Lakeport needs more bus shelters

 Lake Transit stop near the Lakeport Library
(with a yarn bombing tag, but that's another story)

When a fellow bus commuter learned I was going to write about the need for waste containers at Lake Transit stops, she brought up what has been another concern: the absence of any benches and shelters at many Lakeport stops.

There were major bus stop improvements during 2011-12 as noted in the annual report on the Aug. 8 Lake Transit Authority agenda.

The report credits partnerships with Konocti Unified School District, Clearlake Rotary Club and Lake County Public Works for major improvements to several stops.

 I am profoundly grateful for the shelter from which I begin my commute to work. But I would like to suggest a target area for improvements in the coming year.

The only two shelters on Main Street in Lakeport that I encounter during my travels are the beautiful shelter at Third and Main that compliments the Victorian architecture, and a more utilitarian shelter at the Grocery Outlet stop.

Most of the stops consist only of a pole bearing a Lake Transit sign.

At the bus stop in front of Social Security, bus riders turn shopping carts onto their sides and use them as makeshift benches. (There is also no crosswalk near this stop to help bus riders cross the street but that is a matter outside the jurisdiction of Lake Transit Authority.)

I hope my litany of suggestions for Lake Transit Authority -- trash containers, more shelters and, perhaps, more venues to purchase rider passes -- are taken as evidence of the sense of ownership that I feel toward local public transit.