SCAT riders are always allowed to speak first at Greensboro City Council town hall meetings. The reason is so they can ride SCAT, Greensboro’s paratransit service home.
Most months, SCAT riders have some complaints about the service, from rude drivers to not being picked up on time and having to ride too long on the bus because of poorly designed routes. SCAT picks people up at their homes, but it is a shared ride service, which means riders have to wait for other riders to get on and off before they are taken to their destination, so riders complain about unduly long rides.
At the Monday, Nov. 4 City Council meeting at Marylene Griffin Recreation Center Dr., Anjail Ahmad, a SCAT rider, had a new and different complaint – the name.
She noted that scat “means get away” and “the other meaning is animal excrement.” She said that she didn’t like riding around on a bus named for animal feces.
Specialized Community Area Transportation is what SCAT stands for, although the actual name isn’t used often even in Greensboro Transit Agency (GTA) documents.
Ahmad said about the name, “It is an affront to the City of Greensboro and to the riders.”
She said, “It’s hard to be proud of the name SCAT.”
And added, “Those who know know that it is a shameful thing.”
Ahmad said that the communities near Greensboro have names that are not a embarrassing, like HPTS Access in High Point and GoDurham Access in Durham.
Ahmad said that GSO Access or Greensboro Access would be better names than SCAT.
About changing the name Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, “I think that’s a good idea.”
The name Specialized Community Area Transportation doesn’t have anything about Greensboro in it and could be changed around to Community Area Transportation, Specialized CATS or Greensboro Area Paratransit, GAP, but a certain clothing store might not like that one.
There are nearly limitless names that don’t mean feces. Perhaps the city should consider holding a contest to come up with a new name for the city’s paratransit service.
“scat” has other meanings. what is the big deal?
Thank you!! People were perfectly happy with the previous decades of referring to a certain minority singing SCAT. Which I supplose now means they were singing “cat-scratch”.
What exactly is this person a Dr. of? Here’s an idea…disband SCAT and then problem solved, right? Then everyone can stop complaining about it.
With budget problems running SCAT and other transportation needs in Greensboro, the last thing they need to do is spend thousands of dollars to change the name because ONE person complained that she didn’t like it. Get over it.
Riders who don’t have to pay should not be complaining. If you don’t like the name, take the bus or walk!
Good idea? Who will pay to change all the signage? Great idea.
I think it’s wonderful that SCAT patrons’ lives are so good that they have emotional energy to expend on such trivial issues. If it bothers Ahmad so much, perhaps he should call an UBER. Oh, wait, UBER probably has some nefarious meaning in at least one of the world’s hundreds of languages and dialects. You know what? I actually feel sorry for this guy.