KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The KAT Reimagined draft plan for the system's routes and stops would remove the bus stop from the O'Connor Senior Center, the draft map showed.
Right now, the bus stop at the senior center is right under the awning, a few steps from the front door. The plan, which is not final, would eliminate that stop. The next closest is on Magnolia Avenue, about a quarter of a mile away.
"I'm not going to walk to Magnolia to catch the bus," said Arlene Gnoose, an O'Connor Senior Center participant.
Gnoose said she takes the bus to the O'Connor center every day because she can't drive.
"I have a vision impairment, so I can't drive," Gnoose said.
The Knoxville-Knox County CAC Office on Aging director, Dottie Lyvers, said about 200 seniors use the O'Connor center every day and this change would create another barrier for people.
"It's extremely helpful for them to be able to get out here without creating any barriers," Lyvers said. "If the route was to move, it would be more of a barrier for individuals to come."
Lyvers said, ideally, KAT would keep a bus stop at the O'Connor center's front door.
In an email to 10News Belinda Woodiel-Brill, the KAT director of planning and public information, said it's important for people to know this is just a draft network, and asked "based on the original input about shifting some resources toward ridership, did we get it right?"
"This is the public process in action! Nothing is final and all comments are being heard," Woodiel-Brill added.
She said an average of two riders use the stop at the O'Connor center every day. Woodiel-Brill said KAT will collect all of the comments and bring them to the KAT board for a final decision.