Written by Diego Dee Garcia
The downtown Riverside Transit Agency’s bus terminal will be eliminated indefinitely as of January 2017 and buses will be dispatched directly to individual stops.
The City Council unanimously voted in favor of moving the Riverside Public library from its present location to the location of the downtown bus terminal.
This is the most significant change for RTA in the last 30 years. “We are going to be building new bus stops and improving existing stops as well. The good news is people who ride the bus in downtown Riverside are going to see some very positive changes in the way they get around,” said Bradley Weaver RTA spokesmen.
More than 20 existing bus stops will be renovated. This project will begin during the summer and end after the fall in order to shift from the downtown terminal on January 2017. “Essentially we have outgrown our old home,” Weaver said.
“There are 600 buses a day… going into that site. So RTA realized they had to change how they were delivering their services,” said Cindy Roth, president and CEO of the greater Riverside chamber of commerce. “We fully support the move of the Main library to the RTA site,” Roth said.
“It’s a win win all the way around,” Roth said. Although these new provision may be beneficial to Riverside residents, there are some who have different views.
“It’s convenient but, I’m not gonna say it’s a good idea. They are making the community better for the school, for the business people, for the city, but they are not doing it for the low income families who live around here, who want to do better for themselves. They are trying to make it look beautiful for the schools and other things,” said L.B. an RTA rider and Riverside county resident.
The City of Riverside is currently negotiating a new lease with Greyhound, another bus company in the designated area for the new library.
Others did not have much to say about the elimination of the bus terminal, but had some interesting views.“I know it’s not in the best part of town. I’ve been to the terminal a couple times. Even though it’s next to the police station you still kinda get your characters,” said Billy Evans, a Riverside City College student and Army veteran.
Another student also added “well for me, I don’t take the bus all the way to downtown, but it does affect other people’s way to transfer from one bus to another,” said Javier Ochoa, RCC student.
Riverside City manager, John A. Russo was able to bring developers from the Discovery Cube to the Riverside Public library. They looked into the library and initiated an exclusive negotiations agreement seeking development in that location. The Discovery Cube is an organization built to ignite children’s natural curiosity in the math and sciences.
Children and students travel to Los Angeles or Orange County to take advantage of what the Discovery Cube provides. The move of the RTA unlocked possibilities for new horizons in the future vacant Riverside Public library. This could mean that not only would Southern California have a science museum in LA and O.C.but now there may be a Discovery Cube in Riverside located right here 1.2 miles from RCC.
