Beth Walton

bwalton@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE – At 7 a.m. on a Tuesday, Waylon Rembert-Coxie and his mother are preparing to leave for school. The young boy toddles around the kitchen asking for an “ippy cup” when he wants his juice. He shouts “cer-ral” for shredded wheat.

Sabrina Rembert patiently follows her 2-year-old around the house, making sure his coat and hat fit snuggly before their chilly morning walk to the bus stop.

After scraping together $1 in change for the fare, the two head out the door, ready to join the thousands of other people who rely on Asheville city buses.

Those buses provided nearly 2.2 million rides last year, and people like Rembert are pushing to make the system better for those who need it most.

Asheville's ART Transit System began extended morning and evening hours for 10 different routes this month, with one East Asheville line starting service at 6 a.m. and making its final trip at 11 p.m.

Rembert and others urged the city to make the changes as part of a grassroots effort born to ensure riders had a voice in transit policy.

“Riders,” she said, “we know what we need.”

New bus stop at MAHEC should improve access

For five years, the nonprofit organization Just Economics has helped riders like Rembert, who rely on the bus every day, to make their voices heard.

Organizers hope the Peoples’ Transit Week, which runs Jan. 29 through Feb. 4, will push them on their final road to victory.

A Transit Town Hall is set for Monday at 6 p.m. at the Arthur R. Edington Education and Career Center, 133 Livingston St. The public is invited to hear people like Rembert tell their stories.

"We're at the point now where we really see the fruit," said Amy Cantrell, a community organizer for Just Economics. "We're seeing changes on the ground, big changes, that impact the whole city."

Transit staff also added the S6 line to the 175-mile network in January making it easier for people to travel along Asheville's bustling Hendersonville Road.

Riders can now access medical services at Mountain Area Heath Education Center and reach businesses and services in Biltmore Park and along Long Shoals Road.

These were no small changes, said Adam Charnack, who chairs the city’s Transit Committee, a subgroup of Asheville’s Multimodal Transportation Commission.

The frequency of service along Hendersonville Road down to Long Shoals Road has doubled, he said. Eight additional hours of operation were added in morning and evening hours across the system in 2017.

There was a budget increase, and the voices of those most impacted, riders and drivers, were heightened in part due to community demands and strengthened partnerships.

Asheville’s Transit Services received $7.5 million in the 2016-17 city budget year. The year before it saw $6.6 million.

The City of Asheville oversees 23 buses on 18 lines.

Seventy-three percent of households within the city’s limits live within a quarter mile of a bus route.

“Buses can make cities more sustainable, enjoyable places to live,” Charnack said. “It’s also about freedom. It’s about freedom of movement. Having frequent bus service makes it easier for everyone.”

The trip to preschool

Rembert and her son catch the W2 bus every weekday morning. It travels through their complex at Pisgah View Apartments, down Hanover Street and onto Haywood Road.

The riders around them check their phones, shuffle through paperwork and stare out the window.

Rembert holds Waylon tight on her lap during the short ride. Her son recently enrolled in the new Early Head Start Program at Asheville City Schools Preschool.

His mother lifts him up in the air when it’s time to get off the bus and quickly grabs his hand when his feet hit the pavement.

Rembert says life has gotten much easier now that Waylon can walk on his own and she no longer has to lug around a stroller or a diaper bag, struggling to load them on the bus without disrupting service or other riders.

Rembert doesn’t drive. She is disabled and says her nerves couldn’t handle it. She suffers from chronic pain, depression and anxiety.

Even though she doesn’t work, she takes the bus almost every day. She drops Waylon off at preschool in the mornings and picks him up again in the afternoon.

She takes the bus to her doctor’s appointments and to the grocery store. The routes connect her to the people and places that matter.

Rembert joined Just Economics’ Peoples’ Voices on Transportation Equality Campaign last year and plans to distribute fliers and recognize drivers to engage more people next week.

The campaign

The Voices on Transportation Equality Campaign started five years ago to ensure changes to the city's bus system were in the best interest of riders and drivers.

It wasn't always easy. Initially, it was hard for officials to see how the campaign's 19-point agenda fit into their work assessing routes for inefficiencies and re-branding the system, said Vicki Meath, executive director of Just Economics.

Just Economics showed up at nearly every meeting of the Transit Committee and stayed the entire time, said Asheville Transportation Department Director Ken Putnam.

The organization has been able to raise the voices of drivers and riders and push for priorities as the department worked through its 2009 Transit Master Plan, he said.

"It's reassuring to us that we're making the right decisions," he said. "If you are just working in a vacuum, for example, and you have to make a budget cut, you may not have all the information that you really need to make the best decision."

As city staff prepares to hire a consultant to overhaul the Transit Master Plan in 2017, Just Economics intends to call for Sunday service on all routes, evening hours on all routes, and the reinstatement of three stops.

