[carlent]

curious to know how you all feel about the lack of public transportation in TV. No bus service, no taxi after 8pm. It seems to me that a community of 70K + should have a good public transportation system. What about all the folks who do not drive? Do not drive a cart? It's a big place....what are your feeling about this?


Carlent

[tkret]

Question from someone who is not a resident, YET: is the reason that there is no taxi service after 8pm because they cannot get a driver for the late evening shift? Just wondering? or is it just the taxi company's policy to shut down service at that time?

[ConeyIsBabe]

Aren't there any taxi service companies in the surrounding towns of Leesburg, Mount Dora, Tavares, Lady Lake, Wildwood, etc. - in case of emergency ??? :dontknow:

[carlent]

not sure about htat. You would thing there would be some. But the real point is that TV is missing the boat on this. 70K residents and no way to get around (assuming you do not drive or do not want to drive a cart) Look at Century Village for example. They have a massive internal minibus system whith bus stops throughout the community. Busses everywhere at all hours. I am sure TV can do this. I think the problem is that the resident's of TV have not made it an issue.

Carlent

[graciegirl]

I personally would not need it nor would my husband and our daughter who lives with us. We have two cars and a golf cart. Things pretty much stop in TV at about nine in the evening. If the developers would provide it "free" it would come out of our pocket. An enterprising person who would research the need and provide it will come along I am sure if the population feels the lack of it. The use of golf carts is in itself, the main reason that I would see that public transportation isn't needed. In our much larger town of West Chester, Ohio we do not have public transportation, NO BUS, and we can call a cab from Cincinnati. I guess it is all what you are used to.

[macgolfnut]

This isn't a matter of what's good for us as individuals, it's about what's good for our community. There are many folks in TV who can't drive, are concerned about being on the roads or cart paths at night, or wish to partake in our popular 2 for 1 values and shouldn't be on the roads. A public transportation system would help sooooo many people, especially as we all get older and perhaps develop physical problems that make it hard for us to get around. Wouldn't we all hate to feel trapped in our houses? I hope the powers that be will find a way to start a system.

[barb1191]

Everyone seems to be assuming that there is no shuttle service around the communities. I recall that a couple of years ago TV had trollys that serviced most of the various strip malls within a village, including the town squares. I had a schedule posted on our bb in the garage, although never used the service.

Has anybody called the CDD for this information to confirm whether this service still exists? And if not, why was it discontinued? Quite possibly due to the gas prices?

If there's enough interested in this service, maybe we should do our best to learn more about this and pitch for it. A letter to the POA would give the story on this. They are indespensible and do such a great job in protecting us all as volunteers of humanity.

[Talk Host]

Public transportation systems in major cities are suffering from lack of ridership. Here in the Villages, there are not enough people wanting to go enough places for mass transportation. I am absolutely certain that they stop running the taxi at 8 p.m. because there is no business after that time.

Think about it, if there was bus service, where would it go and who would go there? If it went to Spanish Springs and Sumter Landing, it would have to make pickups in every villages, on every coroner. It would take hours for it to get downtown. I'll bet that on any given day, there wouldn't be more than 20 or 30 people who would use the service.

[Russ_Boston]

I think TH is absolutely correct. Simply supply and demand. I would think that all public transportation systems around the country are subsidized by their local government since they can't collect enough revenue to be self sufficient. The vast majority of TVers would not want to contribute to this I would think.

[`willy]

I think these bus's are still running
http://sumtercountyfl.gov/cs/transit/bus.htm

Willy

[ojm]

Carlent,

My father lived in Century Village in Boca Raton. He is now in an assisted living community. While you are correct in noting that it has a large mass transit system, it really didn't function as well as you might expect. To get to the bus, he had to walk roughly 2/10th of a mile. That can be an tough walk for an elderly person on an intensely hot or wet day. As he had limited use of his arms as well as vision problems, even transporting him to a supermarket wasn't very useful.

Also for those of you unfamiliar with Century Village, it is a huge community of tightly packed 3 story condominiums. It isn't spread out like The Villages. It is far easier to provide bus service in that environment than here. As noted by other writers, it probably isn't economically feasible to have a similar service here.

[villager99]

sumter county transit operates a bus service within the villages and connecting to other routes that serve sumter and lake counties.
sumter county transit will also provide door to door service for anyone unable to get to their closest bus stop, usually at postal stations.
over the years there has been talk of extending and coordinating central florida transit systems to provide public transportation to orlando. there are public meetings held in the villages about once a year to provide updates and receive input from residents.

[Mintjulep]

I wish the taxi service would run more hours.
When I was here in March and had to fly out in a hurry for a funeral, I had to take the 6AM shuttle to the airport. The taxi service doesn't start until 7:30.
I HATED to do it, but had to ask a neighbor to get me to the shuttle by 5:45! :yikes:

[JohnN]

a taxi service would be good.

as noted above, I think TV is too spread out and not enough customers to support a transit system

[kit9240]

My mother (95) lives in Connecticut in a retirement home and has never driven. There is a service called "dispatcher ride" which she can make a reservation and they will pick her up and take her anywhere she wants to go and pick her up at a designated time. The charge is usually $2.50. Most communities that have a senior center provide transportation for a minimal charge to to the center on a daily/weekly basis. This service provides those that can no longer drive the opportunity to get out and socialize, shop, doctor's visits, etc. This service may be funded by the state (Elderly Housing).

I hope that TV will provide a service like this in the future. It would be less expensive than calling a taxi.