Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Bus Route Changes

I understand last night our city council approved the proposed bus route changes; originally scheduled to be in place by August 1 it sounds like the new target is August 25. I haven't seen anything officially documented yet. The changes are being brought about by a new bus transfer station built near shopping central.

As a bus rider it feels interesting to have to plan my job arrival and departure around new decisions made by committees and advisory boards. I chose not to be involved in this process mainly because it began long before I started the MinusCar Project, but also because I have other priorities and methods of transport. Unfortunately many of my fellow passengers were equally uninvolved and are much more dependant on bus transport than I am.

Today I spent some time reviewing the proposed changes. Assuming I’m reading the most recent iteration the best thing will be my route moves from 2 miles away to less than a half mile away from my home. This greatly increases the likelihood that the MinusCar Project will successfully continue through winter.

The worst change comes with after work downtown departure times: 4:15 and 5:45 are the choices. Leaving work an hour early or and hour late to meet the bus seems a little off to me, however rider statistics (which I’ve posted here) might explain the lack of need for something more regular. I guess if a person misses the 4:15 they might as well catch a 4:45 and go shopping by the new transfer station instead of waiting downtown for 90 minutes. It’s also true that a bus arrives near my work around 4:45 which will be quite reasonable for me to take home; it just won’t allow me to go downtown.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I assume when you state ,
"shopping central"
you mean the mall area.
Any plans on that on the city website?
Keep on fighting the good fight.

mytzpyk said...

The city website it my only source for information about the changes. There's been very little posted on the bus and the drivers don't really know details either. I think if I ventured into the actual bus station I might find more information.