Riders Committee Meeting to Advocate for New Transit Terminal

Target Audience: The target audiences were transit riders who frequently use Park Street Terminal, in Clearwater, Florida as well as the US Department of Transportation (USDOT), local elected-officials and constituents in an effort to showcase how desperately a new multimodal transit center is needed in downtown Clearwater, FL.

Strategy Objective:Our strategy was to have our Transit Riders Advocacy Committee (TRAC) meet at the current Park Street Terminal and have a media tour to reveal how obsolete the transit center was. This allowed riders to advocate for us to get additional funds to build a new transit center. The committee saw how badly needed a new transit center was and they wrote letters to government officials saying our community needs a new transit center. PSTA also created a petition on change.org, which garnered over 500 signatures from residents, tourists and workers.

Situation Challenge: The Park Street Terminal, which is currently more than 40 years old, is functionally obsolete and in need of upgrades for more than a decade. The center serves 14 routes and 2,300 riders each weekday. However, it is unable to accommodate all the current routes, forcing some bus operators to pick up and drop off passengers on side streets. In addition, newer hybrid and all-electric buses cannot fit under the old, leaky roof. A new transit center was needed, but in order to get these funds, PSTA needed RAISE grant money from the USDOT.

Results Impact: After 12 attempts to get the highly coveted RAISE (Rebuilding America Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) grant award, PSTA was notified in July that we had received $20 million dollars to build a new transit center in Clearwater Florida.

Why Submit: As stated above, Pinellas County had applied for this grant for the last 12 years, and this year PSTA finally did it. Lucky 13! This new transit center will cover some of the costs to link downtown riders to area beaches and beyond. The new transit center will have 16 bus bays, bicycle and scooter storage, ride-sharing connections, ADA boarding requirements, and a "green" design including solar panels and electric bus charging stations.