Peaks Island taxi

I’m away for Labor Day weekend, enjoying Peaks Island, which is a stone’s throw off Portland in Maine’s Casco Bay. Really enjoying island life in New England. The spirit of island living is very cooperative. We’re all in this together, you might say. Case in point: The Island Transportation System (ITS) is not just a taxi service that provides affordable transportation for all visitors and residents, it also provides charitable services to elderly, handicapped, infirm, and low-income residents.

We deliver over 300 packages a year, and provide take out service and delivery from island restaurants. We log 40 miles a day on our rounds. And we continue to meet our original goals of providing reliable transportation to islanders and visitors and reducing automobile use on the island – resulting in less air pollution, less congestion and fewer parking problems down front.

But we are never too busy to return a wandering dog to its home or answer a frantic call from an islander on the mainland saying, “I think I left the soup on. Would you check?”

Today, I made a donation to the Peaks Island taxi, which is actually set up as a nonprofit. We deserve more cooperatives like it, though we also need to participate in and otherwise support them, not just be served by them.