Recently, there has been a lot of concern regarding the rapidly spreading coronavirus which can be very contagious to others so individuals are being urged by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to practice social distancing to slow the spread.
With the mounting restrictions being placed on Arizona and continued warnings to practice social distancing, some are wondering whether it is safe to use public transportation, a place where it is notoriously difficult to maintain personal space.
An executive order laid out by Gov. Doug Ducey on March 23, permits only businesses deemed “essential” to remain open, those that promote “the public health, safety and welfare of the state or assists others in fulfilling such functions.”
Transportation is listed as essential and includes a variety of modes of transportation like airplanes, providers like Uber and Lyft, and public transit. The executive order adds that only transportation deemed necessary for essential operations are permitted to operate.
Many downtown residents rely on public transportation systems such as the Phoenix Valley Metro light rail and busses to get to their place of work or, in the case of Arizona State University (ASU) students, to reach resources on campus or other essential places around the city.
Second-year ASU student Katherine Kranz is a landscape architecture student who moved to Arizona from Chicago in 2018 for school. She uses the light rail to commute from her home in Tempe to her workplace in Phoenix.
“I don’t even have a license, let alone a car, so I use the light rail and the busses to go to work and to the grocery store,” said Kranz, “I wouldn’t be able to get around Tempe and Phoenix without the public transportation.”
She continued that she relies on the light rail to get to work “but with COVID-19 going around and it being so easy to contract, I worry about my safety on my daily commute. There are always other people nearby and I don’t know how clean it is.”
These health concerns are becoming commonplace in our daily life and are a major worry for many that rely on public transportation. Valley Metro Communications Manager Susan Tierney detailed some of the precautions that are being taken to help keep passengers safe.
“We’ve enhanced our cleaning processes for bus, train and any spaces or platforms or transit centers where people gather,” said Tierney. “We have a daily regimen where we are wiping down all of the high-touch areas on busses, trains and at stations with an antiviral disinfectant.”
The Valley Metro has a goal to “protect both the passengers and the operators”. In order to do this they ask that “people make only essential trips at this point in time,” said Tierney. She suggests that individuals follow CDC recommendations such as washing hands and staying six feet apart from others in public.
“It’s just like any public space,” Tierney concluded, “there’s certain precautions that you have to take.”
Contact the reporter at kjgalla2@asu.edu.
