May is National Older Americans Month and this year’s theme is “Age My Way.”
This special month is an opportunity to explore the many ways older adults can remain in and be involved with their communities. Metro’s On the Move Riders Program (OTMRP) strives to empower older adults with the knowledge and confidence to utilize public transportation, which they can access to stay connected to their family, friends, and the greater community.
OTMRP has partnered with numerous organizations to host a variety of countywide events throughout the month of May to celebrate National Older Americans Month.
Older Adult Transportation Pop-Up: Westside Central- Friday, May 20, at 10 a.m.
This in-person event is designed to equip older adults with the basics of riding public transportation by providing attendees with workshops and transit education courses. Apply for your Senior TAP card and learn how you can get involved in our peer-to-peer travel training program. Register by clicking here.
Metro Art Tour- Wednesday, May 25, at 10 a.m.
In collaboration with Metro Art Moves, OTMRP is hosting an in-person art and architectural tour of Union Station. This special tour will heighten the passenger experience and provide insights into the artworks, artists and art-making processes.
Categories: Go Metro
Given that we’re still in a pandemic and face coverings are supposedly required on Metro trains and buses, your images of older riders smiling and talking while maskless and sitting close together is dangerously misleading.
Metro’s objectives regarding senior riders should be (1) first, do no harm and (2) offer top quality service.
A PHOTOGRAPHY-MAKING TOUR OF THE METRO ENVIRONMENT would be an engaging activity for creative Metro riders and future riders becoming acquainted with using transit — maybe as a follow-on to one or more Metro Art Tours and as an adjunct to the more formal Metro Art program’s Artist Pool — in which the best photos captured during these Metro Photo Tours would be featured on a special Metro Art page … and the very best might find their way into display in the same Metro environment. Some of these views of Metro spaces, trains, passengers and more would move onto social media, promoting Metro and public transportation, and some pictures even onto the local television stations that feature images submitted by viewers. These Metro Photo Tours might be an occasional feature of Metro On the Move Riders Program tours.
Taking pictures with my mobile camera (more important than the phone function for me!) while riding Metro buses and trains is the main way I add fun, or at least some chill, to the sometimes trying experience of moving across the cityscape and just missing a train or a bus. A new METRO PHOTO TOURS program and a webpage to exhibit the best results would utilize the near omnipresence of mobile cameras to encourage transit riders to make the transit experience a photographic creativity experience too.
Capturing creative photographs, btw, is not an activity for people driving their cars!