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Ryan Heller, Representative for Congressman Adam Gray
Ryan Heller attended the transportation forum after being invited through facebook. Faced with the question of how transportation can be seen as a health issue, Heller responded, “one of the biggest reasons for lack of transportation is the lack of health care. We spend a lot of time and energy opening a health care clinic but then the people who need health care the most cannot get there. So we need to start looking at how do we make our transportation system work.” Heller also adds that a good first step is for people to “get together, like today, and get their voices heard by people who plan bus routes in a way that makes sense for everyone.”
Heller brings up a bill that Gray is working on called Economic Disaster Zones. This bill takes a community in which the unemployment is high and where the economy is bad, and makes them a top priority for money the state is already spending. Heller explains, “what [the bill] does is if we have this list of infrastructure projects, like we want to build 100 new roads this year, then the ones in Merced will go first. If we are able to pass this bill, we will be able to make sure communities that really need the investment will be first in line to receive it.” This could be a good starting point for a community like ours.
The forum impressed Heller, explaining how he was “amazed at how many people attended, both to learn about transportation and to get their voices heard. That is the most important thing you can do as a community member, to go and find your public officials and reps and tell them what they do not necessarily know about.” He adds that officials would potentially “spend millions of dollars to do a study and wouldn’t learn about the most basic things about your neighborhood because they were too busy looking at numbers instead of experiencing it.”
Skylar Francise, Merced Resident and College Student
“What impacted me the most was when a panelist was talking about walking from Beachwood all the way to her school.” Skylar Francise, 19, is a college student and mentor in the Venice Arts photography program in Merced. He attended the forum with little information on the topic of transportation. His favorite part of the event was the breakout groups because he felt they went very well and he was able to gain an insight to the transportation struggles of various different kinds of community members, especially residents from Planada. “I think transportation is an important health issue for many reasons,” says Skylar. He cites things like the potential for students to get hit by cars walking down unsafe roads or the threat of being mugged as some of the reasons.
Also, the dangers in biking due to lack of bike lanes makes finding alternatives to walking more of a challenge. He feels that everyone who attended the forum walked away with something from the event and he’s glad he attended.
Martha Flores, Planada Resident
Martha Flores, senior citizen and resident of Planada, was brought to the transportation forum by her son not knowing what to expect. I asked Martha how transportation affects her and she said that since she has a car and many children spread out through the central valley that gas money is an issue that sometimes prevents her to go and visit her family as often as she would like to. After learning about all the different agencies and stories from people in the forum, Martha found that there will be a way that she can visit her children for cheaper than the price of gas.
The Merced City Bus offers rides from Planada to Merced, for $3 one-way, where there are connections to other routes and Martha can take another bus to anywhere else for an additional $1.50 in the city of Merced. She also learned that the bus will be running Sundays and the hours will go into the late evening! Martha Flores said she enjoyed the event and was very glad to get information that would help her in the future.
Stephanie Millan, Atwater Resident and College Student
Stephanie Millan is a 19 year old resident of Atwater who was not very familiar with the transportation issues in the Merced area or the efforts behind addressing the issues before she attended the forum. Despite being unaware of specifics, she sympathized with the efforts, “in high school I would have to walk everywhere,” says Stephanie. She also told me how the weather would affect her walks to school, sometimes it was really hot and other times it would rain and her textbooks would get damaged and she would have to pay for those damages.
I asked Stephanie what her overall impression of the forum was, she said, “I had never been to a meeting or forum like this but it was really interesting. The food was good, it was very interactive and I got a lot of information.” She’s glad to find out that the City bus will be running later in the evenings. Stephanie hopes to assist in efforts to address some of the transportation issues by passing along some of the valuable information she received, to others.
