus system used to have a bus tracker for people on their smartphones, but they don’t have that anymore. It’s really frustrating.

If I was in front of Congress, I’d ask them to invest more in public transit operations and infrastructure. It would allow for more economic exchange. It brings the world into focus for people. It’s also a social justice issue, since I feel everybody has a right to their own autonomy. Without good public transit, people are being excluded from society and that’s not very democratic. The time is now for us to expand our public transit system.

About Transit Stories

Transit Stories” is a series of real-life experiences with public transit in the U.S. We feature the first-hand experience of public transit riders from across the country. From large cities to small towns, we will document the experiences of the millions of users of busses, trains, ferries, and other forms of public transit in the US. Public transit is essential to our communities, to cooling the planet, to advancing equity. Transit is essential to our very lives.

There is a unique opportunity for the country to make a historic investment in public transit funding to help the country build back better. 

For media inquiries, contact Doug Gordon, doug@upshiftstrategies.com.

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