LANTA

First a little background. Early this spring, I was asked by Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham to serve as a member of the LANTA Board of Directors. As someone who periodically rides LANTA buses and who has seen what quality public transportation can do to for a metropolitan region, I was quick to accept. I was unanimously approved by the Lehigh County Board of Directors and began serving in the early summer.

The timing was quite fortunate as LANTA was about ready to kick off a new era in public transportation in Lehigh County. As you no doubt are aware, the new Allentown Transportation Center (ATC) was close to completion. Through the prior decade (yes, this project took nearly 10 years to plan, fund and construct), LANTA worked with elected officials (including federal, state, county and municipal), the business community and most importantly our riders in designing the ATC and redesigning our routes.

The results have been nothing short of astounding. The ATC has helped us achieve our goals of 1) creating a convenient facility where people coming into Allentown or leaving the city can transfer buses, purchase tickets and park their vehicles (for park and ride purposes) in a clean and safe atmosphere; 2) reduce bus delays caused by traffic by rerouting routes, eliminating redundant stops and centralizing operations; and 3) serving as a “field HQ” for our drivers. According to both our riders and drivers, things have never been smoother.

Recently, the Morning Call noted the loss of business suffered by a few companies located between 7th and 8th Streets on Hamilton Street, who blame their decreasing revenue on LANTA’s decision to remove a bus stop on this road. Please realize that the biggest obstacle to buses arriving on time is traffic, and as someone who drives in Center City every day (remember, I work there), I can attest to the intense volume of traffic on Hamilton Street. Having buses travel on Hamilton Street caused major delays, inconvenienced passenger vehicle traffic, caused a possibly unsafe condition for pedestrians (because of how narrow the street is) and increased idling times (and as such increased the amount of emissions our buses would release). Therefore, the easiest decision LANTA had to make was to cut out a few blocks of Hamilton Street for our buses and reroute that traffic to Walnut and Linden Streets (one block north and south, respectively).

For the record, LANTA removed exactly ONE stop (yup, just one) in that section of Hamilton Street. What the Morning Call failed to mention is that we added three stops in the 700 Block of Walnut Street (just one block south), retained a stop in the Unit Hundred Block of North 8th Street and added a bunch at the ATC, just 2 blocks away.

However as a candidate and a truly concerned citizen, at a public LANTA committee meeting on Tuesday, I suggested that we discuss this situation with leaders from the Allentown Economic Development Corporation and Lehigh Carbon Community College to see if we can better address their needs. Our Executive Director, Armando Greco agreed to this, and we will proceed to discuss this topic with those interested parties.

Let me be clear: since the move off Hamilton Street has been extremely successful for our riders, I will not advocate for the reinstatement of the one stop on Hamilton Street. We will look at stops on the nearby North/South roads and other more creative options, but we must continue to operate in the best interest of our customers.

I am truly excited about the future for LANTA and by extension, the future of public transportation in the Lehigh Valley. Furthermore, I am proud to be a part of this important Authority. For more information, please check out our website at www.lantabus.com.