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Blazing new trails aboard PSTA bus
By JAY HORNING My wife always has been a "what if" kind of person. A case in point these days is her question: "What if we were to lose our licenses to drive?" I suppose it is a legitimate question. In our case, both of us have driver's licenses that need not be renewed for another couple of years. But that does not carry much weight with a "what if" person. Such persistence can be answered with three possibilities: walking, using public transportation or calling a cab. Long ago, when we lived in Des Moines, the woman who directed our church choir lived about eight or 10 miles from the church. She was a widow who lived alone, and after calculating her transportation costs, she decided to sell her car and use taxis. She said that after considering car insurance, gas, oil, repairs and other miscellaneous expenses, she would come out ahead by using taxis. That would be an option for us, but not an appealing one. There is no schedule for cabs, and there's no way to hail one here as we could in New York. Walking would be even less practical, given distances involved in our travels about the Tampa Bay area. That leaves public transit, provided by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA). We decided to give it a try. We began by consulting Shirley Howard, lead customer service supervisor at PSTA. She provided us with maps, schedules, encouragement and a big dose of enthusiasm. A trip to St. Pete Beach from our home in eastern St. Petersburg would be a good test. We caught our first bus at 9:45 a.m. on Route 1 near Northeast Shopping Center, at First Street NE and 38th Avenue. We also purchased GO Cards, which would allow us an unlimited number of rides all day. We bought them on the bus at the special price of $1.50 each for seniors. (Exact change is required, as well as proof of age. An original Medicare card or PSTA ID card may be used. PSTA ID cards are available at PSTA customer service centers.) We found what we considered a surprising number of people riding the bus, especially for late morning. Before we knew it, we were at Williams Park, where we disembarked. Our next bus would be Route 35 at 10:20 a.m., which would take us to Corey Avenue and Gulf Boulevard on St. Pete Beach. We passed through the new Central Plaza Terminal, which straddles 32nd Street from Central Avenue to First Avenue S. The circular $2.7-million terminal accommodates up to 12 buses and trolleys at a time. After about 30 minutes, we were at St. Pete Beach, but our final destination was Pass-a-Grille. We waited hardly any time for the Beach Trolley that got us to Pass-a-Grille at 11:15 a.m. After patting ourselves on the back for a job well done, we rewarded ourselves with lunch at the Hurricane. After lunch we ambled about the Pass-a-Grille business district, purchased a birthday gift and headed back to the trolley stop. By then, the trip home was old hat to us. We simply did things in reverse: leaving Pass-a-Grille on the trolley at 1:30 p.m., catching Route 35 on Corey Avenue at 2 p.m. headed for downtown, changing at Williams Park at 3:15 p.m. for Route 1 and arriving back at the Northeast Shopping Center at 3:28 p.m. What did we learn? We learned that we can use the bus. We also learned that we can go just about anywhere in Pinellas County -- and to Tampa, too -- using PSTA. The schedules and information on fares are available at all terminals (Williams Park, Central Plaza and Park Street in downtown Clearwater) and by calling (727) 530-9911. Information and schedules also are available at the company's Web site: www.psta.net. We also learned that on the day we rode the bus, we were joining 32,000 other folks who do the same thing in Pinellas County every day. We also learned that if the day ever comes when we no longer have access to a car, it's not the end of the road. Both of us are convinced that PSTA can take us just about anywhere we want to go. - Write to Jay Horning in care of Seniority, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731; or send e-mail to jayhorning@aol.com.
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From the Times Seniority pages |
