Two bus routes that shuttle an average of 3.5 riders per hour combined have been described as "critical links" in Lincoln's transportation network by supporters. With all due respect to the few folks who use the 56 and 57 buses, unless they're transporting organs for transplantation, there's nothing at all "critical" about bus routes with a performance record that poor.
Sorry, folks, but those routes have got to go. That doesn't necessarily mean they should disappear altogether, however. Maybe they can be reinvented by modifying their path through the city. Maybe not. Either way, Lincoln is probably better off subsidizing taxi service for those 3.5 riders per hour than putting two wasteful buses on the road.
Deena Winter snuck in a bit of StarTran trivia in her column today. She says that StarTran's average ridership is "14 per service hour". Wait a second ... is that an average of 14 people per service hour across all buses throughout town? That's what her column implies. I suspect she instead means that average ridership is 14 per bus per service hour. Anyway, that would be much more representative of my experience from when I used to ride the bus each day. It's still not a great number -- especially when you consider StarTran's historical reluctance to purchase smaller, more efficient buses -- but it's much easier to swallow.
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If it was a combined 14 per hour for all routes, I’d shut the whole thing down, or just replace all the buses with vans.
On the 2 “critical” routes, why not just use a Dodge Caravan or something instead of a huge bus?
Routes like that would be far more useful if they were using smaller buses with bike racks and had a lower price. I’m a student so I can ride any bus for free (well fees pay for it but you catch my drift) but I would not pay $1.75 just to ride a bus for a couple of miles. The city could have an effective bus system if it would be willing to adjust its thinking a bit. It will never serve everyone’s needs but I think it could have much more success with routes that were more efficient and priced to the distance they took riders.
Ive asked more than once about bus/bike plans in Lincoln, and believe it or not what I got back was that since the bus barn was a certain size, the addition of bike racks to the buses (ala portland, etc) would alter the available parking space for the whole garage.
Here is a thought for those wanting to ride the bus downtown then ride your bike. We noticed that the parking garage on 12th (by the centrium has a secured storage area for bikes. For $5 a month you can lock your bike up in a secured area. My husband is entertaining this idea. He rides the bus every day, but then walks from Golds to the UNL (near the new Antelope Bridge). Since they changed the busing downtown, there really is no way to easily ride a bus closer to his work, so it’s a long walk… but it could go much faster on bike.
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