Wednesday, September 12, 2001
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Wednesday, September 12, 2001 |
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Riverdale-to-Fayette bus route recommended DAVE HAMRICK
A bus route connecting low-income workers in Clayton and Fulton counties with entry-level jobs at Fayette Pavilion is among recommendations of a 65-member Atlanta Regional Commission task force. The Job Access Transportation Coalition has spent about a year studying ways to help recipients of TANF Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, formerly known as the Welfare-to-Work program get to and from potential jobs and day care facilities in the 10-county Atlanta region. Results of the group's work are contained in a 100-page document dubbed the Job Access Transportation Plan, which focuses on where low-income people live and where potential jobs are, and solutions for bringing them together. "Two-thirds of all new jobs are in the suburbs," says the report, "whereas three-quarters of welfare recipients live in rural areas or central cities." And less than half of the jobs are accessible by transit, the report states. Also, 94 percent of welfare recipients do not own cars. The task force looked for clusters of TANF recipients and clusters of available jobs, and came up with recommended solutions. In Fayette's case, said ARC's Carolyn White, manager of the project, "We really couldn't do clusters ... there really weren't any real clusters of low-income residents, and no concentration of patterns" in Fayette, she said. TANF recipients here are few and far between, she said, adding that the best solution for those few people would be car-pooling or some kind of shuttle service. But Fayette Pavilion was identified as "an unserved employment concentration," meaning that at any given time there might be around 75 jobs available there, she said. The task force recommended extending Clayton's new transit system, which doesn't start revenue service until Oct. 1, to the Pavilion down Ga. Highway 85 from Riverdale. Lines connecting that system with MARTA in Fulton also are recommended. Clayton County Transit, or C-Tran, funded through the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, kicks off with 12 buses and two routes, with plans to grow to 30 buses and five routes within a year, said Richard Bray, director of the system. The ARC task force's recommendation is news to him, he said. Whether that recommendation ever becomes reality, said White, is up to local business and government leaders. "Those interested would have to come together and figure out how to do it," she said. Up to 50 percent of the cost could be provided through federal grants, she added. Richard Bray, head of Clayton's planned transit system, The task force's recommendations are available in detail by phoning the ARC or visiting www.atlantaregional.com/jatp.
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