Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook

Section Five

Transportation on the Move!

by Pat Larson, Cindy Rodriguez, Caridad Santiago, Donna Swain, and Lisa Willard, with an overview by Cindy Rodriguez

Overview
In January 1997, a group of women got together for a meeting to talk about problems in the North Quabbin community in Massachusetts. We came to the conclusion that the most important problem in our area was that we have no transportation. We have one cab service between Orange and Athol, and the prices are outrageous. Sometimes there is an answering machine on when people call. Then that one cab is not available, and this can be very discouraging.

During the workshops we had in the winter, we discussed everything from why we need transportation to how to get it! We made a list and came up with different ideas. We started with the history of transportation – past, present and future. We found that if we were going to fight for something we believed in, we would have to know a lot about the subject.

So we went as far back in the history of transportation to trolleys and early buses, and the loss of any form of public transportation in the area during the last fifteen years. We learned a great deal about transportation and had fun doing it! We wrote letters and made phone calls. We set up meetings with regional transit officials, selectmen, politicians, representatives from different agencies, and other interested community members. We formed a North Quabbin Transportation Task Force after a community meeting in March. We also did a ten-minute video and aired it on our local cable access television station (A.O.T.V.) to make people aware of our problem. After the video, we had a live panel discussion, where people could call in with their comments and questions.

So far everything seems to be working. We are in the process of getting a van service, which will help out a great deal. As far as a public bus, we may not see it tomorrow, but we are being heard, and we are getting more and more people involved.

How Did Our Discussions Begin?
First we did a paper quilt about how we saw our family, our classroom, our community, and ourselves. We listed a lot of things on newsprint, where everybody put ideas of all the problems in the area. We tallied the ones people thought were the most important and found that transportation was the most important issue for us.

In the paper quilt, we each wrote out words that related to Self, Family, Classroom, and Community. Then as we put them on the newsprint we shared our thoughts with the group. This activity started to get us talking about some of our common concerns about our community as everyone put their “quilt squares” up for the group to see.

How Did We Do Research to Find Out More about the Issue Concerning the Need for Public Transportation?
We talked about questions that we could ask to get information about public transportation in our community. We listed both questions about the past and the present. Some of our ideas for questions to use for our research included:

Finding out about the history of transportation in this area:

• When did Orange have some form of public transportation? What kind of public transportation did this area have in the past?
• Why did it stop?
• Who is responsible? Getting public transportation in the 1990s:
• What kind of public transportation would work in this area?
• Where will the money come from to support some form of public transportation now?
• How do we get support for this from people who have cars?

From these questions, we asked more questions and talked to more people. We found that we could get information by using the following resources:

• Making phone calls to people who knew the community and who could give us information and names of others to call.
• Talking with older people who remembered riding the local trolleys, buses, and trains.
• Visiting the local library and historical society.
• Looking in old newspapers at the library.
• Writing letters to elected officials and public transportation officials.

How Did We Educate Other People in the Community?
After several workshop meetings, we began to feel that we should talk with other people in the community about the need for some form of public transportation. Even before we started to take action and talk to other people about this issue, we started to list possible ways to educate other people in our community. Some ideas included:

• Circulate a petition in the community asking people to support getting some form of public transportation into the area.
• Put up flyers in local stores.
• Talk to other people we know who might be concerned about this issue.
• Write to legislators to get their support.
• Write letters to the editor of the local newspaper.
• Produce a skit or video show for the community access television station.
• Organize and hold a community meeting about this issue.

We did many activities together and let people in the community know that we were concerned about the lack of affordable public transportation. We wrote letters, circulated a petition, talked to people we knew and to government officials. After working together for three months, we held a community meeting about the need for public transportation.

Someone in the workshops suggested the idea of making a video. We read a short play together and tried some role playing, and then people started planning their own skit. This was new to all of us. But we all got excited about producing a community television show (AOTV- Channel 13) and stayed with it until our transportation skit and talk show was on community television.

Update on the Campaign for Affordable Public Transportation
When we started working on this issue, some of us did not think it was going to go anywhere. The only thing we were going to do was fight to get a public bus scheduled for Athol and Orange with a possible link to Greenfield. But now we have succeeded in getting a Volunteer Ride Share Project going.

Over the summer people from agencies and the community met each Wednesday over lunch to hammer out details concerning a pilot project to bring some form of community-based public transportation to the Athol-Orange area.

In the fall, we had a raffle and walk-a-thon to raise funds for the costs of insurance and upkeep for the van. We continued to work with the N.Q.T. Coop to coordinate a useful van service. Donna drove the van for many community groups while Lisa worked to keep track of paperwork and scheduling. Our next goal is to set up a bus service along Route 2 with stops in the Athol and Orange area, and maybe even use the old Athol train depot for a transportation center. At each step along with way, we’re reminded of Margaret Mead’s inspiring quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has!”

Pat Larson coordinates the Orange, MA site of The Literacy Project. Cindy Rodriguez, Caridad Santiago, Donna Swain, and Lisa Willard are community activists and were students in Pat’s class.

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