GREENFIELD — Starting Monday, the Franklin Regional Transit Authority will no longer stop to pick up bus riders at non-traditional flag stops. The policy change is an effort to improve safety regulations.
Lisa Paquette, assistant general manager for Franklin Transit Management, said the organization plans to go out and examine traditional flag stops for safety. If the flag stops are deemed safe — for example, if they are not next to a railroad track or on a stretch of road where the speed limit is 50 mph — Paquette said the transit authority will attempt to mark that spot with a bus stop sign.
This halt on non-traditional flag stops is not a new regulation, said Michael Perreault, assistant administrator at the agency, but rather one that has been discussed and loosely enforced since 2013. When transit authority staff members realized the rule against flag stops was not being strictly enforced, they decided to crack down on it again, but only to improve safety and to motivate the management team to erect official bus signs.
“The intention is to not leave anyone stranded,” Perreault said.
On Monday, community members can still gather at “traditional flag stops” that are not technically marked by a sign without fear of being passed by the bus. Transit authority managers have noted as many of these traditional stops as possible, Perreault said, so that riders will not be left on the side of the road. If someone is concerned that the spot where they stand has not been noted as a flag stop, Perreault said they should call Paquette at 413-773-8090, ext. 102, so that she can add the flag stop to the list of places to be examined.
Paquette has fielded call after call from concerned community members since the agency posted a memo inside buses about discontinuing the flag stops a few weeks ago, she said. She has reassured them, along with troubled bus drivers, that this would not inconvenience community members; they would still continue to get picked up where they were in the habit of standing, as long as it was a safe location. The goal is to improve safety for everyone, she said.
“We’re in the service of giving people rides,” Paquette said. “This is what we want to do. We don’t want to leave people by the side of the road.”
Paquette said if a traditional flag stop is eventually deemed unsafe by the transit authority, it will work hard to find another spot nearby that can be changed into an official bus stop.
No more flag stops means no more new flag stops, Paquette added. She said the organization would try its best to institute official stops that would benefit bus riders while keeping with safety regulations. For now, Paquette said for concerned citizens not to worry about getting picked up if they traditionally wait for the bus in a location that is not an official stop but is known as a common flag stop.
“Right now, we’re going to continue stopping,” she said. “They’re not going to miss the bus.”