Deaverview and Bartlett Arms apartments, two subsidized housing communities, and Vocational Rehabilitation Services, a North Carolina Health and Human Services office that provides local counseling, training and job placement to people with disabilities, need bus service, Cantrell said.

“We felt like a lot these stops were pulled and it really hurt the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable," she said.

These locations have service, but the bus no longer goes directly to these facilities, said Elias Mathes, transit project coordinator with the city.

Over the years the system was updated to improve on-time performance and reduce the risk of collisions with pedestrians, he said. Those places are still within a quarter mile of an existing route. There is also a special dial-a-ride service for riders with disabilities.

Just Economics’ push will be made in churches and in classrooms. There will be a town hall, a meet-and-greet, listening sessions and a youth rally. There will be many demonstrations on the bus.

Members of City Council plan to ride along. "Having Just Economics’ voice there to champion (bus service) did make a difference," said Julie Mayfield, who once served as the transit committee's chair and now holds a seat on City Council.

"For things to be successful in the city budgeting process, they need a champion."

On Monday, Mayfield will ride the bus with Rembert.

Part of the campaign is designed to help people see what it is like to be a necessity rider, to know what it is like to travel with kids or rely on the bus for basic services, Cantrell said.

An empowering start

Just Economics of Western North Carolina is a regional, membership organization based in Asheville with the mission to educate, advocate and organize for a just and sustainable economy.

Its Voices for Economic Justice program is an eight-week workshop that incorporates economics education and community organizing skill-building, with the aim to build leadership among low-wage workers.

At the end of the training, participants create a project where they use the skills they learned.

The fall 2012 Voices class prioritized transportation at the same time the city was making major changes to the ART system, Cantrell said.

Transportation often gets set aside during discussions about wages and affordable housing, but this issue is going to be quintessential as we spread out as a city, she said.

The tipping point came when a woman names Bubbles Griffin, who died last year, told the class she was upset that her neighbors at Bartlett Arms, many of whom were elderly or sick, were now being forced to walk up the hill to the bus stop on South French Broad Avenue.

The group met every week for a year to develop a mission and platform for the campaign, she said.

They reached out to other bus riders through a survey developed in partnership with UNC Asheville and the city.

They used the results to developed at 19-Point People's Agenda on Transit Reform, and officially launched their campaign in January 2014.

Since then several of the objectives have been met, Cantrell said. Sunday service started, allowing people without their own mode of transportation to go to work or to worship.

Routes have become more user-friendly, she continued. There has been more accountability from the management company. Non-elective riders now have a larger voice; some are even serving on the Transit Committee.

Every time a bus goes by on a Sunday, organizers turn to each other and say: "'We did that,'" Cantrell said.

The road to social change

Asheville resident Sabrah N'haRaven was part of the Voices for Economic Class that started the transit campaign.

N'haRaven, 47, has never had a driver's license and says she has no option but to care about transit issues.

People with limited resources often end their days physically and emotionally exhausted as they juggle multiple jobs, work nontraditional shifts, and labor for low wages so their families can survive, she said.

"Just Economics helps people use the resources they have in the most effective way possible," she said.

It shows people it’s possible to get things done, N'haRaven explained. “You don’t have to rely on protests and marches as the only options. You don’t have to wait for wealthier, more powerful people to create change. You can make it happen yourself.”

The sentiment is one that Rembert shares. She joined Just Economics transportation campaign after being inspired by the group’s push for Sunday service and the new S6 route.

The MAHEC stop makes it easier for her and Waylon to get to the doctor without dragging the active toddler up the hill, she said.

In addition to her work with Just Economics, Rembert uses the bus to volunteer downtown for homeless service provider BeLoved Asheville and the Senior Opportunity Center. She tries to advocate for the causes for which she believes, but says it is not always easy when you don’t have a car.

Just last weekend she dusted off the old stroller and diaper bag to take Waylon downtown for a women’s march. It was sure to be a long day and she knew his small feet wouldn’t be able to make the trek.

Loading all his stuff on the bus was worth the hassle. "We have things we have to get done, too,” she said. “It’s a beneficial service and you meet interesting and good people (on the bus) that are just going about their day, doing what they need to do.”

GET INVOLVED

For more information on Just Economics’ Peoples’ Transit Week and its 19-Point People's Agenda on Transit Reform, visit www.justeconomicswnc.org or contact organizers at 828-505-7466 or info@justeconomicswnc.org. The Transit Town Hall is Monday at 6 p.m. at the Arthur R. Edington Education and Center, 133 Livingston Street. The public is invited.

To learn about the City of Asheville's Transit Committee, go to www.ashevillenc.gov/Departments/CityClerk/BoardsCommissions/MultimodalTransportationCommission.aspx#transit%20committee or contact staff at (828) 232-4531 or iride@ashevillenc.gov.