Kenosha Transportation Academy transit tour

October 17, 2024 in News

Happy bus riders

We are rounding out the last few weeks of the Kenosha Transportation Academy, with just two sessions to go before the end of October. Yesterday was the transit tour, and it was hands down everyone’s favorite class so far! 

We started off with a Q&A from four local experts:

Anthony Kennedy, who represents District 10 on the City Council and is chair of the transit commission for the City of Kenosha

Jennifer Stenacki, AICP, Deputy Chief Transportation Planner at SEWRPC

Jeff Anhock, Supervisor of Operations for Kenosha Area Transit

Lauren Scott, Mobility Manager for the City and County of Kenosha

Guest speakers from L to R: Anthony Kennedy, Jennifer Stenacki, Jeff Anhock, Lauren Scott

I assigned everyone to plan an essential trip that they take without a car. This is an everyday experience for some of the participants in the class, but for many of them, it was a new exercise. One person shared that the trip from her home to work is only about 22 minutes by bus, but the infrequency of bus service would force her to get to work 45 minutes early. Another participant lives in Racine and works in Kenosha, so there is no public transit option to his workplace; he would have to bum a ride from his wife or pay $26 one way for an Uber ride.

Entering the transit center

After an hour of sharing expertise and answering questions, we boarded the No. 5 bus and rode to the transit center, where Jeff and Anthony gave us a tour of the maintenance and storage facilities. The transit center is a state-of-the-art building and was built in 2006 with federal funds. All cleaning, fueling, and maintenance take place under one enormous roof. It is impressive.