The views and opinions of this article may not reflect the views of The Rapid City Post, its affiliates, or advertisers. 

Rapid City is growing. It can be felt by anyone who has lived here longer than a few years. New neighborhoods extend further out into the distance. Housing costs keep going up. More families are struggling to make ends meet. But one vital area of our community that has not been built at the same rate is public transportation.
The Rapid City People’s Alliance is leading the charge on a conversation about increasing access to transportation that needs to be addressed because it is a human issue, not political. But for many people in Rapid City, transportation is not an added convenience. It is survival. A veteran attempting to make an appointment at the VA clinic. A single mother starting work before sunrise. An old neighbor attempting to access dialysis or physical therapy. Someone in recovery attending treatment. A worker without a solid car who is working to hold onto a job. These are not abstract policy debates. These are our neighbors.

Currently, the transit system in Rapid City has limited hours, frequency and coverage. No Sunday service exists. Evening service is minimal. Whole sections of our expanding city are still hard to get access to without a car. For many of our residents, particularly if you are living paycheck to paycheck, a missed ride becomes an appointment missed, a shift missed, a chance missed. We can do much better. Expanding operating hours, improving route access to critical care facilities, like the VA Black Hills Health Care System Community Based Outpatient Clinic, Urgent Cares, and other care locations needs to happen. It’s not luxury spending and certainly not about what you pay for as well, it’s paying for dignity, health, and economic sustainability and that is the return on the investment.

We should also seriously consider granting disabled veterans free access to Rapid City public transportation. These men and women have already incurred a cost that many of us will never comprehend fully. Some came home with apparent wounds. Others have wounds you can’t see at all. All we can really do is ensure that they can get to medical care, counseling, employment, grocery stores and community services without additional financial burden. Free transit to disabled veterans would not be a token of charity but an act of gratitude and respect. If we want to honor their sacrifice beyond ceremonies and speeches, we need to build practical systems to help them move throughout their day.

Values in society that are rooted in compassion, respect and personal responsibility have been always claimed by South Dakota. But values only matter when we embody them.

Compassion means being aware that not everyone has similar resources and means of mobility. Respect demands recognizing that working people, seniors, veterans and disabled residents should have reliable access to healthcare and jobs. Honesty is to acknowledge that our current transportation network does not accurately reflect the size and needs of our city anymore. Generosity is about investment in the systems that enable everyone to be part of community life when it comes to participation, regardless of whether or not we personally use it. Humility means hearing the experiences of people who rely on public transportation every single day. Wisdom is planning, not just for the Rapid City we have now, but for the Rapid City that we are becoming.

Prayer is also involved in this dialogue.
Many of us pray for stronger families, healthier communities and less suffering in the world that surrounds us. But prayer also has to move our hands and shape our decisions. We cannot pray for our veterans while ignoring all the barriers which prevent them from getting service. We cannot pray for families that work and leave them shut out of services and jobs. We cannot pray for unity while allowing citizens lacking transportation to be invisible, this is our responsibility. It’s not just buses that make up public transport. It is about whether people can stay connected to society itself.

The Rapid City People’s Alliance is right to call attention to this issue. It does not matter so much whether one agrees with every bit of their platform, they are calling on our city to face an actual problem with honesty and empathy. It is a time for leadership from city officials, transit planners, faith communities, healthcare providers, and everyday citizens alike. Broader transit hours, better route planning, more efficient connection to healthcare facilities, including the VA clinic, are practical, achievable goals that would make the lives of those on the street better today. Rapid City has always prided itself on having the mentality of neighbors helping neighbors. And now we have the chance to prove it. A city that respects its veterans, cares for its elders, enables working families to live, and protects the dignity of its disabled residents is a city that is based not just in growth but also in wisdom.

The measure of a community is not how much it serves the comfortable. It is how it serves faithfully those who are struggling to remain connected, cared for and hopeful.

The views and opinions of this article may not reflect the views of The Rapid City Post, its affiliates, or advertisers.