HART Establishes Support Funds in Memory of Thomas Dunn

HART has established two financial support funds for Operator Thomas Dunn's family.

Donations for the family fund can be provided at any Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union branch or mailed to: Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union, P.O. Box 7492, Tampa, FL

Donations to the family fund should include the following:

• Name of Fund: The Thomas Dunn Memorial Fund
• Memorial ID #: 563719

In addition to the family fund, HART has also created the Thomas Dunn Memorial Scholarship for the children of Mr. Dunn for educational scholarships.

Donations to the Thomas Dunn Memorial Scholarship Fund can be provided online at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/tdmf/.

The HART family stands UNITED following the senseless and tragic passing of Operator Thomas Dunn.

HART CEO Statement to Operator Attack

"We are devastated by the tragic events that took place today involving our HART bus operator. We are working with the Tampa Police Department as they conduct their investigation into this horrific matter," HART Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Limmer said. "We offer our thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of the bus operator, as well as to all of our HART colleagues."

Celebrate National Bike Month with Bikes on Buses!

All HART buses and vans feature bike racks!

May is National Bike Month and HART makes connecting to the bus by riding a bike a breeze!

Discover how easy (and quick!) it is to Bike & Bus. HART has bike racks on every bus and van so you can experience the ease of riding HART with your bike year-round. National Bike Month is a great opportunity to give it a try!

At HART, we're dedicated to getting our riders to their destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. We see bikes as complementary to our service and that's why we added racks to our buses over 20 years ago. More recently, bike racks have also been added to all of our HARTFlex vans.

Need a bike for just the first or last mile of your trip? Coast Bike Share stations are set up at a number of HART locations, including Marion Transit Center, and Dick Greco Plaza Station.

Have a folding bike? HART also permits them in carrying bags aboard all HART buses and HARTFlex vans. Users of bicycles with larger wheels should continue using the bicycle rack. Each HART bus and HARTFlex van accommodates two bicycles. Only single-seat, two-wheel bicycles are permitted on buses; no tandems or three-wheelers.

Heading to Pinellas County? The Bikes on Buses program also enables riders to take their bikes with them and transfer from a HART bus to the PSTA network without a special permit.  

Four easy steps to loading your bike on a HART bus

Bike-friendly transit provides customers with quicker commutes and additional commuting options.

Customers might not view a 30-mile round trip bike ride to downtown as an attractive commute. However, pair a quick 1-2 mile bike ride with a HART route to pick up the majority of the miles and you have some serious pedal power.

Cycling HART riders (almost 20,000 monthly trips) find that bikes not only speed up their commutes, but also provide them greater exercise, ground coverage, and route options. 

Want to learn the ropes of cycling around town? Find a "bike buddy"! TBARTA helps match cycling commuters together.

Click here to learn more about the HART Bikes on Buses program, including how to secure your bike on the bus bike rack.

City of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to Serve on HART Board

PHOTO: City of Tampa

We are honored to welcome our newest member of the HART Board of Directors, newly elected Tampa Mayor, Jane Castor!

HART CEO Benjamin Limmer announced, "I am honored to welcome Mayor Castor to our Board of Directors. Mayor Castor's presence and leadership will shape the opportunity HART has to provide innovative and sustainable transportation solutions for decades to come.  Mayor Castor will be an asset to the HART Board of Directors and to the organization as a whole."

Mayor Castor's commitment to connect businesses large and small with the communities they serve through increased walkability, bike-ability, rapid-transit buses, and an extension of streetcar routes and innovative solutions are all key to providing our citizens with the frequent, reliable, and convenient public transportation they deserve.

"With the passage of the All For Transportation sales tax, HART has an unprecedented opportunity to invest in our future now" said Mayor Castor. "Our communities in West Tampa, East Tampa, and Sulphur Springs need reliable bus service they can count on. As Mayor, I will use my seat on the HART board to fight for every neighbourhood to have the dependable bus system they deserve through upgrading existi0ng transfer stations and building multi-modal hubs with fixed transit lines that connect riders from Westshore to New Tampa."

HART Employee Inducted into Hillsborough County Women's "Hall of Fame"

Carolyn House Stewart, HART Director of Risk and Legal Services, has been inducted into the Hillsborough Co. Women’s "Hall of Fame". She has earned numerous distinctions throughout her 40-year legal career, becoming the first African-American female from Hillsborough appointed to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners and later the National Bar Association Hall of Fame. Having developed the “Emerging Young Leaders” program, she’s helped over 15,000 girls build leadership skills within their homes, schools, and communities. 

Way to go, Carolyn!

Get on Board with Public Transportation on April 25!

HART joins other public transportation systems nationwide participating in National Get On Board Day on Thursday, April 25.

Sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the 2019 National Get On Board Day is a day that encourages people to support public transportation and showcases the benefits it brings to communities. Each weekday in the U.S., 34 million people board public transportation. Locally, HART covers a service area roughly the size of Rhode Island (over 1,000 sq. miles) and carries 34,000 passenger trips daily.

HART will be participating in Get on Board Day by displaying public transportation facts at HART facilities and gathering signatures from customers and employees in support of transit.

Additionally, public transportation is a cornerstone of local economies in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Public transportation helps to make a community economically prosperous and competitive. According to APTA, every $1 invested in public transportation generates approximately $4 in economic returns, powering community growth and revitalization.

With a unified voice, the transportation industry will come together on April 25, 2019 to highlight the many benefits public transit provides to communities.

Please show your support and Get on Board on Thursday!

Ride HART FREE on Earth Day!

Public transportation takes cars (and their pollution) off the road!

The ultimate green initiative is public transportation!

Consider yourself environmentally conscious? Have energy-efficient light bulbs, low-flow shower-heads, and recycle bins in your house, but then drive a gas guzzler to work? There is still work to be done! Use Earth Day as a chance to give the ultimate green initiative a try - public transportation! You just might find out how easy it is to go on a car-free diet.

According to APTA, public transportation reduces energy consumption to the tune of 4.2 billion gallons of gas a year, or the equivalent to 320 million cars filling up - 900,000 times a day. A household's biggest carbon footprint contributor is their car. One person switching their 20-mile commute to public transportation can also reduce their carbon footprint by 4,800 pounds of CO2 annually. CO2, or carbon dioxide emissions have been linked to global climate change.

Ride Free on Earth Day

Ride FREE on Earth Day!

Still not convinced? How about a FREE ride on HART in celebration of Earth Day? Grab a friend, make a day of it, and try HART. We are providing FREE rides on all services on Monday, April 22.

We believe you will be pleasantly surprised at how affordable, clean, and convenient it is to get around with HART.

The cherry on top? There is a good chance that you'll be riding in a clean-burning, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) bus or van, as HART transitions our fleet away from diesel. HART currently operates 70 CNG buses.

Try transit! Your planet (and wallet) will thank you!

To calculate your carbon emissions savings by switching to transit, visit APTA's Carbon Emissions Savings Calculator.