JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Transportation Authority said people are targeting city buses with rocks, which is forcing the agency to change one of its routes.
Riders on the route tell Action News they are not happy with the changes, calling it an inconvenience even though JTA said the changes were made with passengers' safety in mind.
Day or night, all day long riders on JTA's Route 18-Atlantic are detoured.
"It's a heck of an inconvenience," said Mark.
It's a so-called inconvenience born out of recent random acts of violence in Arlington. The bus stop at Kona Avenue and Acme Street is temporarily empty for a reason.
A notice says the Kona route between Bowlan and Acme streets is shut down because rocks were thrown at the buses in that area. We found out from JTA this damaged the massive vehicles and even shattered windows.
"Why would you just stop the route?" Roland Kaiser said.
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For now, neighbors near Kona Street like Mark, and Kaiser, are walking and peddling further to their bus stop.
"Myself and my baby have to walk way down here to catch the bus," Mark said.
"Now it's taking another hour and a half, two hours to get to work," Kaiser said.
"They were kids and that was a matter for JSO not JTA," Mark said.
JTA said they worked with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on this decision and posted this notice about Route 18 online last week.
The notice said passengers now have to walk about a half mile from Kona to Free Street to another stop.
"There's senior citizens up and down the blocks that ride the bus, what are they supposed to do?" Mark said.
Changes not everyone is on board with, even if it's dangerous around this stop on Kona.
JTA said there is no timeline for if or even when the route will re-open.
We're told there haven't been any arrests in this case either.
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