280 Living
September 2017 | Volume 11 | Issue 1
neighborly news & entertainment
Ri d e r s h i p u p o n BJ CTA’ s 2 0 1 r o u t e By ERICA TECHO
A Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority bus picks up riders near Grandview Medical Center on U.S. 280. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
OMMS
D espite lower gas prices and a national trend of people returning to their individual vehicles, some Birmingham bus routes are seeing an increase in ridership. The 201 commuter route along U .S. , which travels between downtown Birmingham and the almart near Alabama 119 Monday through Saturday,
has seen ridership increase from 132 monthly riders in October to averaging 2,000 e ach month in 2017. The commuter route has seen significant increases in rider numbers since Grandview edical Center opened, said Birmingham- efferson County Transit Authority ecutive irector Barbara urdoc . e have a lot of pic ups at that Grandview point, she said. rom the
day it the route opened bac in 4, we started that route, it has been successful since pic ing up at Grandview. Grandview opened its doors in October , and between October and ovember of that year, ridership nearly doubled from 58 9 to 1,100 monthly passengers. That number has continued to climb since.
See BJCTA | page A30
BUILDING ROBOTS, BUILDING CONFIDENCE Robotics program growing ‘exponentially’ as students find stepping stone in STEM
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By ERICA TECHO
ixty-four students. Sixteen teams. Two world champions. Those are the numbers that defined Oa ountain iddle School’s robotics program in the 2016- 17 school year. O S teacher Sherri hitehead, who sponsors the school’s robotics robotics team, has seen those numbers increase steadily since ta ing over in 4. Bac then, there were only a handful of students participating — between six and 10 — and those numbers doubled in 2015. I n 2015, m ore students competed in statewide competition, and two teams went on to compete at worlds. In - 7, five teams made it to worlds, with one team ma ing it all the way to finals.
See ROBOTICS | page A31 o ntain
Pre-Sort Standard U .S. Postage PAI D Tupelo, MS Permit # 54
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mem er Piper
atson tests her team s ro ot on a o rse to see if it o ld lift m ltiple rings onto poles of varying heights Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
INSIDE
Sponsors .............. A4 280 News ............. A6
Business ..............A10 School House .....A19
Private School Guide ................... A24
Sports ................... B4 Events .................. B13
Calendar .............. B21 Medical Guide........C1 facebook.com/280Living
Never Forget
Time to Soar
Social studies educator Richard Stamper teaches 9/11 to Spain Park students too young to remember.
Eagles volleyball team makes it no se ret hey re setting up for state championship.
See page A20
See page B10