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Shorter public transit buses may be in store for the city.
In addition to recommending the city make better use of alternative fuels, a study group on public transit also is recommending the city purchase at least five smaller buses to use on city routes.
The buses likely would be about the size of the 12-passenger van-like buses that the city uses for its paratransit system.
The city currently uses 30-foot buses for its fixed-route operations. The city has been criticized for using such large buses on some routes that often don’t have enough riders to fill the bus.
Casey Toomay, the city’s interim director of public transit, said a city-hired consultant has determined that the city could use smaller buses on several routes. A decision on which routes would use the smaller buses likely would be made in the next year.
The city does plan to purchase at least four to six full-size buses to run on heavily used routes.
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Danimal (anonymous) says…
So does the city have a plan yet for altering routes to improve efficiency and decrease transit times while increasing regularity? Or is Lawrence going to continue to run the T in the backwards way it always has? Giving this outfit more money was a huge mistake.
gccs14r (anonymous) says…
Killing the system for a year or two and trying to resurrect it would have been worse.
Yeoman2 (anonymous) says…
And how many people did it require to decide that there needs to be smaller vehicles???? How many participants to this blogosphere made many salient comments about the size of the Empty Bus Company vehicles and that smaller vehicles or even vans would suffice the traffic that was realized???? Why is it that the city manager and commsiioners are so just plain dumb and stupid when it comes to the subject of the Empty Bus Company????
Our community has been under attack by these carpetbaggers with their grand transit plan who have sold the city a bill of goods with payments to be sent to Iowa.
But that is the way it is in Lawrence, the city manager and his captive commissioners never have ever exhibited much in the way of plain common sense on many of these issues, just hire a consultant and shell out our hard earned tax monwy.
xbusguy (chris Ogle) says…
Lawrence is so special..... enough said.
cowboy (anonymous) says…
you are really pulling my leg aren't you ? The city hired a consultant to tell them they could use smaller buses ? Maybe they should hire a consultant to tell them if you stick your finger in a light socket you get shocked , maybe don't stand in a lightning storm with your golf club in the air.
Please LJW turn off the censoring for just a few minutes so I can speak my mind openly in a free flow of profanity.
If I were the newly hired transit director I would be going ballistic over these proposals being presented before I have taken over the job.
average (anonymous) says…
Still no proposal to have all the buses meet at one place at one time, is there? I don't give a rip about downtown most of the time. Not my destination. Yet, for many, many logical rides, the system is designed that you have to wait 20 minutes downtown, each way, between cycles of the bus.
Build an island for them to pull around, either near downtown, or more likely on campus if the systems are merged, and have them all meet at one spot at one time.
I'll contribute my $5000 consultant's fee as goodwill toward the city.
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
Well, the devil is in the details. Any idiot could tell you that some routes might be fine with smaller buses. But determining the exact routes, especially after a merger with the university system, would be appropriate for those smaller buses requires more time, experience and effort than typing an ungrammatical two-sentence blurb on this forum.
oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…
i read in your wonderful LJW that the new director is an expert, he will cost your city more money, and there still won't be enough sales tax, I just shopped today at Price Shopper, my tax dollars went bye bye to the county to the east,
Irish (Leslie Swearingen) says…
So none of you saw my picture of the ghosts on the bus?
I guess I could take a picture on the bus of all the people sitting there and the posters would still claim that no one rides the T.
The small buses would not work on the routes that at times have standing room only.
Having all the buses at one place at one time makes no sense what so ever.
And, you don't always have to transfer downtown. It depends on where you are coming from and going to.
cowboy (anonymous) says…
This is not rocket science. It is simply production management. Its a simple concept of flow , efficiency, cost control , and reduction of cycle time. Each of those elements can be attacked in this most inefficient operation.
To make it any more complex than a flow diagram is operating in denial of the fact it is a black hole for tax dollars. I am shocked that the city continues to allow poorly engineered proposals to reach the commission for " approval". Maybe they should fire the auditor and hire a recent Industrial Engineering grad from K-State who is capable of generating an ROI analysis.
b8es (anonymous) says…
"The city has been criticized for using such large buses on some routes that often don’t have enough riders to fill the bus"
No kidding. Almost without exception, the Emp-t's I see are occupied only by the driver.
Hoots (anonymous) says…
I got around Washington D.C. quicker last week on the buses there than I can around little Lawrence. That's the truth and that's so sad. They even run the converted diesel buses on natural gas which is so nice and way less stinky.
Funny thing is a few of the routes in this town could be serviced by a small fleet of Toyta Prius's and they actually paid someone to tell them this. Only idiots run government. How was that not obvious in the first place. They couldn't look at the number of riders and tell that? We just love to spend money of things that are so stuoid. I want to be a city consultant. Seems like an easy job most of the time by usually stating the obvious.
jafs (anonymous) says…
I would say that a "grid" system would be more efficient and effective at making the system accessible and usable to more people.
My wife and I have lived in numerous places in town where we would have had to take a bus downtown (away from our destination), wait 20 minutes for a transfer, and then go to our destination (via an indirect route).
Needless to say, this doesn't work when the direct drive time is 10-15 minutes.
I've made this suggestion numerous times to those at City Hall involved in the transit system. So far, nobody seems interested in the idea.
I'm very disappointed - public transportation only works as an environmentally sounder alternative when it is much more heavily used and the routes are more efficient. Buses get about 6mpg.
RKLOG (Mark Andrew) says…
My heartfelt prayers and thoughts.