January 2010 marked the effective end of the Lorain County Transit system. Its already reduced 12 routes were cut to two. A twice a week Dial-A-Ride service was implemented soon afterward, but the extreme reduction of the LCT caused an estimated 300 people to lose their jobs. Student and community groups are working to supplement and bring back LCT routes, but the issues created by a lack of public transportation remain unresolved almost three years later.

There are still transportation options in the area, such as the college-run Airport Oberlin Shuttle, which makes weekday runs to the airport, and the Brecksville Road Transit, which offers service to and from the airport for academic breaks. However, College junior and transportation coordinator Noel Myers feels it is difficult to maintain this system in the absence of a campus transportation office.

Before the end of the semester, Student Senate in collaboration with OPIRG plans on contracting with a private company to set up a shuttle loop that stops at Wilder Hall, Walmart, IGA, Johnny’s Carryout and Discount Drug Mart. Depending on student interest, the shuttle service may later be added to the LCT and in effect expand the LCT’s hours and implement a loop.

Outside the College, the Oberlin Connector, the Dial-A-Ride service remains the last vestige of the LCT system in the Oberlin area. Through a contract with the LCT, support from the city and funding from a variety of private nonprofits and companies, the connector runs Monday and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and costs adults $2.85 one way. Oberlin College provides the service with $12,000 annually, though students rarely use it. College junior Eliana Golding, who has been involved in local transit issues through OPIRG and Student Senate, thinks the lack of student use hinders further development of transportation in Lorain.

“While it’s pretty heavily used by the community, it has never, ever been used by college students,” said Golding, who has been involved in public transit issues since her first year at Oberlin. “We’re trying to do some advertising and get the numbers up and prove that students will use some kind of transit service.”

Another plan, driven by Oberlin College Student Senate in conjunction with Lorain County Community College Student Senate, aims to make county financial support for a larger LCT system possible. The groups hope to restart LCT funding from the county by passing a ballot initiative to create a designated transit fund. Lorain County has the only transit system in Ohio without designated funding, a fact that many point to as a contributing factor in 2010’s severe budget cut for the program.

Lorain County Commissioner Lori Kokoski has spoken in favor of a new source of income for public transit. In the League of Women Voters voter guide Kokoski said, “The County has been funding Transit with general fund money which has become difficult due to the decline in the economy. We need a dedicated source of income to run Transit effectively.”

The Student Senate-supported ballot initiative would raise sales tax by 0.25 percent in order to raise money for designated funding.

“Public transportation is an investment in a community’s future,” said Golding. “Although that sounds very political, I actually mean it.”

The effect transportation has on community is multi-faceted. City Manager Eric Norenberg emphasizes the economic impacts of transit.

“If we want to get people into the work force and trained and employed, there needs to be a transportation network that they can rely on while they’re moving towards that self-sufficiency,” said Norenberg.

Golding points to both the environmental benefits of offering the option to use public transit and the educational or overall community benefits a stronger system would provide.

“A lot of people have dropped out of [Lorain County Community College] for example because they haven’t been able to get to classes,” said Golding. “It’s not just bad for those students, but it’s bad for [the] community. People getting an education is generally a public good, and so when you destroy their access to that education, you’re hurting society as a whole.”

The city of Oberlin has also been working to create a better pedestrian and bicycling system within the city. Bike lanes were added to North Professor Street a year ago and plans are in the works to add bike lanes to South Professor and College streets. One of the goals of the project is to provide better access to existing transit by making it easier to traverse the town on foot or by bike.

“I think things like an adequate pedestrian bicycle network help support transit,” said Norenberg.

Golding sees these many solutions to the currently weak public transit system as working toward a common goal.

“Transportation is really important as part of a holistic, sustainable city and community,” she said.