Tag: MATA

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Opinion The Last Word

New Destination

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Memphians are facing a public transit crisis.

Ask anyone who relies on our bus system to get to work or school or uses it to run routine errands, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Buses are unreliable, the rides are too long, and, in many cases, their routes are nonsensical. Riders from neighborhoods that were previously served by routes like the 31 Crosstown now find themselves without a dedicated bus route, which means a long walk to the closest bus stop and an even longer ride to their destination. Routes to major employment centers are basically nonexistent from these neighborhoods, furthering the economic segregation that, you guessed it, intersects with race: Black Memphians in particular make up 90 percent of bus riders, and over 30 percent of these Memphians live in poverty. The median annual income of workers who use public transit is just over $16,000, and transportation expenses consume 27 percent of their median household income.

Memphis Area Transit Authority CEO Ron Garrison agrees that there is a public transit crisis. In separate columns in The Commercial Appeal and The Memphis Flyer, Garrison painted a dire picture of MATA’s ongoing financial state. According to his most recent column, MATA is underfunded by more than $20 million in comparison to peer cities’ transit systems, due in large part to decreased ridership and targeted budget cuts during Mayor A C Wharton’s tenure. Garrison acknowledges that these factors have forced MATA to make some tough decisions — such as consolidating the routes of the 31 Crosstown, 43 Elvis Presley, and 10 Watkins into the new 42 Crosstown route — that have further impacted ridership and increased ill will between MATA and bus riders. Garrison’s Flyer column ends with the MATA CEO imploring riders and other concerned citizens to contact their elected officials and ask that they give more consideration to MATA’s funding issues.

Justin Fox Burks

Members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU), an advocacy group of bus riders founded by “Mother” Georgia A. King, will point out instances where previous significant funding awards were dedicated to reinstating the downtown trolley system instead of restoring key services to underserved neighborhoods and increasing the overall effectiveness of routes outside of downtown. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713, who have partnered with the MBRU, agree. In his Commercial Appeal column, Garrison identifies the restarting of the trolleys as an important goal for future MATA operations. MBRU members are long past disappointment at these statements, instead attributing the seeming dismissal of their concerns to a longstanding philosophy that prioritizes the concerns of business-minded developers over those of everyday citizens.

The Memphis Bus Riders Union has called the 31 Crosstown “a lifeline” for thousands of Memphians who often could not afford the cost or upkeep of a vehicle and lived in segregation far from their jobs or schools. MATA employees credit the 2012 Short Range Transit Plan (SRTP), conducted by Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, as key to their decision to consolidate old routes into the new 42 Crosstown route. The SRTP did indeed call for consolidation of routes that used the same thoroughfares. It also positioned downtown Memphis as MATA’s strongest market for riders, criticized circuitous neighborhood routes, and identified MATA’s current funding woes vis-à-vis cities with similar populations and transit system considerations. But the SRTP also cited North Memphis, South Memphis, and Frayser as rapidly increasing transit use neighborhoods and advised MATA about the necessity of broad geographic coverage for riders.

I am a former bus rider. My first time catching the 31 Crosstown bus was when I was 8 years old: I rode it to school. In times when my family didn’t have a car, we relied on it to get to work and run household errands, like buying groceries and paying bills. I caught the 31 Crosstown at a stop on the corner of Firestone and Tully — a stop that does not exist on the 42 Crosstown’s current route. My ride on the 31 Crosstown would end at the intersection of Vollintine and Watkins, where I would then cross both streets to catch the 10 Watkins to Delano Elementary School. If I had to catch the current bus, the 42 Crosstown, I would have to find some way to get to the Vollintine and Watkins stop, the closest stop on the 42 Crosstown’s route to my home in North Memphis. If I were a student trying to get to Manassas High School from New Chicago, which my younger brother currently does, I would have to walk a mile down Firestone, a street full of industrial blight with few safe crosswalks or sidewalks. Students of the former Northside High School who have been re-zoned to Manassas face an even longer walk to their new school.

The increased difficulty of student access has undoubtedly led to closures of historic neighborhood schools like Northside and Booker T. Washington. People who live in the neighborhood now called Uptown have no real route out of their community and into employment or shopping districts of the city. I imagine that the same reality exists for residents of the Riverview-Kansas neighborhood that bookended the southern end of the 31 Crosstown’s route. Reinstating the former routes or creating new routes that more adequately serve neighborhood residents would be a start to fixing this. Investing funding toward repairing these routes in addition to repairing the trolleys would work as well.

