Student suggests regular bus service between Petersburg and Springfield

 Dear Mayor Rich Snyder, 

My name is [student name] and I am a junior at the University of Illinois Springfield studying social work. I am from Petersburg, and I am very passionate about making the town a better community for everyone. There is an issue of public transportation in Petersburg, which I believe could be solved, and that would make the community a better place.  

Petersburg is about 23 miles from the main shopping areas of Springfield. However, for persons in Petersburg to get to the main AMC movie theater, the large grocery stores, or the downtown of Springfield, they must drive cars. A round-trip is typical 50 to 56 miles, and for cars with 25-28 miles per gallon, that’s two gallons, or about $8 in fuel costs for every trip into Springfield.  Older Petersburg residents who don’t see well at night or feel uncomfortable driving, and young persons who do not yet drive or cannot yet afford a car are also facing a difficulty getting to Springfield and back.  

A few ways that the public transportation issue could be solved in Peterburg include gaining Uber access, bus access, and making the senior transport (S.M.A.R.T) more accessible. 

Gaining Uber access is something that could simply be done, by a submission for drivers to travel to the area, or outside of the Springfield area.  Allowing Uber access into the small community that we live in would be beneficial for anyone who does not have daily transportation to work, whether that was in Springfield, Petersburg itself, or one of the surrounding towns. Allowing individuals to get to work every day would allow for them to save more money and potentially being able to purchase a vehicle of their own. 

Gaining bus access for residents of Petersburg would be beneficial for when a group of people need to go to the same place. For example, many people daily in Petersburg need to go to the grocery store, the dollar store, the doctor’s office, etc. If we had a few busses that ran a few times a day to these places, a lot of stress of having to find a ride would be taken off the Petersburg residents. Finally, making the S.M.A.R.T van more accessible for the senior citizens. Although it is based in Menard County, for Menard County residents, I personally have experienced many issues with them. I work at the doctor’s office in town, and there have been numerous times the van has not been on time, or has even forgotten their passengers at the office. Personally, I find this unacceptable and there needs to be something done about it in order to ensure these senior citizens are respectfully treated during their rides, that they do indeed pay for. 

I imagine two mid-sized busses capable of picking up and transporting persons in wheelchairs. Each would make four 100 minute runs between Petersburg and Springfield, allowing the driver a 20 minute break between each run for an eight-hour shift.  The busses would be spaced an hour apart, so that the first bus would leave Petersburg at 8, 10, noon, and 2. The second bus would be the evening bus, departing at 11, 1, 3, and 5. The busses would stop  in Petersburg at Countryside Estates, Senior Services at Sheridan and 6th, and Jackson and 6th.  It would stop in Salisbury, and then in Springfield at Harvest Market at White Oaks Plaza, the AMC theaters off Wabash, the Walmart Supercenter/Aldi/Target off Veterans Parkway, the downtown transport center at 11th and Adams, St. John’s Hospital, and Memorial Hospital, and then return to Petersburg.  

The first bus of the day: 8:00am departure from Countryside Estates, 8:06 departure from Jacksonville and 6th in Petersburg, 8:19 stop at Salisbury, 8:38 at Memorial Hospital, 8:43 at St. John’s Hospital, 8:47 at SMTD Transfer Center, 9:02 at White Oaks Plaza, 9:08 at AMC Classic Springfield 12, and a stop at the parking lot for Walmart, Aldi, and Target from 9:14 to 9:16. The bus would be back at Petersburg at 9:52, and then start again from Countryside Estates at 10:00. The last bus of the day would depart Springfield from the Walmart / Aldi / Target parking lot at 6:16pm. The bus could be free, to encourage use and discourage people from driving. After initial costs of purchasing the busses ($120,000), the city budget would need $14,000 for bus maintenance, $240,000 per year for salaries and benefits for three bus drivers, $10,000 per year for purchases of new busses and insurance, and $116,000 for fuel.  The city of Springfield or the Sangamon County government might each pay a portion of the $380,000 annual cost of running the busses, leaving the average cost to residents of Petersburg at about $100 per year per household.

Finally, I thank you for reading this letter and taking my thoughts into consideration. As a member of the small community, we live in, I think it is important that we take everyone’s interests seriously and into consideration. 

I like your idea. Our nation is too dependent on cars, and this limits the freedom of younger and older citizens. Springfield and Petersburg pay a lot to maintain their streets for private vehicles, and taking some of that money out from subsidizing car companies and private use of vehicles to support public transport appeals to me. I think a free regular shuttle with eight departures per day to Petersburg might also bring more tourists out to that town.  Perhaps the schedule could give a midday break for the drivers, allowing later busses so that people could have a dinner in either Petersburg or Springfield before catching a bus from one town to the other.  Advocating for public transit is an important way to ameliorate carbon emissions and global warming.