PA: Ardmore Initiative: Public transportation 'a necessity for a healthy community'

In Ardmore, public transportation is not simply a means of getting around; it is a way of life.

The Paoli Thorndale Line is a vital artery, connecting its residents, businesses, and workers to the region's pumping heart.

Simultaneously, like crucial veins, the 44, 103, 105, 106, and M carry riders to points region-wide.

At The Ardmore Initiative, we understand the strain that has been placed on SEPTA and are sensitive to financial needs elsewhere in the Commonwealth.

However, the impact that their proposed service cuts would have on our community renders it a complete impossibility, and everything must be done to preserve its full operation.

Ardmore sits at the intersection of urban amenities and suburban community. It is one of the most diverse and essential commercial corridors in the region, a region which provides over half of the state's GDP and 45 percent of its population.

The District welcomes nearly 4.7 million annual visitors who dine, shop, attend events, and receive services at our local businesses.

Of those visitors, nearly 40 percent come after 5 p.m., making Ardmore suburban Philadelphia's premiere hub for nightlife and post-work activity.

That level of engagement is only possible through a strong suburban transit network.

The nearly 300 businesses that call Ardmore home depend on SEPTA to reach their clients, customers, and workforce.

The service cuts being proposed would be detrimental to their success, creating economic barriers instead of bridges, inspiring isolation instead of connection, and stimulating traffic instead of eliminating it.

Ardmore is a community which sits at the precipice of an incredibly bright future.

New mixed-use developments, businesses, and pedestrianization projects are on their way, all attracted by easy transit access.

At this crucial juncture, we must be investing in our urban infrastructure, not making cuts from it.

We must make this public investment so that our community can continue offering economic opportunity to all and allowing businesses to not only survive, but thrive.

Public transportation cannot be viewed as an amenity, but as a necessity for a healthy community, as vital as any other public service.

It is one of the few great equalizers we have left; It doesn't care who its riders are, where they've been, or where they are going.

And as a community built around the railroad, its operation is inseparable from Ardmore's success.

By Alec Hersh

Executive Director, Ardmore Initiative

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