Memphis cannot continue to provide inadequate transit services to its riders. Our ineffecient, underfunded transit system contributes to the massive economic and racial segregation that affects countless citizens in this city, and we continue that segregation to our own detriment. According to a 2015 report from the American Public Transportation Association, every dollar we spend on a safe, effective public transit system can generate $4 in economic returns. Public transit drives the local economy and directly generates business sales, revenues and new private investment through ridership expansion and an increasingly mobile workforce.

Memphis is enjoying a period of exciting growth right now, but continued equitable development depends on a strong, reliable public transit system that adequately serves all citizens. As is the case with so many other public concerns, true change in this area will require work from everyone, not just those concerned or an affected few.

Troy L. Wiggins is a Memphian and writer whose work has appeared in the Memphis Noir anthology and Make Memphis magazine.

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News The Fly-By

MATA Proposes New Routes

As rain beat against the windows of the Airways Transit Center last Thursday, Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) officials provided details and received feedback on a series of service adjustments that could begin by December.

The changes, affecting fixed-route bus service, will include eight new bus routes, 11 routes with timing adjustments, 10 routes with increased frequencies and span of service, 14 routes with routing adjustments, and one discontinued route that will have service replaced by others.

The adjustments represent about $500,000 in added service grants from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.

MATA officials say the proposed changes will improve service by simplifying routing and increasing productivity, but riders who attended the meeting expressed exhaustion and confusion over the adjustments. That puzzlement appeared at times to be a miscommunication between officials and bus riders. At other points, though, the frazzle felt as though it was brought on by how complicated the city’s bus system can be — even without the changes.

“All these changes being made might be great for someone, but I don’t know who is benefiting,” said Leonard Ewing, a member of the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU). Ewing was concerned that a change to the 57 Park route eliminating service to a portion of Lamar at Bellevue would affect him. “It might be rain-storming like it is today, and I’ll have to jump off this bus and take another bus and then hop on another bus — rain, shine, sleet, or snow — if I want to get to work.”

MATA’s Planning Manager John Lancaster, the session’s mediator, said a newly adjusted Route 56 to Lamar will pass by Bellevue and add service on Sundays.

A lack of Sunday service, particularly along Route 19 Vollintine, leaves residents who are dependent on the transit system stuck in their neighborhoods, said MBRU co-chair Cynthia Bailey.

“I’ve had a lot of riders in the community come to me that want to go to church or go visit family on Sundays,” Bailey said. “It’s almost like you can’t get out. If you have business, there’s the number 8 and route 52. But you’ve got elderly people who can’t walk that far. I’m hearing about the new 45 Appling Farm route … but it’s not benefitting the community.”

The Memphis Bus Riders Union has also created a petition to bring back the 31 Crosstown route, which was cut in 2013. Members say it was instrumental in connecting two high-poverty neighborhoods, New Chicago and Riverside, with the rest of the city.

“Those neighborhoods have seen a lot of decline,” said Justin Davis, secretary of the MBRU. “There are eight new routes … a lot of those are out East and in the southeast. Our concern is if we’re taking all of this energy to put all of these routes in the east and southeast, are we putting the same effort into North and South Memphis? New Chicago, transit-wise, is almost entirely isolated. If you don’t have a car, you pretty much can’t leave.”

Lancaster said it took $3.5 million dollars to service the 31 Crosstown route before it was eliminated.

“To bring it back as it was, we would need $3.5 million dollars of new funding,” Lancaster said. “However, with the way things have been restructured, it would be a challenge. But we may be able to add some additional service to complement what used to exist.”

MATA will accept feedback on December’s proposed adjustments until September 7th. Additionally, the MBRU will host a demonstration calling on MATA to restore the 31 Crosstown Route on Saturday, Sept. 17th from 11 a.m. to 2 pm. at the New Chicago Community Development Corporation.

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News News Blog

MATA Security Guard Placed on Diversion in Passenger Death

Adicus Mitchell

A private security guard responsible for pushing a Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) passenger, which resulted in that passenger’s death, has been placed on diversion for three years. 

