Gimme Shelter

I am a senior.   I gave up driving after a heart attack and a million years of driving for service work

in all sorts of weather and road conditions.

The town provides a very handy service to Seniors.  The Senior shuttle delivers the elders to many, many  stores both here and in other nearby towns.

Mondays and Tuesdays are open to appointment requests.   That satisfies my pharmacy and most Doctor needs.

The shuttle does pickups in front of most people homes.  Since I live on Maplewod Ave. that does not work well

However there are dedicated Senior Shuttle benches on Inwood.....around the corner from Bank of America.  They can also be used by anyone

The benches are like most benches around the village and Township

Comes the problem.  They are uncovered.   When it rains they are not usable.  At that point I cross the street to Tratoria seeking shelter under their overhang.  When the chairs and tables are out during the better weather it almost becomes pleasant.  I would like to think our friend Angelo is offering his hospitality as he so often did as a guest of his family on the other side.

On the windy and bitterest of days I retreat a few feet into the doorway of the new doctor's office on the corner.  Ir cuts the wind a bit shelter any helps a little.  One time a staff lady arrived and found me there.  She invited me in till the shuttle arrived.  "Human kindness is overflowing"

Is it possible the Township might provide a simple bus shelter............akin to those provided by NJ Transit.

I am not asking anything extraordinary.  No heated seats or piped in music.  Simply shelter from the wind and rain.   The initial cost can't be much and the up keep minimal.

Thank you.

By coincidence I take the shuttle this morning to Millburn .  It arrives between 9:30 and 10:00.  No complaints it is a free service.  All indications are that it will be a rainy few days.

Thank you Angelo Vaya for  helping keep this old one dry while waiting across drom the official shelter.  We go to the Millburn Shop Rite which is a few hundred feet away from my primary care physician and is an easy walk for my appointment.

I have a new rain jacket and umbrella from the Dollar Store.  It is guarantee to work till I try to open it.  My $25.00 umbrella fares no better.  At some point I offended the umbrella gods and have yet to appease them.   Oh  well,  some day there may be a bus shelter in place for seniors.   What doesn't

kill me makes me stronger.

Bus shelter in the village is a good idea.  That said, my first priority is pushing for an accessible senior vehicle.  Riding the senior bus or van with some frequency, you have likely seen seniors schedule to use the senior bus only to discover that physical disability makes it impossible for them to board the vehicle without assistance.  Some cannot even board when assistance is provided.  These are the seniors who need the bus most.  We need to find a way to accommodate them.

My second priority would be to provide senior bus service to the Village more frequently, ideally with a stop at the library, so that seniors who do not live in the Village would be able to get to/from the Village on a set schedule so they can do their shopping or get a meal out.  My third priority would be to extend the days and hours of senior bus service to the Village so this could include seeing an afternoon movie or best of all an evening lecture, play or concert.  

The bus shelter concept would be fourth on my list since as you point out in your OP there are alternatives seniors can use on rainy days.  

For this morning, try calling Ricco at about 9:00 am to get an estimate as to when the bus should be getting to the Village.  Based on recent increase in ridership, and the tendency of the driver to work from northeast to southwest, bus will likely get to you closer to 10:00 am or even a bit later than that.  This depends on number and pick-up location of other riders so please check rather than going by my estimate. 

Any senior who resides in Maplewood who would like to ride the senior bus should call 973-763-5287 one day in advance (Friday for Monday) to reserve a seat.  Information regarding days/hours of operation and scheduled destinations is available at town hall (recreation office), DeHart Community Center, and The Senior Center.  We should also have information available at Sunday's Housing Forum at the Woodland. Advance registration for the Housing Forum is strongly recommended due to limited capacity.  Call or email Cathy Rowe today if you want to attend.

what might be less costly and quicker to implement would be a GPS app that tells you when the bus is near your stop so you don't need to leave your home until it's nearly there. You won't need to spend time outside waiting. Rutgers provides this service for its campus buses. 

Another possible service would be transporting seniors to senior-specific events. A resident in my neighborhood is no longer driving. A class was scheduled at the senior center, yesterday morning. I drove her or she wouldn't have attended or would have Ubered at a cost of about $10 or 15, round trip.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:
Another possible service would be transporting seniors to senior-specific events. A resident in my neighborhood is no longer driving. A class was scheduled at the senior center, yesterday morning. I drove her or she wouldn't have attended or would have Ubered at a cost of about $10 or 15, round trip.

 Tell your neighbor to call Michelle at the Senior Center (973-763-0750) to discuss the problem since most classes at the Senior Center meet for multiple sessions and s/he may need transportation weekly to continue with the class.  Especially for a morning class, it may be possible to arrange senior transportation by the town to/from the Senior Center.  Another possibility is to car pool with someone else in the class who lives near by.  A number of seniors who take classes at the senior center and who still drive during the day live in your neighborhood.