Residents who ride LATS fixed route buses have some ideas about where they would like to see the city’s first indoor transfer center, and they have convenience in mind.
City officials are discussing the plan, which would replace what has always been an outdoor location along Southwest B Avenue at Southwest 4th Street with an indoor facility that would provide amenities for riders and bus drivers.
Riders surveyed Friday want to keep the new site close to the existing one, which itself is close to the downtown area. At least one LATS bus driver likes the idea of placing the facility in the West Gore Boulevard median.
Douglas McCue, a habitual rider who lives near the transfer center, is firm and said other riders feel the same way he does.
“The old police station,” he said, of the now-vacant site at Southwest 4th and West Gore Boulevard. “Because of its central location.”
McCue said he likes the site’s proximity to the library, the farmer’s market and downtown churches, and the fact it is close to the existing transfer center site (which has been at that location since LATS started operations in 2001).
“I like it here,” said Abraham H., of the site that stretches along the north side of Southwest B Avenue, immediately south of the vacant lot that used to be Wayne Gilley City Hall.
Abraham, who rides the bus almost daily, said the site needs to be somewhere close so “I don’t walk too far.”
Ladaryron Cheadle, an east side resident who is a frequent LATS rider, welcomes the prospect of an indoor center.
“It’s a blessing,” he said, on a cold Friday morning as he and others waited inside the glass-enclosed bus stops.
Cheadle said the indoor center needs to remain in the same general area, pointing out the now vacant police station a block away would be a good site. He has other changes he would like to see, including longer hours to help him get to and from work (LATS officials already are weighing that idea).
Robert Komardley, who lives in Anadarko but was visiting relatives Friday, praised Lawton for having a transportation system that gets its residents around town. Like the others, he wants to see the indoor center remain near the existing site, pointing out the numerous destinations riders use are nearby.
Jerry Howell, a bus driver taking a short break as he waited to begin his 10:15 route, said he likes the idea of putting the transfer center in the Gore Boulevard median, near Southwest 3rd Street.
“It would be just like the interstate,” he said, of designs that would allow buses to flow into and out of the median site.
Like other drivers, he is looking forward to a formal site that would offer amenities for drivers and riders. Now, the outdoor site offers a picnic table, a concrete wall to sit on, and several glass-enclosed bus stops. Restrooms are available at Lawton Public Library a block away, but what happens when the library is closed?
“Boomarang does a lot of business,” Howell said.
Riders using LATS later in the day said they liked the idea of keeping the new indoor facility close to where the outdoor facility is now, because of familiarity. Some had specific sites in mind, including one rider who said a former car lot on West Gore Boulevard, at Southwest 2nd Street, would be ideal because of structures already existing on the site.
One rider said an indoor facility is necessary because riders need amenities such as restrooms and places to get water, as well as shelter during cold winter days and the heat of summer.
“A little building,” he said, explaining the complex need not be a large one to meet passenger needs.
This content was originally published here.