When Deb Winsor walked to her Uptown bus stop, she was often irked by the amount of litter she found along the way.
So she decided to act, joining a growing number of people who have joined the recently revived and expanded Adopt-a-Stop program. Adopters agree to visit their adopted stop weekly to remove litter and to report more serious concerns, like graffiti or broken glass, to Metro Transit.
In exchange for their efforts, adopters receive Go-To Cards with enough value to take 10 rides a month, cleaning supplies, and can have their names added to the bus stop sign or shelter.
“I would walk to Uptown past this bus stop and be annoyed about the litter. Then, I said to myself, `Why complain? Let’s do something about it,’” said Winsor, a hospital receptionist who takes routes 6 and 2 to her job in the surgery center at M Health Fairview in Minneapolis.
Historically, the program focused largely on stops with shelters. Today, though, people can adopt any of the nearly 12,000 bus stops found across the region.
Hamline University sophomore Lane Renner is another recent adopter. His Theta Chi fraternity now looks after the METRO A Line’s Snelling & Hewitt Station, which sits in front of their house on Snelling Avenue.
“It’s an easy way to give back to your community,” Renner said. “It doesn’t take that much work. I know the people who come by appreciate having a clean bus stop.”
To date, 14 stops have been adopted. The hope is to have dozens more adopted by the end of the year.
Learn more at https://www.metrotransit.org/adopt-a-stop
more sponsored content from metro transit
Know Your Operator: Kossivi Loko
Kossivi Loko is no stranger to patience, dedication, and community. As an immigrant from the West African nation of Togo, it took a decade’s worth of patience, dedication, and a desire for community to successfully become a citizen of the United States, unite his family, and secure a job. “I came here to find opportunity…
Know Your Operator: Pao Xiong
After the Vietnam War ended, an eight-year-old Pao Xiong chose to immigrate from Laos to the United States. “It was a courageous decision to take that jump by myself,” Xiong said. “The older community members were telling me, ‘Don’t go. You don’t know what’s over there.’” Xiong said he had faith that in 1976 he was making…
Know Your Operator: Ismail Jama
Growing up in Toronto, Ismail Jama often got around using the city’s subway and streetcar networks. So when he moved to Minneapolis as an adult, he was naturally intrigued at the prospect of becoming a train operator at Metro Transit. To give himself a chance, he started as a part-time bus operator in 2011 while…
