Soiled HART!

Two Stogie fans saw what happened to me with HART. 

So they donated this great bike. Thank you Andy and Marie for this great gift.

Maybe some day the city will get competent people running HART and we can have a desent bus service in this town! 

The Stogie is Bared from HART

Back when I lived in Ybor Heights I tried to get on     Metro Rapid with a Pro Palestinian t-Shit on and I was refused service. The driver said I was Soiled. I made no fuzz got off and waited for next one. Today, I was wearing this shirt that I have worn many times on the bus....I was waiting on Bus #1 at a school cross walk with gourd there who saw it all.

When the next bus came again I was refused service.

I asked to talk to a supervisor, they sent a security guard. I told her I wasn't talking to her and to send a deputy. He and the guard spoke. He told me that this happened because I was Soiled. And I was barred from HART, if I ever try to get on a bus I will be charged with tresspassing. 

Is this the word HART uses when you wear shirts they dont like?

I am done with HART. I have tried to help them for many years on this blog.

Closed my Flamingo account, I live in a walkable hood and can walk for everything I need. Locations further I will use UBER.

Stogie's letter to the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART)

The whole purpose of public transportation is to serve the public and your fare changes not only do not serve the public but they make it impossible for a large portion of your patrons, the working poor, to use your services. I am speaking for them. These are people who can not maintain a bank account or have the internet access needed to put funds into a Flamingo card and who do not live close enough to a facility that accepts money for a Flamingo card. Many of them have to transfer two or more times to get to work and back home every day and they have to beg for or borrow the money one dollar at a time to pay the fares. If they need $8 or more for those transfers, anything short of that $8 does them no good at all. It means they lose their jobs. Even borrowing enough to pay for a $4 day pass, something HART no longer accepts, is often difficult but certainly more possible than paying a separate $2 fare each time they have to transfer to a different bus. You HAVE to realize that many of your patrons live by a thread and the changes you have made to your fare system do them a great disservice. I am a staunch advocate for public transportation who relies solely on the HART bus system. I have had many discussions with other HART passengers and I know that doing away with day passes is a great concern for many of them. My comments here are not derived from conjecture but from first hand knowledge. By my own personal observations while riding the Hart buses every day a great many of your riders utilize the day passes and do not approve of your doing away with them. Your fare system worked and to change it only because it may be more convenient for you to no longer have to process those day passes is a horribly misguided idea. It would mean you are making the changes to benefit yourselves at the expensive of those who rely most on your service. You MUST go back to your previous fare system if you expect to remain what can be considered public transportation. Sure, there are charitable organizations who can help SOME of those working poor but your fare changes have only placed one more hurdle in their way.

I am not only an advocate for public transportation but I am also a writer for a local internet news service here in the Tampa Bay area. I have the means to broadcast this message to the public in this area and I intend to do just that.

Btw, the link you have posted on many of your bus stops that patrons are to use to submit comments about your fare changes is to a web page that does not exist.

HART Bus #1 Free

Tip the nice drivers on the way out!

HART Has Big Plans for RT. 1

    INFO

It could soon cost to ride Tampa’s downtown streetcar; HART wants riders’ opinions

As 2024 nears its end, passengers might start having to pay to ride the popular streetcars in downtown Tampa again.....MORE

HART bus service fare-free to help with transportation after Milton

 If you need a ride as you recover from Hurricane Milton, HART has got you covered.

Effective immediately, HART Bus, HARTPlus, and HARTFlex are operating fare-free until Oct. 21.

MORE

Tampa’s most popular bus route could become fare-free

One of Tampa's most popular bus routes could soon be fare-free.

Tampa City Council members voted 4 to 3 to approve free access for HART's bus route No. 1.

Route 1 primarily benefits workers traveling north and south of Tampa's dense urban core. The pilot program, which could last for a year, aims to reduce traffic, improve safety for people walking and biking, and help workers save money on the cost of living.

MORE

I wasnt Allowed on a HART Bus

Driver #19. She said it was my pants. Could it be the shirt that I was wearing.

Call or E-Mail them and speak up!

Worst Towns to Live in Florida

Tampa #6. Too much traffic. Ride HART

Jessica Rose Powell with special guest Kevin Hart in Tampa

Sunday, May 19th, 2024, 5:00PM-8:00PM

The Straz Center for the Performing Arts INFO

Gasparilla Parade Route and Parking Information

Saturday, January 27, 2024

11:30am-1:30pm Gasparilla Invasion

2-6pm Gasparilla Parade of Pirates

$20 Event Parking

Pam Iorio Parking Garage (S. Florida Ave & Channelside Dr.)

  8 a.m. – Limited spaces

Tampa Convention Center Garage (Tampa St. & Brorein St.)

  Open 24/7

Fort Brooke Garage (Whiting St. between Franklin St. & Florida Ave.)

  8 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Whiting St. Garage (N. Morgan St.)

  8 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Selmon Expressway Downtown parking lots

  8 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Royal Regional Lot (Tampa St. & Fortune St.)

  Open 24/7

Scott Street Lot (Morgan St. & Scott St.)

  Open 24/7

Poe Garage (N. Ashley Dr. & W. Cass St.)

  Open 24/7 - Due to the parade route, this garage will close from 1:00 –

  6:00 p.m.

  No entry or exit will be allowed during this time.

Twiggs Street Garage (Twiggs St., west of Nebraska Ave.)

  Open 24/7, Standard hourly rate with a $12.00 maximum

**Centro Ybor Garage (5th Ave. & 15th St.)

  Open 24/7, Standard hourly rate with a $12.00 maximum

**Palm Ave. Garage (13th St. & 9th Ave.)

  Open 24/7, Standard hourly rate with a $12.00 maximum

On-street parking meters will be enforced from 8:00 a.m. until midnight

**The FREE TECO Line Streetcar (8:30 a.m. – 2:30 a.m.) and the FREE HART bus shuttle service (9:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.) will be available to transport between Ybor and Downtown Tampa.

'HART for All' campaign targets riders with special needs

The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, or HART, has launched a new campaign aimed at encouraging more people with physical and intellectual disabilities to take advantage of the transit system’s services.....Read More

Tampa Streetcar will remain fare-free for another year

Huge news for the historic, and nationally renowned Tampa Streetcar! The Hillsborough Transit Authority (HART) just announced the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has awarded HART a Commuter Assistance grant totaling $700,000. The FDOT grant will permit the TECO Line Streetcar to remain fare-free for an additional year....MORE

PSTA and HART talk ups and downs Tampa Bay transit

For the latest episode of The Skinny on WMNF Tampa, Whitney Fox, Director of Communications & Marketing at Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), and Justin Willits, the new Director of Planning and Scheduling Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART), talk about ups, down, frequency, funding and more.....MORE

Board suspends HART CEO after report exposes low morale, high turnover

Lack of effective leadership, poor organizational morale, and significant turnover.

That’s what attorney David Adams said he discovered in his months-long investigation of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) and its CEO, Adalee Le Grand when he presented his findings Monday.

More HERE

HART Bus Operator Info Sessions

4305 E 21st Ave, East Tampa

HART Travel Training

HERE

Congratulations Florida Representative Dianne Hart

2020 People First 

Report Card

Florida state legislators who voted to put people first instead of powerful special interests

Where the GOP average is 50%

Ms. Hart got 

HERE

HELP HER HERE

Ybor Rob @ HART