TAMPA, Fla. — With not many people on the roads, even less are taking public transportation across the Tampa Bay area.
Meanwhile, cleaning efforts to protect buses is expensive and time-consuming.
With safety top of mind for Tampa Bay transportation agencies, our biggest transit providers, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit and Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, are working to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Their priority is to make sure they’re safely providing services for those who need it most.
In addition to continuous sanitation, they each limit passengers per bus, require masks and have riders enter through the rear door to keep a distance from others. Buses are also equipped with safety shields and cleaned several times a day.
In Tampa, HART uses an electrostatic fogger. Commonly used by airliners, it quickly disinfects all surfaces and hard to reach places.
“HART’s Maintenance team is keeping our teammates and customers safe with almost 8,500 hours spent disinfecting HART facilities since March 2020. They have also cleaned and disinfected over 13,000 HART buses since March 2020. The HART maintenance team is using new, electrostatic disinfection foggers which cut disinfecting time by 50 percent," HART said.
What they’re not using is a new ultraviolet light technology called far-UVC light. It reportedly can be circulated in enclosed spaces, killing some forms of the coronavirus without the harmful effects to human eyes and skin.
While some transit agencies are exploring this option, in Tampa the electrostatic foggers are doing the job well.
As part of ongoing efforts to keep riders safe, transit agencies are offering free masks. PSTA hands them out to riders on buses. HART offers free masks at their Marion Transit Center and University Transit Center.
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