{"id":13675,"date":"2015-07-18T16:09:04","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T20:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=13675"},"modified":"2015-07-18T16:12:47","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T20:12:47","slug":"live-oak-bus-service-starts-monday-2015-07-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/live-oak-bus-service-starts-monday-2015-07-20.html","title":{"rendered":"Live Oak bus service starts Monday 2015-07-20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nHow come Live Oak (pop. 6,974) in Suwannee County (43,734), Florida can do\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nwhat mighty Valdosta (56,481) in Lowndes County (112,916), Georgia can’t?\r\n

\r\nAmber Vann, Suwannee Democrat, 17 July 2015,\r\n\r\nLive Oak bus route starts Monday<\/a>,\r\n

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\r\nThe Suwannee Valley Transit Authority’s Live Oak bus route will\r\nbegin operating on Monday, July 20, running continuously from 7 a.m.\r\nuntil 7 p.m. throughout every direction of the city, Monday through\r\nFriday. The route’s unofficial stops include apartment complexes and\r\nother residential neighborhoods, public schools, grocery stores,\r\nparks, government offices, nursing homes, the library and the\r\nhospital.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

The route starts at the intersection of Walker Avenue and US 90 West\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\"300x493<\/a>\r\n\r\nand loops back again roughly every two hours. Passengers can ride\r\nwest as far as Shands Live Oak Regional Medical Center, south to the\r\nLive Oak Public Library, east to Suwannee Health Care Center and\r\nnorth to Walmart. See the map above for a list of bus stops; the\r\nlist is not exhaustive as there are many other stops that can be\r\nmade depending on rider needs.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThis new mode of public transportation is part of SVTA’s efforts to\r\nexpand its services beyond non-emergency medical transport, which it\r\nhas come to be known for due to the high volume of Medicaid riders\r\nin the past.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“The bus route is one of those things where, until we put our\r\nfoot in the water, we’re not going to know how cold or how hot it\r\nis,” SVTA Administrator Larry Sessions said. “It’s\r\nsomething that’s needed in the community. We have a lot of locals\r\nthat we pick up and do things locally that we dispatch a whole\r\nvehicle for. A lot of these people may just get on and ride the bus\r\ninstead, and that’ll free up some of our resources to do other\r\nthings and to go out in the community a little bit farther. So this\r\ncould take care of a lot of things right here in Live Oak.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat sounds awful like the kind of adaptable bus route that\r\nCorey Hull explained to\r\nthe Lowndes County Commission that VLMPO is proposing<\/a>.\r\nExcept Live Oak is doing it, while much larger Valdosta and Lowndes County\r\nhaven’t even finished funding a study.\r\n

\r\nEven if you add the other Suwannee Valley Transit Authority (SVTA)\r\ncounties of Columbia (67,543) and Hamilton (14,354),\r\nthe total SVTA area population of 125,631 is hardly bigger than\r\nLowndes County alone.\r\nPlus to match, we should add Brooks (15,516), Lanier (10,408),\r\nand Echols (4,057) Counties, Georgia for a total Valdosta Metropolitan\r\nStatistical Area (MSA) population of 142,897.\r\nSo comparing\r\n\r\nall the counties<\/a>\r\nshows Valdosta MSA has more people than the SVTA area.\r\n

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