On a soggy Wednesday in May – members of the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo community gathered in the downtown Fargo Public Library with electric scooters, piles of economic studies, smart devices and ideas all concerning the future of transportation in the area.
Kicking off the morning was Fargo city commissioner John Strand who spoke about where we were, where we are and where we are headed. An inspirational idea that the future is being planned in that very room.
Representatives from MetroCOG spoke about community input when designing roadways, spending dollars in appropriate areas and making a great announcement about a new bike app that will eliminate the need for paper maps and allow residents/visitors a way to experience all the bike trails available to them.
The app is set to release in early June 2019 –
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Next up – MATBUS takes the stage and informs the eager attendees that in 2018 ridership was nearly 2 million rides. That’s TWO MILLION trips that were taken off the roadways from users in individual vehicles. Huge savings to our infrastructure and decongesting the traffic flow. We all know the value to public transit, but MATBUS really provided some concrete numbers on the ACTUAL value. They also informed us that electric buses are on their way to being the industry standard. Charging stations both at the depot and in the community are already being looked at and their ever evolving TapRide program is bridging the “First Mile/Last Mile” of the space between home and bus stop. It can also benefit the growing college populace who make up the majority of MATBUS riders.
The evolution of travel was covered by presenters who spoke about charging stations, e-scooters, bike shares and so much more. The future is coming to Fargo and the populace seem eager to grab ahold of a new way to get from here to there.
Economics and public service organizations also gave insight to the needs of businesses and individuals when it comes to reasonable and reliable transportation. It’s easy to see we need more conversations and REAL WORLD CHANGE!
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(Amy Iler & JJ Gordon are talk-show hosts at 790 AM KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. “It Takes 2 with Amy & JJ” can be heard weekdays 11am-2pm. Check out the show page on
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