BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- The St. Lawrence County Planning Department have modified their public transportation system to adapt to decreased usage of a critically needed public service during the time of social distancing.

Jason Pfotenhauer from the Planning Office told the St. Lawrence County legislature’s Operations Committee that they have reduced the number of bus routes and send pairs of buses to the remaining stops in case there are too many passengers to safely distance during the ride.

“They are still running … primarily to take individuals, essential workers, to their places of employment. They’re also taking people to doctors’ appointments, pharmacies, and to get essential provisions,” Pfotenhauer told the board. “We are very conscientious of the importance of social distancing with the bus. We have seen quite a diminishment in ridership.”

He said the decrease is huge - 86%. And that’s led to elimination of the College Connector routes and others that don’t see a lot of traffic.

“There are probably four or five routes that really see the majority of the ridership and that’s where we’re concentrating the buses right now,” Pfotenhauer said.

Legislator Dave Forsythe, R-Lisbon, wanted to know if there’s any way to predict when the second bus is needed. Pfotenhauer said it’s random.

“It’s really hard to tell. We just started it this week, so we don’t have that data yet,” he said. “You don’t want to strand people for an extended period of time.”

The buses are now providing masks for riders and drivers. Forsythe wanted to know if Amish riders are wearing them.

Help keep St. Lawrence County informed

Until now, advertising has provided the income to pay our news staff. But with a cutback in advertising due to the COVID-19 crisis, our ability to continue free news coverage is threatened.  Please donate to NorthCountryNow.com and North Country This Week so we can keep St. Lawrence County informed.  Thank you.