As Erie County residents continue to adjust to the new normal of COVID-19, county legislature chairwoman April Baskin is looking at how to improve the safety of essential workers who rely on public transportation.
Baskin is asking the NFTA to support further protective measures to ensure the safety of public transit passengers during the pandemic. Baskin has praised the transit authority for its decision to suspend Metro Bus and Rail fares, but says that good will is being taken advantage of.
“We need to go back to the table and talk about people who are not being responsible," Baskin said.
Baskin said too many people are using public transit for unnecessary reasons.
“We have to develop some type of rubric where maybe at peak times in the day when we know are essential workers and frontline workers are going to be changing shifts and getting off work, we limit the free access to the NFTA to just them,” she said.
Baskin also floated the idea of providing communities that lack fresh food sources shuttle service to grocery stores.
