LOVELAND, OHIO – Disabled resident responds to loss of bus service.

Dear Editor,

An Open letter to Loveland City Council.

I am quite upset about the bus service here in Loveland. I Just found out that Loveland Rt. 3 will be discontinued in August 2004, because of low ridership. You and METRO are using the low bus ridership as an excuse so that you don’t have to spend money and provide service in order for residents to get where they need to go. We need this bus service here in Loveland and I am going to discuss with you the need.

– There are residents in Loveland that use this bus service to get to their jobs because the highways are congested and parking is expensive.

– There are working and low income disadvantage residents that live in Section 8 housing in Loveland. There are single parents, seniors and the disabled, that do not drive and if they do drive, their cars break down most of the time.

– We need more time slots on this route and then you would not have low ridership.

– This bus only comes twice in the morning 6:35 A. M. and 7:15 A. M. (handicap accessible at this time only) and twice in the evening 6:19 P.M. and 7:15 P. M. (handicap accessible at this time only).

– Residents have to stay downtown all day.

– We need this service to continue so that we are able to go on doctors appointments and the Department of Human Services. Also, there are very few doctors or dentists that take medical cards in Loveland, so residents and their children need to go to the city for medical care.

– We need this service to be handicapped accessible for all time slots.

I am using myself as an example so that you will know that the need is really there. I moved to Westover Village in November of 1994. I was a working single parent with two kids and moving up in a position very fast at Anthem Prescriptions, until one day back in January 1999 I received a phone call from my doctor telling me that I have a form of MD (Muscular Dystrophy). It is a severe muscle weakness that attacks your whole body. I was told I would have to quit my job and stop driving and that I will be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

I was stunned by all of this, yet I manage not to let this get me down – so I keep going day to day. I do not have transportation nor do I have someone who could drive me around so that I could get to where I and my children need to go.

During the spring and summer I use the metro. I am afraid to ride the bus in the winter though, because I don’t want my wheelchair to be buried in the snow. If I needed to ride the bus in the winter I should not have to ride in my wheelchair several miles just to get to a bus stop where I would be safe so that cars wouldn’t hit me.

The bus signs (orange) are no longer at their original stops, and where they were, it is dangerous crossing West Loveland because there are no sidewalks on that side of the street.

I can’t ride on the Clermont Transit bus either because they will not come over the bridge to get to Westover. There is something wrong with this picture.

You know one-day God forbid that anything would happen to you or anyone else – that you or someone else becomes disabled or ill, and I hope this doesn’t happen. I am amazed how many people really take for granted that this will not happen to them, when in fact anything could happen to you, your family members, or friends. I don’t think that you and the management of Metro know what it is, to be in a hardship like this. If you did, this should have been taken care of many years ago. What are the residents suppose to do about getting around? We should not have to move from Loveland just to get bus service provided to us.

If you discontinued this service the residents will have problems providing for their families. Loveland is a great city to live in and by taking away this bus service families of low income wouldn’t be able to get where they need to go; to work, doctor appointments and the Department of Human Services. This could possibly lead to crimes in Loveland, and no one wants that to happen.

I hope to hear from you, the council members and Mr. Fred Enderle about this matter so that we can get this resolved.

Sincerely,
Terri Rogers
Main Street
Loveland, Ohio