On May 6th of last year, a bus driver at the North Main terminal alerted security guard Adicus Mitchell that he had an unruly passenger on board, and Mitchell responded by forcefully pushing the passenger off the bus. The passenger, 69-year-old Robert Gray, landed face-first and lay motionless on the concrete. Mitchell wasn’t a MATA employee but was hired to as a security guard at the terminal.

Gray was hospitalized in critical condition and later transferred to a long-term care facility. He died there from complications from his fall on August 3rd, 2014. Gray had been allegedly been making obscene remarks to a female passenger when the driver alerted Mitchell.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee granted Mitchell’s request for diversion, a type of probation that will erase the conviction from his record after three years of good behavior.

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News The Fly-By

MATA Reduces Bus Fares for Students, MLGW Defers High Bills Through August

The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) began reducing bus fares for all Shelby County School students on August 8th, the first day of classes.

“It is important that we are able to help parents send their children off to school at a reduced cost and improve their access to public transportation,” said Ron Garrison, CEO of MATA.

The annual reduced student fare is $1.35 per one-way bus trip. Students may also purchase daily passes ($2.75), seven-day passes ($13), or a month-long ($40) MATA FastPass unlimited ride card.

Students must present a MATA identification card with their name, school, age, and photo to receive a discounted fare when boarding the bus. MATA advises students to bring two forms of identification and $3 to the William Hudson Transit Center at 444 N. Main Street to purchase an identification card. Students who bring a parent only need one form of identification. State or school identification cards, birth certificates, insurance cards, Social Security cards, or report cards qualify.

The transit authority will provide identification cards Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. until September 30th. Following that date, MATA will provide identification cards Mondays through Fridays from 1 to 5 p.m., and from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m on Saturdays.

“MATA is pleased to continue to offer reduced bus passes for students to ride,” Garrison said.

MATA lowers fares for students.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) will ease its deferred billing rules through August to prevent customers with high bills from having their utilities disconnected.

“The major benefit is, during these extreme temperatures, MLGW has a payment plan that will offset our customers from having their services disconnected for non-payment,” said Gale Jones Carson, MLGW’s director of corporate communications. “If you can’t pay the total amount, we’ll work with you during these temperatures.”

Customers eligible for the loosened billing rules must have a bill that exceeds at least $250. They will pay 25 percent of the owed amount or $250, whichever is less, and the remainder will go on a payment plan that lasts up to five months. Should the deferred billing payment surpass a monthly $500 balance, customers may establish a payment plan for up to nine months. A current and approved residential service agreement must be filed before making an arrangement. Customers who qualify can bring two forms of identification to any of MLGW’s five community centers.

“Normally, customers only have three months to pay they bill, and the balance has to be a minimum of $500,” Carson said.

The relaxed deferred billing rules are different from MLGW’s weather-related moratorium policy. That policy states they won’t disconnect services for residential customers due to non-payment under the following conditions: The forecast wind chill factor will be 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below freezing for 24 hours or longer. The forecast heat index will be 100 degrees Fahrenheit or above at any time during a 24-hour period. The forecast heat index will be 95 degrees Fahrenheit or above at any time in a 24-hour period for customers 60 years or older, physically challenged, or customers dependent on life-support.

“We do this every year when the weather gets extremely cold or extremely hot,” Carson said. “We do this to help customers avoid having their services disconnected for non-payment. When the weather gets extreme, we focus on not cutting services off.”

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News The Fly-By

MATA President Won’t Give Start Date for Trolley System

CREDIT: Joshua Cannon

The good, the bad, and the confusing: That seemed to be Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) President Ron Garrison’s theme when he provided new details — but no start date — on the progress of the trolley system’s rehabilitation.

“It’s all about telling the truth,” Garrison said at a trolley update meeting last week at Leadership Memphis. “It’s not easy work. There’s no way to do it any faster while doing it safely. Everything we’re doing will make it so that we are the standard for the rest of the country. That’s the standard the Federal Transit Administration is holding us to, and that’s a very good thing. When you get on the trolleys, you’ll be safe.”

Since two fires on the Madison Line shut the trolley system down in June 2014, MATA has taken steps to implement an updated system. Funding shortfalls, however, and a lack of experienced workers have stalled the process. But, as MATA enters a six-phase plan that will result in 11 certified trolleys being back on line, the transit authority might almost be on track.

