Lawrence City Commissioner Mike Dever has a theory about why some people don’t ride the city’s bus system.
“Some people liken trying to figure out the various transit routes to programming the space shuttle,” Dever said. “I’ve always thought if you can make it easier, you’ll get more people to use it.”
Dever and Kansas University transit leaders are hoping a new map and a new route will do the trick.
Later this week, city and university officials will begin distributing a new “guide to ride” publication that will for the first time list the routes and schedules of both city and KU buses on a single map.
The new publication highlights an agreement made last year that allows people with a city bus pass to ride the university bus system for free, and allows students and faculty with a KU ID card to ride city buses for free. The two systems also honor each other’s transfer passes.
The new map, it is hoped, will make it easier for riders to see how they can transfer between buses to get to more areas of the city and the university.
“If somebody wanted to get from one side of town to another, they sometimes had to go to two different sources of information,” said Robert Nugent, the city’s public transit administrator. “Now they won’t have to.”
On Monday, the city and university also will launch a new jointly operated route that they believe will speed up trip times for some riders. The city will discontinue its Route 8 and it will be replaced with the new jointly operated Route 11.
The route will run from South Iowa Street to the KU campus and to downtown. The new route will run every 30-minutes, while Route 8 ran every 80 minutes.
“If you were using the old Route 8, you would have to plan ahead basically an hour,” Nugent said. “Now, you can use it almost at the spur of the moment.”
Dever believes the changes to the transit systems will open up more opportunities for the city and KU to create a coordinated transit system.
The city and the university recently agreed to explore the possibility of operating a joint maintenance facility for buses. Dever said he also believes KU and the city will discuss creating other jointly operated routes. He said joint routes along Sixth Street and other major corridors in the city likely should be studied in an effort to improve the speed of the systems.
“I really do believe we’re not trying to repackage the same old product,” Dever said. “We’re trying to create something new here.”
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mizzou_jayhawk (anonymous) says…
So what happens to the new route 11 when KU is not in session and those buses are not running and what about on Saturdays?
headdoctor (anonymous) says…
Dever and some of the other Commissioners couldn't find their own butt with both hands in a blizzard. There are several reasons people do not ride the bus. One of which the system doesn't really service a lot of the town area and another is a lot of people do not want to waste and extra hour taking a scenic tour of downtown, to lose even more time waiting to change buses just to back track the direction they wanted to go in the first place.
terrapin2 (anonymous) says…
Mr. Dever lost any credibility in this discussion by comparing figuring out a bus route map in little old Lawrence, KS to programming the Space Shuttle. Have you ever been to a big city Mr. Dever and figured out how to ride a subway or a metro bus? They are FAR more complicated than the Lawrence transit system, and yet thousands of people use them all the time.
JackRipper (anonymous) says…
I'll actually have to agree with Dever on this one. The system needs tweaking and anything that makes the bus more of an option is exactly what we need.
tir (anonymous) says…
mizzou_jayhawk, there is a different schedule in the new guide for the no. 11 route covering the times that KU is not in session and Saturdays. Like everything else, it will take some getting used to.
Personally, I still think the bus route guide is somewhat confusing, especially regarding transfers.
jrlii (anonymous) says…
The reason people don't use the buses is that it just takes forever to get anywhere and back, mostly due to the extreme infrequency of the buses.
Once every 80 minutes? That might be tolerable for a daily commute, but makes the bus completely impractical for running errands, at least if you can drive. I suppose it still beats "shank's mare," but. . .