Get on the bus: CAT is taking people places

Mornings are the busiest time, as riders make their way to work. Evenings are quieter, but it's a time of day that most riders say they would like to see services expanded. The last CAT bus leaves the transfer station at 6 p.m., leaving riders who work late to make other transportation plans.

For CAT rider Amanda Joslin, that means riding her bike up to 10 miles in the dark to get home from her late-night restaurant job.

"I always worry that I might get hit by a car or something," she said.

Since the system's inception in 2001, ridership has grown from 97,571 riders to an estimated 1.2 million. The annual budget started at $2.4 million, grew to $8.4 million in 2011 and shrunk again this year to $6.6 million. At the same time, the system has recently drawn scrutiny from government officials who would like to see it operate more efficiently and serve more riders.

For Michelle Arnold, the county's alternative transportation modes department director, it's the classic chicken-and-egg conundrum. To attract more ridership, the CAT must provide additional services.

"If you build it, they will come," she said, reminiscent of the line uttered during "Field of Dreams."

Crowded commute

Paul Starshak climbs aboard the CAT almost every day, using the system to take him to and from his small remodeling job sites around town. But the bus doesn't go everywhere he needs, and for that, he rides his bike to make up the distance.

Taking his bike creates its own set of challenges, though. On a busy weekday morning, the two bike racks on the front of each bus fill up quickly. Although it means going out of his way, Starshak usually rides his bike to the bus transfer station at the Collier County Government Center and boards the bus there, before most of the other passengers get on.

"Like most things, you learn from trial and error," Starshak said. "If I'm early, I can get a bike on."

Not that he's complaining, he added. In general, he gives the CAT high marks — "an A, as far as grades." The drivers are helpful and courteous, he said, especially to those who need a little extra assistance, such as individuals in wheelchairs. (Each CAT bus is equipped with a motorized lift, and drivers offer assistance to those individuals.) Most of the passengers are easygoing, too.

That's a plus in the CAT's close morning confines: By 7:36 a.m., just six minutes into the ride, Starshak's bus is nearly full, as riders stand closely together in the aisle, trying not to bump into each other as the bus lurches forward in traffic. Overstuffed shopping bags are pushed under seats to give other riders more room to move. One young man gives up his seat to a woman carrying a baby, while others listen quietly to headphones or pass the time playing games on their phones.

The 1C to 1B travels north on Airport-Pulling Road to Immokalee Road, then loops back on U.S. 41. That's where Edgar Mendez and Isabel Villanes are taking their sons to Grace Community School in Naples Park, also where Villanes teaches. Christopher, 5, and Christian, 3, sit on their parents' laps, wearing matching suits and ties in honor of Christian's third birthday.

The family takes the bus to work, to school, to shop — almost everywhere, Mendez said.

"It always gets crowded," he said of traveling by the CAT. "I see all kinds of people use it, old, young. Everybody needs this."

Dollars and sense

For $4, you can take the bus from Marco to North Fort Myers. CAT rider Neal Zabierek has a word for that: "Unbelievable."

"You can't beat that with gas prices nowadays," he said.

He rides the bus five days a week, usually to do some sunbathing at a local pool. Using LinC, the CAT and LeeTran's new intercounty bus system, he sometimes takes the bus all the way to Fort Myers Beach.

CAT passenger Ray Giraldo also is thinking about dollars and sense, but as how it applies to his work commute. He has a bus pass to get him to work every day, which costs $15 for the week. Then, to come home every night, he pays $13 for a cab ride.

Giraldo works as a server in a local restaurant, and leaves his job around 11 p.m. The bus he takes — the 3A, which runs to his apartment in Golden Gate — stops at 6 p.m., like most CAT busses. That leaves him with two options for getting home: Find a ride from a friend or take a cab. And it's not always easy to find a friend.

"People don't stop working at 6 o'clock," he said.

Then there's the time he spends getting to work. To reach his job, he must transfer busses at the government center, which means going in the opposite direction of his job. Ultimately, his ride time is about 90 minutes each day.

"I try not to think about the hour and a half I'm going to be on the bus," he said laughing.

Donna McCormack spends an average of 30 minutes each day on the bus. She takes the bus to visit her mother, who is disabled, as well as to run errands. Her family doesn't own a car, although they'd like to get one for her husband, who often works late as a supervisor at a local hospital. The couple has a 16-year-old son, too, who is starting to show an interest in driving, too.

But McCormack is fine taking the bus, she said. She's expecting a child in January, and worries about having a car accident. To her, the bus provides a safe and affordable option. She wiggles her first two fingers back and forth to show what she'd be doing without it.

"Walking," she said. "That's what a lot of us would do. You have to walk."

Night riders

Leaving the library on Central Avenue around 6 p.m., 15-year-old Michael Jean-Denis sits at the back of the bus with his geometry books stacked in his lap. The 2A is a short route, just about 45 minutes, making a loop from the government center to Coastland Center mall and over to Bayshore Drive.

That's where Michael is headed, to his home on Bayshore Drive.

He's a sophomore at Naples High School and plays in the band. If the bus ran later in the evening, he could count on it for a ride home after band practice, not have to ask for a ride from friends, he said.

He hopes to start driving when he turns 16, he added.

Rachel Laws gets on the bus at Coastland Center, leaving her job as a sales associate in one of the mall's stores. Like Michael, she's headed home to Bayshore Drive, where she lives with her boyfriend, a bartender.

The cost of owning a car became too expensive, and Laws wouldn't risk driving without insurance, she said. That's when she gave up her car. Now, she and her boyfriend take the bus.

At night, her boyfriend usually works until 2 a.m. He used to make the 45-minute walk home each night, but that scared her too much, so she started insisting he take a cab, which costs around $10.

She's aware that the bus system has been scrutinized for how it operates, and called it "completely ridiculous" to think Collier County could function without the CAT. The people who ride the bus are the people who make Naples operate, she said. They do your laundry in the hotels, make your food in the restaurants and serve you in the grocery store.

"At the very least, they can't cut anything," she added.

She'd like people to understand what it means to be without something that so many others take for granted.

"Especially in this city, there is a big gap between the haves and the have nots," she said. "And I don't think people realize how hard it is if you don't have your own transportation."

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