BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – After realizing many bus stops in our region have no place for people to sit, some local residents took it upon themselves to fix the problem.
Now, wooden benches are showing up at Burlington bus stops, making life just a little easier for those who take public transit.
“I think every bus stop should have a place to sit. Shelters are expensive, but there should be a place to sit,” said Gail Machia of Burlington.
Ryan Thornton spearheaded the effort to make the benches and says a place to sit is a baseline need.
“A group of people just started talking about things that we could do. And my neighbor actually had some scrap lumber in his garage and had a saw that I could use, so I decided to just give it a go,” Thornton said.
He says it was a true community effort. He and others with a group called Vermonters for People-Oriented Places or VPOP built and delivered the 30 benches now out in the community.
“Transit has so many benefits and so I think anything that we can do to make transit more desirable and more comfortable and convenient for people is something worth doing,” Thornton said.
The benches come as the city has started to remove some bus stop shelters.
Neither Green Mountain Transit nor the city signed off on the benches.
GMT officials say they don’t have an official position on them but General Manager Clayton Clark says he’s happy the community has come together to address a need. They just hope the benches are not in the way during winter snow removal.
“I’m just super excited whenever members of our community participate. And so knowing that there’s a group of folks who took it upon themselves to say, ‘Hey, there’s a need for more bus stops, we’re gonna do them ourselves.’ I think that that’s great,” Clark said.
GMT will also be experimenting in the near future with benches specifically for transit riders that deter any other behavior like sleeping.
Bus riders on Monday were thrilled about the new community-made wooden benches.
“I think it’s a great idea. People need to sit down when they’re waiting for the bus. Sometimes it’s late and sometimes we’re early. So it works. It works for me,” said David Duca of Burlington.
“Makes me feel really good. I think there should be more of them,” said David Matthews of South Burlington.
As for the many benches that have been spray-painted or tagged, the people who built the benches hope that families or artists in the community will come out and paint something on the benches that reflects the spirit of where they live.