The Central Area Rural Transit Service (CARTS) had discount taxi vouchers for sale in Homer though ILC for many years.  CARTS is currently working on developing a transit plan for Homer and held a meeting at Homer City Hall on May 4^th.  At the meeting they described 4 possible transit options.  They were 1. An option to link communities together via bus service.  2.  Local scheduled point to point services with a bus or van.  3.  Zone service where one or two cars respond to calls and provide transportation between points within the zone.  4. Taxi vouchers that provide a discount for taxi services.  

The participants at the meeting took a non-binding vote and identified their first preference to be a voucher system like the one that had been operating in the past.  The second place preference was zone services.

Each of the four preferences has pros and cons that weigh costs, and efficiency to riders.  The CARTS board will continue to study options and look at available grant funds as well as options for service area boundaries.  CARTS next step will be to present a report to the community stating which option or combination of options they think they can offer to Homer.  CARTS plans on releasing their findings sometime in the fall of 2018.

KBBI radio in Homer attended the meeting and produced a related news story that you can read or listing to here.