2030 Preparing for Growth and Significant Change

The Following was pulled from a section of the Summer-Fall 2010 Rapid Reporter. Rapid Reporters are located on the right side of The Rapid's News page

Continued from previous post, "How does the new transit master plan serve you?"

Two Streetcar Routes
Running on tracks built into the road, these sleek streetcars would operate on electricity via a wire above the tracks. The two streetcar routes would replace circulator service currently provided by DASH and the GVSU CHS Express, and would provide a core downtown
network for future extensions:

• Downtown Line (North Monroe to Rapid Central Station)
• West Side/Medical Mile Line (via Fulton St, Lyon/Fountain St, Michigan St)

Both routes would operate with 7- to 8-minute service during the weekday peak period and 15-minute service during weekday off-peak, weekday evening, weekend, and holiday periods.

Two Bus Rapid Transit Lines
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) offers the speed and efficiency of a light rail line at about one-tenth the cost. Buses use the right lane exclusively at peak service times, and traffic signals are tweaked to keep the buses moving as smoothly as possible. The two lines are:

[IMAGE '355' /]• Silver Line route (along Division Avenue from downtown Grand Rapids to 60th Street in Gaines Township)
• Laker Line route (along Lake Michigan Drive from Grand Rapids to Grand Valley State University in Allendale)

“The best feature about Metro Mobile 2030 is that each improvement is based on input that we received from people in the area,” said Jennifer Kalczuk, external relations manager for The Rapid. “Residents from all around the region participated in community forums or completed a survey on our website. We listened carefully as people from around the metro area told us what they liked, what could be improved, and what would better meet their travel needs. The transit system that will develop over the next 20 years was designed by the people of the region.”