EDITORIAL: Safety at the Blake Transit Center

ON WEEKENDS, THE public bathrooms and first floor of the Blake Transit Center downtown remain open well after the front desk staff go off duty. Both the women’s and men’s bathrooms have entrances which are open. There is one family restroom with a door that is secure and locks. This arrangement is unsafe for teens and women who choose to wait inside an unstaffed Blake Transit Center.

Not only should those who ride the bus be able to purchase tokens and ask questions of staff when entering the facility, user safety must be a priority. As it stands now, Blake has the feel of a softly-lit, creepy after-hours office building. Blake was, in fact, designed to be an office building, with second floor offices which are deserted in the evenings). There could have been a much more user-friendly design to the new Blake Transit Center with the focus on the rider experience, convenience and safety.

Instead, the exceedingly poor redesign forces riders to wait on street for a majority of the buses, including the airport shuttle, in unlit or poorly lit areas. The poor design of the Blake Transit Center is one discussion, but design and staffing policies which place youth and female riders in danger is altogether unacceptable. It’s time for AAATA leaders to provide a transit experience with the consumer in mind. There should be announcements inside Blake to alert riders to the approach of buses with on-street stops. There must be staffing and security inside the Blake Transit Center for all of the hours during which the AAATA offers service to and from that facility.