Joshua Cannon

Ron Garrison

Garrison, additional MATA representatives, and Memphis congressman Steve Cohen recently met with Federal Transit Administration (FTA) administrator Carolyn Flowers in Washington, D.C. MATA left the capital with $3.3 million to purchase new trolleys. The city of Memphis voted to give MATA $1 million to purchase a trolley as well.

“FTA is doing what they can to help us,” Garrison said. “They are coming here to meet with us in July. They advised me not give a start date even if I had one.”

Reluctance to announce a timeline is in part due to 181 documents that MATA must produce throughout the rehabilitation process. So far, 96 documents have been submitted, but only about 15 are completed.

“They have to go through a certified … national railroad consulting firm, of which we don’t have but need to get,” Garrison said. “Then it goes to FTA, their consultants, and their engineers. Then it goes to the Tennessee Department of Transportation, their consultants, and their engineers. Then it has to go through FTA Safety in Washington D.C., their staff, and their two consultants … Then we have to do it again, it goes out again, it comes back to us again, and we have to finalize it through a safety certification committee.”

Much of the trolley rehabilitation will happen in-house, Garrison said. The trolleys will receive outward-facing doors, new pantographs that will reduce the risk of fires, fireproof insulation, and a safer, low-voltage wiring system. Memphis will be the first in the country to move their entire system to low-voltage wiring, Garrison said.

“Right now, we have two trolleys that have been rehabilitated,” Garrison said. “We’re taking every single aspect of these trolleys and making them like new. From here on out, it would be nearly impossible for anything like what happened to happen in the future. What we’re putting in place will probably be the safest in the country.”

Rehabilitating the trolley’s trucks, which carry the cars along the tracks, is costly. MATA sent eight trucks to be rebuilt off-site, each costing about $47,000. The overall rehabilitation goes hand-in-hand with restructuring the standards of the trolley system. Garrison said MATA’s maintenance staff are being retrained and certified.

At the beginning of each month, MATA will post progress reports to their website until the last document is complete. The transit authority will then perform a four- to eight-week simulated service to ensure the trolleys are safe.

“I came to Memphis to fix this because I believe it’s the right thing to do,” Garrison said. “Memphis has been in my heart since I started coming here in the ’60s. I have a photo of my daughter, who just turned 17 years old, when she was 2 years old on the trolley when Peabody Place was still running. It might be providence.”

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News News Blog

MATA, MPO Create Survey To Improve Bus Stop Standards

The Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (Memphis MPO) and the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) have partnered to improve the quality of bus stops throughout the city.

Complaints pertaining to bus stop standards prompted the organizations to create a survey. The survey will close on July 31. MPO and MATA will assess the answers and form a new set of guidelines to make the bus stops more comfortable and accessible for citizens. 

Take the survey here. 

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News The Fly-By

MATA Board to Consider Service Changes

Following an announcement from Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) CEO Ron Garrison that the city’s bus system could collapse without additional funding, the transit authority will vote on various service changes as MATA prepares for an upcoming fiscal year looming with uncertainty.

“We are mostly concerned with the future,” said Sammie Hunter, the co-chair of the Memphis Bus Riders Union. “This is nothing compared to what we might face in July if MATA does not receive the funding request they made to the city. People need access to the whole city to have better options and improve their situation.”

Three timing changes, six service changes, eight routing changes, the removal of the President’s Island route (which carried less than five riders for all of February), and five new routes are tucked away in MATA’s proposed changes. MATA’s board will vote on the changes on March 21st, and, if approved, the changes will go into effect on May 1st.

The changes are a cost-neutral plan to address Memphians’ concerns about on-time performance and bus connections while MATA awaits Mayor Jim Strickland’s budget proposal in April.

“Additional funding would negate the need to cut bus service in July 2017,” Garrison said. “Instead, MATA will be able to improve on-time performance and make service more reliable.”

Garrison has been vocal about MATA’s need for increased capital funding, as they have relied on capital dollars to satisfy operational needs. When the new fiscal year begins on July 1st, Garrison said MATA would need an increase of $7 million for the operating budget and $5 million in capital funding.

“Not only are we way underfunded, but we have buses that should have been retired years ago — probably to the tune of about 60 buses,” Garrison said. “Some of them have over 700,000 miles. We had to borrow money from the city twice last year and bridge funding we had to pay back just to make payroll.”

