Transit & Emergency Response: Behind the Scenes in Florida
Transit agencies are in the thick of it when disaster strikes
The damage, destruction, and chaos in the Southeastern U.S. from Hurricanes Helene and Milton are heartbreaking. In some areas, the devastation is truly at Biblical proportions. Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone who has been in the paths of these two massive storms.
When we see lines and lines of cars evacuating a city and all the people who stay behind—in harm’s way—if you look closely you’ll see transit agencies.
We don’t hear enough about the role of transit agencies in disaster response and recovery, but we’re changing that with a special episode next week.
Paul has arranged to talk with leaders from several agencies in Florida to talk about not only the aftermath of Helene and Milton, but what they did before and during the storms. We’ll get behind the scenes insight into how transit supports evacuations and emergency operations.
Watch for this special episode to come out Wednesday, October 16th at 9 AM ET.
Follow or subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts so you don’t miss this special episode.
Transit in rural areas is a completely different animal
And sometimes they have to deal with actual animals!
This week on the podcast we have Brandon Nurmi of Arrowhead Transit in Eastern Minnesota talking about his service that covers over 20,000 square miles, and on Transit Unplugged TV we bring you the urban-rural system in Anchorage, Alaska. Both of these systems deal with things many urban systems don’t need to consider (beside the moose which are a real issue in Anchorage). They have widely dispersed populations who rely on transit to get to critical appointments because there are literally no other options and vast distances between customers.
In the city you could grab a cab or catch a ride from a neighbor close by. But when neighbors are miles and miles apart and getting to something as simple as the doctor or the store can take hours, it’s not that easy.
In Minnesota they combine regular fixed-route transit with volunteer drivers who help connect the dots between transit and people living far from the center of town. In Minnesota and Alaska, transit serves as the vital lifeline for people to simply stay connected to the rest of the world for healthcare, social activities, school, and shopping.
On Transit Unplugged TV this month we feature Anchorage, Alaska. Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city, but since (as they say) you’re never more than 15 minutes from wilderness, there is a true rural aspect to their service too. They have all the pressures of a large city with commuters getting to jobs in the city, but they also serve more far flung areas that need new approaches like microtransit.
And the landscape is truly amazing. Join Paul on the first of two Transit Unplugged TV episodes from Alaska with this (rather soggy) tour of Anchorage and a train journey through Denali National Park to Fairbanks for part two of the video (coming out in December).
This Week in Transit News…
In this week’s news minute we have news that the U.S. DOT is opening up more money for rail improvements. Toronto got a first look at its new electric buses. And in Duluth local celebs got behind the wheel of city buses as part of a driver recruitment drive. No people were hurt, but several orange cones weren’t so lucky.
