Let’s face it: Wichita is not a mass transit town. But as our Saturday editorial argued, that shouldn’t stop the city from looking into the idea of a Bus Rapid Transit line, a fleet of high-end, low-riding, fast-route buses that have dramatically increased bus ridership in many cities, including Kansas City, according to an Eagle article.
The BRT systems, a cheaper alternative to light rail, could provide a quick and convenient ride from outlying areas to downtown along high-traffic corridors.
Wichita plans to study the idea in a required upcoming five-year transportation plan review.
But will Wichitans ride the bus? There are reasons to be skeptical. But with rising fuel prices and air pollution concerns, there could be a growing niche for mass transit. These ideas are worth a look.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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25 Comments
Well, as an irregular rider (usually once or twice a week during the summer, less often at other times of the year), I’m interested in the concept. It would be especially helpful if the hours of operation of a BRT line would be a bit longer than the regular service.
Agreed -Longer operating hours could go a long way in increasing ridership. As well as shorter intervals on the busier routes.
Having buses stop at all the major shopping, business and tourist centers with frequent pickups and drop offs, would definitely be a boon to Wichita.
Wichita should send delegates to Germany in one of its major cities to see how their bus systems works. I recommend Frankfurt or Wiesbaden.
“But with rising fuel prices…”
Did randy mean falling fuel prices?
No, he meant rising prices. Just because gas goes down a little over the short term has no impact on the fact that over the long term, gas is way more expensive than it was 5 years ago.
Wichita could be a better transit town if it had a better transit product.
Gas was below $2.20 per gallon last February. We’ll be OK.
There are those who would be classified “working poor,” who have to choose between turning down overtime so they can make the bus home or working the much-needed overtime and then dealing with a long walk. Longer hours are a must!
I agree VT. I would not recommend the capital outlay for special buses at this time; instead find a way to re-deploy our existing fleet in a manner that might work.
This would definitaly have to include later hours during the week to serve commuters. Also perhaps “bar hours” on weekends to serve Old Town.
Park/Ride locations might be established at Dillons or similar locations out in the ‘burbs to link to downtown. That might make at least some dent in traffic.
I would be interested to learn how much it costs to provide a bus ride for which the city charges $1.25.
I would not be surprised to see a cost of a few times that fare, although I would be happy to learn this is not the case.
Does anyone know?
I wonder if Randy or any other Wichita Eagle employees ride the bus to work?
Especially since their office is downtown, where the buses go.
I would not be surprised to learn that Randy has never taken the bus to work, unless he did it a time or two as research.
Okay, I looked it up and did a few calculations.
The 2006 approved budget for transit calls for spending $5,738,010.
Revenues are $5,050,480, of which $3,475,080 is an operating subsidy from the city’s general fund. The transit service earns $1,480,000 in “charges for services” (that would be fares, I believe) and $46,000 in rentals and advertising.
So spending $5,738,010 to provide services for which the city can charge $1,526,000 is a ratio of $3.76 spent for every dollar collected in fares, advertising, and rentals.
So that fare of $1.25 is really a pretty good deal for those who use the service. Not so for the other people in Wichita who pay taxes to subsidize this service.
anon – very true. Reminds me of PACE, which was the weak link in RTA regional transit for Chicago area. PACE was the suburban bus system which had very poor ridership. The reason? They had not updated theur route structure for decades and did not serve the needs of real commuters. This was in marked contrast to CTA and Metra parts of RTA.
That is the reason for my suggestions above. Come up with routes that will actually get ridership. Even if it doesn’t make money and still has to be subsidized if it removes cars from the road it can be beneficial to the rest of us.
There is a fixed cost incurred by running the buses at all, and a variable cost for each mile driven. They need to do anything they can to increase ridership on their current routes. Have they done any research with current riders or those that might ride the bus? I would like to see them talking to people, focus groups, surveys, etc before spending money on new buses.
Bus service sucked here in the ’90s when I was forced to take a bus because of car repairs. If it hadn’t been such an bad experience, to be truthful, I would have become a full time bus rider. You can’t drive you car out of the garage for what little you pay to ride the bus.
Does anybody have a bus schedule on them right now, one that shows the route and time of runs?If you do not have one, it might explain why we have a low mass transit system.In other words, I know that the buses go thru my neighborhood but of what times of the day and where it goes, it is not advertise very well, if nobody knows about the availability of it, nobody will use it.
I wonder how a private transit service would fare (pun intended), one that actually cares about providing a service people will pay to use.
What possible motivation can the present transit service have to serve its customers? So that next year they have to ask for only $3 million instead of $3.5 million in subsidy? The city would probably give them whatever subsidy it turns out they need.
The city should run buses from low income neighborhoods to the major employers, Boeing, Spirit, Cessna, Learjet, and down West Street.
There is very little reason to run buses through upper class neighborhoods.
Tony has a good point — buses need to run where the big employers are.
And big employers need to pony up and help subsidize individual riders. This is the case in other successful mass transit towns. Subsidizing employee riders helps keeps traffic moving around their sites, decreases demand for parking, and helps attract and retain workers — for a cheap few bucks a month.
On the other hand, without a mass concentration of employers anywhere in town (downtown only has a few thousand workers), relatively short commute times, and the lack of express routes, it’ll be extremely difficult to get white collars out of their cars.
My great grandmother rode the bus in Wichita in the 40s and 50s. She would refuse a ride in my dad’s or grandfather’s car, saying it was a waste of money and time (time to find parking.)
Of course, she could squeeze three nickels out of a dime too. :)
A bus drives by my house but if I want to get on I have to walk five blocks to the bus stop. After which I must go to the transfer station, hop on two other buses to get to the destination then repeat the process. Why bother?
I tried catching the bus a few weeks ago when they had a free fare day on a thursday. I had to ride my bicycle about 1 mile to 21st street to get on the “westside connector” but the bus was late so I just pedaled 6 more miles to work. Bicycling to work takes about 45mins on the sidewalks, about the same time is needed to ride the bus. I bought a bus pass recently because it would only cost .80 cents a ride instead of $1.25. I plan on riding the bus sometimes to work at 3pm, but I have to bring a bicycle with me to get home. I understand that extending bus service hours will cost alot, but maybe it will bring in more revenue to cover the cost. If anything they need to extend bus service on Friday and Saturday nights until 2am.
I was living at the WSU dorm when they discontinued the bus route that went through Boeing. Was it Oliver-Hillside Loop?
Anyway, now living with my Finnish wife, I ride bus to work. Having a bus pass, it costs me 3€/day for regional fare (2€ for internal), which allows me to ride any mass transport in the Helsinki Metro Area. However, it would cost a person 3.60€ for single ticket, though 50% discounts are available for students. They have private companies to put bid for the each individual route. Most runs 6-midnight, though some lines run also until 2 am. Additionally, double fares are charged for late night services on weekend to cater to party-goers.
the bus service is not as good as it needs to be.
the schedules and times are poor. The stops are infrequent but the biggest complaint I hear is about the drivers.
Their lack of concern for stops, ect…
The only people that ride buses on a regular basis are the ones that have no choice. No matter how cheap it might be, I am not currently seeking a transportation solution that involves walking, waiting, changing buses and that results in an increase in the time spent commuting by 200% or more. How many people are looking for a cramped, dirty, slow and long ride to work?
I have used public transit in other cities where many workers, blue-collar and whire-collar do. The key is for it to be reliable and convenient. Even if it takes a bit longer I can read the paper etc on the way. The problem in Wichita is that transit is neither reliable nor convenient.