The bus rider’s union’s worries center around route cuts and inadequate shelters at the new transfer locations, Hunter said. One proposal would make the Frayser Plaza Shopping Center a major connection point. Hawkins Mill Route 18, a new feeder route, would replace the north end loop on Crosstown Route 42, which has the second highest ridership, according to Hunter.

“Without increasing service and building adequate shelters at these new transfer locations, folks will be waiting for their transfers out in the elements,” Hunter said. “Those who can only afford a one way pass will be forced to pay twice as much as they normally pay per day or walk the rest of the way.”

MATA touts 9.3 million passenger trips per year and currently operates 109 buses. Justin Workman, a 31-year-old food industry worker, has relied on the bus system since the age of 18. Scheduling a trip across town is often unpredictable, Workman said.

“The routing and scheduling make it nearly impossible to rely on it as a sole means of transportation,” Workman said. “Try to take a bus to Wolfchase Galleria from downtown or Midtown — I hope you have the entire day.”

The bus system could see a few positive changes by the end of year with MATA’s Short Range Transit Plan, which was announced last week. It would streamline routes, add express service, and make the system easier to navigate and understand, and they say those changes can be made without significantly increasing operating costs.

But, overall, MATA’s service will abate or improve based on the city budget when the clock restarts this fiscal year, Hunter said. Solutions, such as having Shelby County chip in, he says, need to be addressed.

“The city has got to look at its budget with compassion for the working class people,” Hunter said. “No amount of police or downtown development will solve the problems we have. We can start by allocating the funds to MATA that it needs to make it through this fiscal year without more cuts. Then we can look at long-term solutions.”

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News News Blog

MATA To Revamp Bus Service

The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) and the city have agreed upon a short-range transit plan that they say will improve service and make the system easier to understand and use.

The plan calls for MATA to straighten out routes to increase the frequency of bus service. They also plan to add several express routes linking downtown with the eastern parts of Shelby County. MATA and the mayor’s office have agreed that the improvements in the short-range plan can be made without significantly increasing operating costs, and they should be in place by the end of the year.

“It’s essential that we have a solid transportation plan that allows people to get to work on time and helps the city recruit businesses to Memphis,” said Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.

Additionally, MATA is studying world-class transit systems in other cities to determine the best long-range plan for Memphis transit.

This announcement comes just weeks before MATA plans to cut some underused routes and redirect others. A public hearing on those cuts was held at Central Station on Tuesday, and the MATA board of directors will vote on those cuts at the end of the month. 

At a Memphis City Council meeting last month, MATA President Ron Garrison said the bus system would “collapse” unless the agency was able to get additional operating funds and capital to buy new buses.

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News The Fly-By

MATA Plans Trolley Return

CREDIT: Memphis Area Transit Authority

While the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is building a trolley system “that will never allow anything unsafe to happen again,” its leaders say they are working even harder on procuring new buses to replenish its aging fleet.

Two weeks ago, the Memphis City Council approved MATA’s purchase of a fully restored trolley that looks identical to MATA’s familiar, larger trolleys. The price tag was just north of $950,000, but the council also allowed MATA access to its full, current-year trolley budget of $2.25 million.

MATA president Ron Garrison said the move will leverage the $2.25 million into the equivalent of $11 million to purchase three or four trolley cars, after a set of funding maneuvers through state and federal channels.

Memphis Area Transit Authority

MATA has purchased this rebuilt, vintage trolley to add to its fleet.

Limited rail trolley service could begin again here, he said, with a couple of trolleys working in conjunction with the trolley buses. Those buses could be retired if MATA had 10 rail trolleys up and running, Garrison said.

MATA has the resources to rebuild or buy “nine, maybe 10” trolleys at present, he said. To operate at full capacity, the Memphis trolley rail system requires 20 trolleys.

Trolleys are just one piece of the overall fix for the Memphis rail system. The other pieces are parts of the rail system itself. Garrison said since the trolley system was closed in 2014 after two trolley cars caught fire, MATA has repaired and upgraded portions of the trolley tracks, the catenary lines that run over the trolleys and provide them power, and power stations along the entire rail system.

“What we’re putting in place is a system that will never allow anything unsafe to happen again,” Garrison said. “What we’re putting in place is what the rest of the country will look to when they want to do vintage trolley start-ups.”

