A Lawrence Transit System bus stops just south of Seventh and Vermont streets, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.

Lawrence transit users will have the opportunity on five occasions this month to provide input on Lawrence Transit System’s proposed changes to six of its routes.

The changes, which would start in August, affect the routes particularly in the southeast and northwest areas of Lawrence. All of the system’s current destinations — such as East Hills Business Park, Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Rock Chalk Park — would keep their service, but they’d be part of different routes and have buses stop at different times, said transit administrator Robert Nugent.

Nugent said the changes proposed were based on ridership.

“People move around a lot,” Nugent said. “If you don’t watch and see what’s going on and watch their ridership level on routes and see how your routes are performing on time, if you don’t monitor that all the time, I think you’re lacking on your duties. And so we watch it all the time.”

Under the proposed changes:

• Route 1, which currently moves between downtown and Prairie Park, would stop its service to Prairie Park and instead go to East Hills Business Park.

• Route 5, serving East Hills Business Park and the Lawrence Community Shelter, would no longer go to East Hills Business Park.

• Route 15, created to serve Peaslee Technical Training Center, would start going to Prairie Park, too.

• Route 3, a flex route that picks people up downtown and takes them anywhere in the north-central area of the city, would become a fixed route in that same area. It would serve Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

• Route 6, which goes from downtown to the Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive intersection, would extend to Rock Chalk Park. It would stop serving Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

• Route 9, between the Wal-Mart on Sixth Street and the Wal-Mart on south Iowa Street, would no longer serve Rock Chalk Park.

Nugent said the changes would make the routes “less confusing.”

“We’ve seen some issues with the routes that we need to correct,” he said.

After Lawrence Transit System receives input on the changes from riders and drivers, it will start planning the stop times for each location.

Four public meetings will be held at Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St., in meeting room C. They are scheduled from 5 to 6 p.m. Feb. 16; noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 17; and from noon to 1 p.m. as well as from 5 to 6 p.m. Feb. 18.

A fifth meeting is scheduled from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in the Governor’s Room at the Kansas University union, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd.

Central transfer hub

Lawrence Transit System is also working to advance its proposal for a new central transfer hub to be located on the KU campus.

The transit system has been searching for a location for its hub for more than two years.

In October, Lawrence and KU transit leaders introduced the idea of locating it in a parking lot in front of KU’s Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center.

Lot 90, the parking lot in front of Kansas University's Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center, is highlighted on this map of the southern portion of KU's campus along Naismith Drive.

Nugent said Monday that KU had agreed to work with the city to develop the hub at that site.

The proposal will next have to go before the City Commission, but Nugent said he hasn’t worked out what he will be asking the commission to take action on or when the issue will go before the body.

“The university has not gone past proposing and they said, yes, they are willing to do a joint development and go for a grant to do something at that location,” Nugent said. “So, the university said they’re in. We don’t know what the commission is going to do yet.”

Nugent said he was planning a meeting with university officials to plan the next steps on the project.

The proposed facility would include a parking deck with the first floor serving as a transit center. It would take up about 2 acres of the northeast section of the parking lot, Lot 90. In its master plan, KU has already identified the location as the future site of a parking deck.