An Independent-minded calendar of arts and events for Outer Cape Cod

Advertise in the Indie.

Reach more readers from Eastham to Provincetown.

Unchained news for Outer Cape Cod

The Provincetown Independent

Let us bring you the paper.

Your subscription supports real community journalism.

Outer Cape Bus Stop

    THE ELEMENTS

    Outer Cape Bus Stops Leave Riders Exposed

    By

    There are some 30 bus stops on the Outer Cape, and about three-quarters of them don’t have any kind of shelter from the rain or wind. Several stops don’t even have a bench — they’re just a wide spot in the road where people stand and wait.

    At the Orleans Stop & Shop, the shelter is made of glass and has lights inside. It is only a couple of years old, according to rider Richard Gordon, who lives in Wellfleet. The stop outside the Outer Cape’s other Stop & Shop, in Provincetown, offers no shelter at all.

    While following the route from Provincetown to Orleans, this reporter spoke to four riders who all agreed bus stops ought to be sheltered. One said that the stops at Maurice’s Campground and the Eastham Superette were particularly bad; another named Whitmanville Road in Truro as the worst. None of those three stops has even a bench — they are nothing more than signs on the side of the road.

    The typical Outer Cape bus stop is just a bench and a sign. This one is on the southbound side of Route 6 across from the Shell Station and Blackfish Variety store in Wellfleet. (Photos by Paul Benson)
    A few locations offer some shelter, like this one in front of Seamen’s Bank in Eastham. Similar structures are at Eastham Town Hall and at Highland Road in Truro.
    Glass protects from the wind, said rider Richard Gordon, who lives in Wellfleet. “They redid this stop a couple years ago, and the one in Dennisport, because people were sleeping in them,” Gordon said. “That’s why there’s bars on the bench. The more enclosed ones, people could hide their alcohol or whatever and pass out. I think that’s why the RTA came up with the glass ones.”
    The bus stop at the Eastham Superette has no shelter or bench. The sidewalk is also unnervingly close to traffic. (Photos by Paul Benson)
    This bus stop at the National Park Service’s Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham has a complete bus schedule mounted on an inside wall.
    A southbound bus about to pick up a rider at Gill Road across from Maurice’s Campground in Wellfleet. This rider, who did not want his name used for this article, said he is an H-2B worker from Jamaica, where bus stops are almost all sheltered, he added. Neither this stop nor the one on the northbound side of Route 6 has a bench.
    Asantia Braithwaite is an H-2B worker at Mac’s Fish House in Provincetown and a policy analyst in her home country, Barbados. Most bus stops there have shelters and lights, she told the Independent in May. The bus stop at the Stop & Shop in Provincetown has neither.
    The bus stop near Walsh Way and Whitmanville Road on Route 6 in Truro is just a wide spot in the road. “There should be a bench at Whitmanville,” Gordon said.
    This bus stop is at the Cumberland Farms just north of Brackett Road in Eastham, where the man waiting said he has worked every summer since 2010. He did not want his name in the newspaper but said the stop in front of Maurice’s Campground and the one at the Eastham Superette are the worst on the Outer Cape.
    This glass-enclosed stop at the Village at Nauset Green affordable housing complex is not an official Cape Cod Rapid Transit Authority stop. It is, however, on the new Provincetown-to-Eastham early morning and late-night routes.
    A split-rail fence forms the backrest for this bench near the Pamet roads in Truro. It is one of the few stops to have a bike rack.

    © 2024 The Provincetown Independent, all rights reserved.

    terms of service