Garrison said he’d like rail trolleys to run again here this spring but said “it’s going to be much longer than that,” noting it would be “foolhardy” to come up with a date for the trolleys’ return.

Over the past few months, members of the Memphis Bus Riders Association (MBRA) and others have voiced frustrations on the perception that MATA has prioritized trolleys over buses.

“Just last month a bus was burning on the news,” said Cynthia Bailey, MBRA co-chair. “You only get so many favors from these legislators, and I’m afraid they’ve been spent getting funds for the trolleys. We don’t see any five-year plan to get millions for these buses like they’ve done for the trolleys.”

Garrison said he’s aware of the criticism, but he said that as hard as MATA is working on getting trolleys, the agency is working even harder to purchase new buses, calling that project “our main goal.”

MATA needs about 55 new buses for its fleet, an order that would cost about $24 million, Garrison said. To get there, Garrison said he’s talked with Mayor Jim Strickland about the need and will soon meet with individual city council members. Also, MATA is investigating new sources of funds to buy the buses.

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News The Fly-By

Transportation Forum Finds Citizens Want More Pedestrian-Friendly City

Crumbling sidewalks, underfunded public transit, and disconnected bike lanes were at the top of the list for Memphians who attended a public forum at the Benjamin L. Hooks Library last week to discuss the transportation needs of the city.

“We need to keep the role of the government in mind,” said Dennis Lynch, the transportation chair for the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club, which hosted the discussion. “If the things we’re doing aren’t for the people, they aren’t the right things. We need to push for the things we think we need.”

Attendees brainstormed various ideas to alleviate what many believe is a situation in dire need of a solution. Among the proposals: buses that run on time and to more locations on a frequent schedule; sidewalks and streets that are safe for all citizens; more availability to rent tandem bicycles; for Congressman Steve Cohen to support the local allocation of federal funds and allow more local power over how those funds are spent; and to install more parking meters to encourage people to use public transit as a way to save money.

Lynch said the input would be taken to Mayor Jim Strickland, the Memphis City Council, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA), and the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Broken, uneven sidewalks and missing curb ramps leave those like Steve Collins, who is disabled and relies on his wheelchair and public transportation, at a disadvantage.

Collins’ route is contained to Poplar, where he’s pinpointed at least 19 “problem spots.” At Poplar and White Station, Collins said there are four corners and only two curb cuts, which forces him to travel into the street.

The issue of damaged sidewalks is not so black and white. In Memphis, property owners are responsible for sidewalk repair. A 1967 city law states that owners of properties abutting any public street are “required to provide and maintain adjacent to his or her property a sidewalk.” The city has made efforts to assist low-income residents, but the problem is still open-ended for Memphians like Collins.

“We have met with the city about this, and they tell us that it is the state’s problem because [Poplar] is a state highway,” Collins said. “The state says it is a city problem because it is Poplar Avenue. My question is this: If I die at that intersection, where does my widow send the bill for the funeral?”

Kyle Wagenschutz, bicycle and pedestrian program manager for the city of Memphis, said obstacles within funding resources, or the lack thereof, can leave “some things waiting in the wings.” Bike lanes, for instance, are routinely added as streets are repaved. However, the city will soon begin construction on a grant-funded project to update more roads with bike lanes.

“These are all roads that are not being repaved but that new bike lanes are going to be installed without repaving,” Wagenschutz said. “All of those were chosen based on the idea of connecting the missing pieces and missing segments of the network.”

Developing dedicated sources to fund MATA is key, said Suzanne Carlson, Innovate Memphis’ transportation and mobility project manager.

“There’s a lack of funding to go around,” Carlson said. “Right now, [MATA] goes to city council and [receives] federal funds. Some are guaranteed, and some are competitive that they might not get every year.”

Though they have continually received budget cuts over the last few years, MATA President Ron Garrison said they are “in the process of rebuilding MATA.” After the 2010 census numbers were released, MATA lost upwards of $1.6 million dollars in federal funding as well as some state funding. But this fiscal year, they have a “tiny bit of money” left over, Garrison said. Additionally, Garrison said MATA is implementing new ideas such as partnering with Uber and TransLoc.

“Over the next two years, you’re going to see tremendous improvements,” Garrison said. “Over the next five years, we can make MATA a great transit system again. We’re fixing on-time performance, changing the culture, and correctly funding our facilities, buses, and transit stops so that our customers have a very positive experience.”