photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Lawrence Transit's Central Station, 2315 Bob Billings Parkway, is pictured Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.

Though there aren’t many people milling about inside the city’s brand-new bus station on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, there’s still plenty going on behind the scenes.

That’s because the bus station — Central Station near Bob Billings Parkway and Crestline Drive — is just one of a bevy of significant changes for the City of Lawrence’s transit office since the beginning of 2024.

The launch of on-demand Sunday transit service similar to that of rideshare apps like Uber but using transit vehicles and drivers is one of them. Then there are the new bus routes redesigned for this year with the new centralized bus hub in mind. And work continues to complete the vision at Central Station, as Lawrence Transit looks to add amenities like a bicycle repair station and potentially even a vendor space to collaborate with local businesses in the station’s waiting area.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

A bicycle storage area at Central Station, pictured on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, is perhaps the most interesting space in the building thanks to the art installed in its windows.

This past week, the Journal-World spoke with Director of Transit Adam Weigel about how all of those changes — especially the new Sunday service — are being received about six months in, and the further changes that may be in store for Lawrence Transit in the coming years.

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Much of the data about the on-demand ride service — which operates six days of the week from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. after fixed-route service ends for the day, and also on each Sunday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. — is housed internally. Weigel showed the Journal-World a dashboard that outlined statistics like how many bookings riders made through the “Lawrence Transit on Demand” app and the percentage of rides that have been canceled during a certain window.

From the start of the year to June 3, for example, a little less than 48% of on-demand rides have been canceled. Weigel said that could have something to do with how the platform overlaps with another on-demand option available specifically to the University of Kansas population.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The main waiting area inside Central Station features a curving bench modeled after the type of seating commonly placed at airport terminals, complete with charging ports.

Lawrence Transit is a shared service for both the city and the university, but KU has its own SafeRide program that offers students a ride home from anywhere within city limits. Weigel said SafeRide uses the same platform as Lawrence Transit on Demand, so the data ends up combined on the back end.

There isn’t necessarily a way to determine which app a rider has booked through, but Weigel said it’s at least possible to determine that one in four on-demand rides are KU students.

Plus, there are other figures that have Lawrence Transit feeling better than that one about how people are using the expanded on-demand service.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Another art installation hangs above the main wait area inside Central Station on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

For one, Sunday service boardings seem to be in a healthy position. Another spreadsheet Weigel shared with the Journal-World shows that between Jan. 7 and May 26, there were only five Sundays with fewer than 100 completed on-demand boardings. Boardings across one Sunday of service have so far peaked at 144 on March 31. Since the end of May, there hasn’t been a day with fewer than 98 boardings since early February.

And across all on-demand bookings, not just those on Sundays, Weigel said he was especially pleased that there’s been an average of 9.82 per service hour since January.

Along with the hard numbers, Weigel said Lawrence Transit can also utilize heat map data showing the areas of the city where people are boarding transit vehicles most often. He said Lawrence Transit plans to hire a staff member soon who will be dedicated solely to analyzing the kind of data he showed the Journal-World and helping the office to better understand what it means.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

New digital terminals at Central Station show live updates of bus arrival and departure times on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

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The transit office has previously noted that affording Sunday service meant reducing the frequency of trips along routes with lower ridership, specifically those operating on Saturdays and during the midday hours of weekdays.

That’s a notion that Weigel brought up again to the Journal-World. He said changes to bus routes often get at one question in particular: “How do we increase access while maximizing ridership?”

It can be hard to accomplish both at once, he said, and perhaps even impossible. Cutting Saturday and midday routes to run once per hour rather than once per half hour was a direct decrease to ridership, Weigel said, and it’s likely the office would see much higher ridership numbers if it reverted back to its old midday hours.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Thanks to a collaboration with the Lawrence Public Library Friends & Foundation, new books are brought to the station weekly for riders to either borrow or purchase.

Yet at the same time, that change allowed for a full day’s worth of additional access that didn’t already exist. Weigel said there’s been plenty of feedback from riders who have been frustrated with the midday hour changes, but the office can’t tap into new funding and as a result must shift its existing funding around strategically when adding something new.

But things don’t stay exactly the same for Lawrence’s bus routes for long. Lawrence Transit has historically tried to work with riders to introduce changes to bus routes each August, and the office is gearing up to do just that in a few months. Weigel added that outreach for the next round of changes for August 2025 is also already top of mind.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Central Station also has a break room accessible both to staff and transit drivers, providing an area to rest even for drivers who work the longer Kansas Highway 10 Connector route.

Having a chance to hear feedback and respond to changes every year is beneficial, especially when some of that feedback can become rather niche. Weigel described one problem he’s been hearing about from some riders: they live near the Walmart location on 550 Congressional Drive in western Lawrence but want to be able to board a bus that will take them instead to the bigger Walmart location on Iowa Street at the southern edge of town.

Weigel said the office will also need to begin thinking about the local sales tax that helps to fund transit services. First approved in 2007 and renewed a decade later, both times with heavy community support, Weigel said the tax will run through 2029 but is up for another vote again even sooner in 2027.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

A conference room space at Central Station is used both for staff meetings and public outreach events, such as a recent open house to share information about the city’s revised Land Development Code.