Bus riders still have one more day to enjoy catching a ride on a Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority bus from Williams Park in downtown St. Pete. But the agency took to the park Friday afternoon so go ahead and say its goodbye.
To commemorate fifty years of bus service at the longtime hub, PSTA officials handed out 500 pieces of chocolate to thank customers – and of course, as a nod to Valentine’s Day Sunday.
Valentine’s Day is the first day buses will stop at places throughout downtown creating a grid-like bus system in the area as opposed to the current hub that circulates buses around Williams Park near constant.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for us,” PSTA CEO Brad Miller said. “This moment has been thought about and talked about for so long, and the fact that the day has finally come is very surreal.”
Miller has a lot to celebrate. The new system is widely thought to be an opportunity for PSTA to better serve its customers in and around downtown by creating stops closer to where people need them.
That’s a win for the city too. The hope is that with bus stops more dispersed throughout downtown more visitors will opt to go for transit and ditch the car. It’s also an opportunity to continue pushing downtown as a destination for retail, activity and dining.
Newly inaugurated council member Lisa Wheeler-Brown joined Miller in the park to dole out chocolates and continue last minute outreach to make sure riders know where their new stops will be.
Friday afternoon, Miller and PSTA Board member Lisa Wheeler-Brown, a councilwoman for the City of St. Petersburg, lapped the busy park one last time to hand out Valentine’s Day chocolate to riders and residents of the park.
“Ultimately, we did it for the riders,” said Miller. “It’s exciting and new and fresh, and its exactly the direction that PSTA is moving towards—we are quite literally moving forward.”
Downtown St. Pete is the first location in the county to shift toward a grid system rather than the current system many consider outdated.
