Not everyone can afford a car...and not everyone is able to drive one.
So, to someone like althea smith, the opening of a new transportation center in Aiken was more than just a ribbon cutting ceremony.
"If this was not here, I really don’t know what I would have a done. I really can't imagine what I would have done...wait...."Althea smith- passenger
She recalls the memories of moving to Aiken seven years ago
"Do you want a car? Can you raise children in a car? Well of course if you have to raise three young children you're going to want to live in a house," she said.
For six months, she struggled to find a job to put food on the table.
"The one thing they did ask is if you had reliable transportation, and at the time I didn’t know about the bus system so I figured that’s why I never got offered too many jobs, because I would always say no because I did not know, but once I did find out about the transportation system, it allowed me to mark yes on the application, and I started getting calls," she said.
She's worked in Aiken ever since, and is going to school for her degree...all because of a bus system that just got a lot better. Through several grants and working with the federal department of transportation, the aging, disability and transportation center in Aiken will use the latest technology to make getting around easier...like an interactive phone service to let passengers know when they can catch a ride.
"We’ve been applying transformation technology all over the country; this is actually the very first, of this particular type that were opening like this, so this is actually a big day for us."
A big day for passengers, too.
"No one knows what the future holds but I know it's something good," Smith says.
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