photo by: Lawrence Transit screenshot

This map shows Lawrence's bus routes for 2024. The routes were redesigned as part of an 18-month study intended to better serve Lawrence Transit's new Central Station near Bob Billings Parkway and Crestline Drive.

A dozen Lawrence bus routes have a different look to them as 2024 begins, and the city’s transit office will be seeking feedback throughout January that will guide even further changes later this year.

On Wednesday, Lawrence Transit announced in a news release that it’s seeking feedback on the bus routes it developed through an 18-month route redesign study, which were fully implemented Jan. 2. Transit staff is set to be stationed at the downtown bus hub across from the Lawrence Public Library and at the newly opened Central Station near Bob Billings Parkway and Crestline Drive throughout January to listen to riders’ questions and concerns.

A survey is also available on the city’s website, and the comments will guide August 2024 route changes. According to the release, the changes will help Lawrence Transit return to making route changes on an annual basis.

“We know that route changes always bring a little uncertainty to riders, and especially this year with major route changes,” Transit and Parking Manager Adam Weigel said in the release. “We want to hear about any issues related to timing, transfers or other unanticipated issues that may arise with route changes. This feedback will be critical to making adjustments in August to make the service better.”

The 12 redesigned routes introduced at the start of 2024 — routes 1 through 10, route 43 and route 44 — largely affect either trips arriving or departing from the hub downtown or from Central Station. Changes to routes 1 and 7, according to a Lawrence Transit document explaining highlights of the redesign, connect East Lawrence residents directly to grocery stores on both routes. Other highlights from that document are as follows:

• Changes to routes 1, 2, 3 and 5 connect people to job centers at East Hills Business Park and north-central Lawrence through both the downtown and Central Station transfer hubs.

• Changes to route 6 connect North Lawrence residents to major grocery stores located along Sixth Street.

• Changes to routes 7 and 9 preserve a connection from the Holcom Park neighborhood to Billy Mills Middle School and Lawrence High School.

• Route 8 now connects Peaslee Tech, Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence High School and KU to the new transfer facility. It also now has year-round service, serves student housing located along Perimeter Road on Haskell’s campus and interlines with route 10 for cross-town service to Rock Chalk Park. “Interlining” refers to when the same buses operate back and forth between two routes, eliminating the need for riders to get off of a bus to transfer from one route to the other.

Along with that group, a first set of route changes was implemented back in August 2022, affecting eight routes that either run to the University of Kansas or, in two instances, to the newly opened Central Station. Wednesday’s release notes that the routes needed to change in the first place to better serve Central Station; it’s now served by seven local routes and two regional routes, and five routes continue to serve downtown Lawrence.

Also new in 2024 is Sunday on-demand transit service, which functions similarly to rideshare services like Uber but uses transit vehicles and drivers. The free “Lawrence Transit on Demand” app launched in September 2023, and its hours expanded to Sundays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the start of the new year.

To afford Sunday service, trips on weekdays and Saturdays that were found to have lower ridership were removed. On its website, Lawrence Transit refers to “peak and off-peak frequencies,” or the specific times of day when ridership is at its highest, as how it determined what to cut. For example, fixed-route trips scheduled in the middle of the day will now be less frequent, and trips during the morning and afternoon commute will be scheduled at least once per half hour across all routes.

It’s already been a busy past week or so for the city’s transit office. On top of implementing the new routes, Lawrence Transit also opened its new Central Station at the beginning of the new year. The office also earlier this week earned a stamp of approval from the Lawrence City Commission for the composition and scope of work of a steering committee that will be guiding the site selection process for a downtown bus hub this year.