Warning: our community transport van died 40 minutes before the Riverside craft fair, and it was actually the best week we've had | Design Community Transport

Rowan Shah · 2026-10-12T04:05:05.143851+00:00

We run a little volunteer shuttle for the Riverside design market every third Saturday, and two weeks ago our 2009 Ford E-350 just quit in the lot on Fairmount Ave with twelve people already buckled in. I thought the whole day was toast. Then a guy named Hector from the print co-op next door walked over, jumped the starter with his truck, and said "your terminals are green, clean them or this happens again." He was right, and I spent the next hour in the parking lot with a wire brush while three strangers who were supposed to be riding held my tools and handed me rags. By 11am we had two cars doing loops instead of one van, and honestly the wait times got shorter because nobody was waiting for a big vehicle to fill up. We moved 60 people that day with a sedan, a Prius, and a minivan, and every single rider said it felt faster. It made me think most design community transport plans are built around a bus when three cars would do the job better. Has anyone else tried running a small shuttle as cars instead of one big rig, or am I fooling myself?

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Warning: our community transport van died 40 minutes before the Riverside craft fair, and it was actually the best week we've had | Design Community Transport - The Community Guide