Take a busy downtown block, say between Bowery and Mill streets. Add several buses, a few hundred high school students on their way home in the afternoon, the usual mix of foot traffic and cars and what have you got? A real mess.
For nearly 20 years the Metro Regional Transit Authority has been using that block as a central gathering point for people transferring bus routes. When it first opened, downtown congestion was much less of a concern than was bringing people downtown. Over the years vehicular and pedestrian traffic grew and now has reached a tipping point. What's more, the reluctance of many to make transfers downtown late at night because of safety concerns turned the continued presence of the Metro depot into a problem instead of a solution.
For a while, the city and Metro pondered another location downtown. Vacant commercial property was available away from Main Street, but then other, independent projects made that site impractical.
That is why the recent offer by the city of four acres at Bartges Street and South Broadway was just the ingredient needed to move the new $15 million Metro terminal out of downtown. Not only does the land serve as the local match for federal funding, but it creates a synergy no other site can offer.
First, there is the potential for Greyhound to move its terminal from Grant Street to the Broadway location, making it a mass transit focal point. This also gives a better location for passengers coming from Kent State University. Most exciting is that the terminal would be adjacent to the hydrogen fuel-tank development project of Ovonics Hydrogen Systems LLC, being built by Akron native Stanford Ovshinsky. Independent of Ovshinsky's plans, Metro had been seeking funding from a variety of sources for a hydrogen fuel-cell bus. What a fortunate confluence.
With an enclosed, secure location, amenities such as restrooms and a small store, the new terminal will make taking the bus far more passenger friendly. Add those higher gas prices, and who knows? Some may decide to leave the car at home. |
