Public transit on the minds of some Dayton residents

About 20 residents of four Central Lyon County neighborhoods believe that one way to cut down on congestion on Highway 50 is through public transportation.

Linda Adams, a stakeholder in the Nevada Department of Transportation Highway 50 Corridor Study due to be released soon, saw a few references to public transit in the study.

"If we need transportation and people are talking about it, why isn't the county talking about it?" she asked.

So Adams, who is president of the Historical Society of Dayton Valley, invited people from Dayton, Mound House, Stagecoach and Silver Springs to her home for a meeting on the possibility of having some form of public transportation in Lyon County.

By the end of the two-hour meeting Adams had nearly everyone in the room ready to help do a survey on whether Lyon County residents wanted public transit.

Margaret Truesdale, of Stagecoach, said it was important to ease congestion on the highway.

"It will ease the transportation because we would have fewer people driving," she said.

The first step, Adams said, was a survey to find out how many people support public transit in the county.

"We need to get the numbers," she said. "We need to go out to Smith's and ask people if they want this."

She said the goal after completing a survey would be to work with community advisory boards, provide a tentative outline for a route structure and then approach the county commissioners, preferably in a group.

Invited to address the group was Ernie Maguire, operations manager for the Churchill Area Regional Transportation system in Fallon.

Maguire told the group that they had several options if they wanted to have public transit, a fixed route, dial-a-ride or intercity. If they had a fixed-route system, federal law requires them to accommodate the disabled, he said.

He also advised that any transit services use smaller vehicles than urban centers use and be sure to market effectively.

Patrick Pittenger, Carson City's Transportation Program Manager, advised the group to keep in mind the people who use public transportation.

"The people who use it are the elderly, pre-teens who can't drive yet, low-income workers, no-car households," he said. "They don't often speak up and talk to the commissioners, but those are the ones who benefit most from public transit. They are people the commissioners may not see."

Adams and other attendees of the meeting plan to speak on the public transit issue at the next meeting of the Dayton Regional Advisory Council, on Wednesday, the same day NDOT officials will present the corridor study.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.

If you go

WHAT: Dayton Regional Advisory Committee meeting

WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday

WHERE: Lyon Utilities Building, 34 Lakes Blvd., Dayton