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Metro RTA Invites Officials to Take a Ride, Discuss Improvements

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan departs a bus at the Robert K. Pfaff Transit Center. Mayor Horrigan rode Metro buses as part of the "Official-ly Onboard" event.
ANNA HUNTSMAN
/
WKSU
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan departs a bus at the Robert K. Pfaff Transit Center. Mayor Horrigan rode Metro buses as part of the "Official-ly Onboard" event.

Akron’s Metro RTA estimates more than four million people have ridden Metro buses this year. On Monday, Mayor Dan Horrigan was one of them. 

The mayor boarded the crowded #8 bus at the Kenmore and Lakeshore stop, chatting with riders and discussing how the city can work together with RTA to improve the service. In a conversation with Metro RTA director Dawn Distler, Mayor Horrigan wondered how long it takes to get places by bus. 

Credit Anna Huntsman / WKSU
/
WKSU

“Can you take a bus from Ellet to West Market in 20 minutes?" he asked.

“You can’t," Distler said. "Which is one of the reasons we’re talking about how do we restructure our routes so that possibly the route will go faster.”

Riders also shared with officials they’d like more frequent weekend routes.

Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters and Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro rode the bus in the afternoon as part of the “Official-Ly on Board” event. 

Copyright 2021 WKSU. To see more, visit WKSU.

Anna joined ideastream in 2019, where she reports on health news for WCPN and WVIZ in Cleveland. She has also served as an associate producer for NewsDepth. Before that, Anna was a 2019 Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.