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Navy veteran, St. Pete college student gives back
PSTA is allowing those who served our country to ride on all fixed routes with a bus pass. This is all thanks to a Navy veteran who is also a college student at USF in St. Pete.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A Pinellas County Navy veteran and USF St. Pete student took a class project on changing policy and made free bus rides a reality, after seeing a packed bus stop at the veterans’ hospital one day.
"I went to Bay Pines VA here where I get my care, and I just saw the bus stop was just full of people," said Steven Brown, 28, a senior at USF St. Pete. "I started thinking if we’re going to curb the homelessness population if we’re going to get people back and forth to the doctor, the best way to handle that is through public transit."
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Brown served in the U.S. Navy from 2014 to 2018 as an E-4 fighter jet mechanic who worked on F-18s. He said he saw an opportunity to help, starting with a class project on changing policy. His assignment helped to land veterans free bus rides in Pinellas County starting Friday, November 10.
Steven Brown, 28, is a senior at USF St. Pete.
"We initially pitched it as disabled veterans only. We were going to try to get veterans access back and forth to the VA, and it was later expanded by a county commissioner to all veterans of Pinellas County. That’s about 73,000 people out here," said Brown.
Veterans will have to get a bus pass, then they can ride free on all fixed routes with the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority.
Brown celebrated the change Thursday at a PSTA even just in time for Veterans Day.
"I hurt my back pretty bad when I was in, which stemmed a bunch of other issues. And I definitely feel for a lot of the disabled vets that I work with every day. That’s kind of what spawned my research and my work," said Brown.
That work may start local, but he hopes to take bus rides for veterans all the way to the state.
"If we can get people back and forth to the doctor, I think we’re actually going to save some lives here in the process," he said.
The free bus passes for military veterans are available at PSTA’s four service centers, Brown said.