Incremental changes to bus routes

The City of Cedar Rapids will be instituting some tweaks to its city bus routes later this month. The array will still be largely as it was after major changes were implemented two summers ago. Bigger changes may be in the offing.

Buses gather at the GTC before 5:15 departures

The bus system features eleven lines that run out of the downtown Ground Transportation Center, plus two circulator routes based that serve the northern suburbs out of Lindale Mall. Service begins at 5:15 a.m. Monday through Friday and 8:15 a.m. Saturday. (There is no service Sunday.) The last weekday buses leave the GTC at 6:15 p.m. and return at 7:05. Routes run hourly, with these additions:

• some routes run additional buses in the mornings (5:45-6:45-7:45) and the afternoons (12:45-1:45-2:45-3:45). Interestingly they don't do so during the typical evening work commute.
• the #5 runs along 1st Avenue between downtown and Lindale Mall every 15 minutes

Annual ridership in Cedar Rapids increased to 1.1 million early in the decade ("Cedar Rapids and Iowa City" 2011), and since have varied around that number, with ridership approaching 1.4 million in 2015 and (following the '17 route changes) 1.27 million in 2018 (Schmidt 2019). 

Hourly ridership has consistently stayed at 20 per vehicle-hour all decade as well. Cedar Rapids has avoided ridership drops in Iowa City and other towns (Schmidt 2019, "There's a Reason" 2019), but ridership proportional to population is still much smaller here. I think our ridership is less elastic i.e. those who ride have no alternative way to get around, but those who can drive (or walk, or bike) do. Hence the consistency. This makes sense for a system that has always valued coverage over ridership; as Ben Kaplan says, "It's designed to get a small number of people anywhere they need to go slowly, rather than a large number of people a few places quickly (Kaplan 2015; see also Walker 2018). (For a more intensive discussion of transit system goals, see Walker 2015).

The meeting place for the #5, #20 and #30 is moving

What's changing? Here is what catches my eye, admitting an eastside bias to that eye:

1. The Lindale Mall base of the #20 and #30 will be moved across Collins Road to the corner of Twixt Town Road and Southview Drive, near the Pet Smart. Originally (July 2017) located directly by the mall, it was moved to the edge of the parking lot. I think this will be a better location, because it will mean less deviation from the road, so it will be more convenient for people not going to the mall. This is particularly true for people transferring from the #20 to the #30 or vice versa. Only the inbound #5 will go to the mall; it will once again go all the way to the door.
2. The eastside routes will line up along the numerical avenues: #5 on 1st, #6 on 2nd (below 10th), #3 on 3rd, #4 on 4th, and #2 on 5th (above 10th; below 10th it runs on 12th Avenue).
3. The #2 will enter Oakhill-Jackson in a straighter fashion, on 10th Street and then 9th Street, rather than veering up to 15th Street. My friend Charles lives down there; I hope this doesn't make it harder for him!
4. Currently the #3 runs extra buses in the morning only, and the #11 only in the afternoon. Due to low ridership on the #3, there'll be extra buses on the #11 both times.
5. The current tangle of routes by Westdale will be somewhat eased by making the #1 and the #12 more direct. The #12 will no longer serve the Summit Village and Grand View Village mobile home parks, but they will still be served by the #10. All three lines will continue to serve Westdale, Wal-Mart and Target.

Current configuration of Routes 1, 10 and 12

Are bigger changes coming? Iowa City's transportation director stated a goal of doubling ridership in the next ten years, but Cedar Rapids has not. Even so, night service on some lines might begin in 2020, says transit director Brad DeBrower (Schmidt 2019). Other items on my wish list, like mobile ticketing and summer rides for kids, not to mention a downtown circulator, will have to wait.

SOURCES
"Bus Route and Schedule Changes"
Mitchell Schmidt, "Why Are Fewer People Riding Buses? Local Transit Officials Are Seeking Solutions," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 21 June 2019

EARLIER POSTS
"What's Next for Cedar Rapids Transit," 20 November 2018
"Cedar Rapids Rolls Out Bus Line Changes," 4 August 2017