Successful Bus Routes; Good Candidates for Service Enhancements

A Transit Master Plan or TMP is a comprehensive, 20-year plan that will guide the future development of The Rapid transit system. The following is a section pulled from the approved TMP. Download the full Transit Master Plan from The Rapid's TMP website.

Recent Service Successes

Several routes have experienced dramatic performance improvements over the past several years.
These routes’ successes indicate that they may be good candidates for additional service enhancements. The routes’ performances are detailed below.

Route 2 – Kalamazoo

[IMAGE '368' /]Route 2 – Kalamazoo has experienced increased ridership and improved performance over the past few years. Most notably, these gains have been experienced on weekday evenings and on weekends. Since 2001 evening ridership has risen from 179 (average weekday evening) to 276 in 2009, with a low of 160 in 2004 and a high of 305 in 2008. The passengers per hour metric during this timeframe reflects significant improved productivity. From 2001 to 2009, passengers per hour has increased by 208%.

Saturday performance has also increased significantly, with passengers per hour increasing by 67% from 2001 to 2009 (16.65 to 27.73 passengers per hour).

Route 4 – Eastern
[IMAGE '369' /]Route 4 – Eastern has also experienced increased ridership and improved performance over the past few years. Most notably, these gains have been experienced on weekday evenings and on weekends. Since 2002 evening ridership has risen from 52 (average weekday evening) to 242 in 2009. The passengers per hour metric during this timeframe reflects significant improved productivity. From 2002 to 2009, passengers per hour has increased by 190%.

Saturday performance has also increased significantly, with passengers per hour increasing by 147% from 2001 to 2009 (9.77 to 24.17 passengers per hour).

Sunday ridership and performance has also grown significantly. Sunday service began in 2005 carrying 116 passengers on a typical Sunday. Sunday ridership has now grown to 448 on a typical Sunday (2009), resulting in a growth in passengers per hour of 79% in 4 years (from 13.85 to 24.80).

Route 8 – Grandville / Rivertown Crossings

[IMAGE '371' /]Route 8 – Grandville / Rivertown Crossings has also experienced increased ridership and improved performance over the past few years. Most notably, these gains have been experienced on weekday evenings and on weekends. Since 2001 evening ridership has risen from 82 (average weekday evening) to 132 in 2009. The passengers per hour metric during this timeframe reflects significant improved productivity. From 2001 to 2009, passengers per hour has increased by 205%.

Saturday performance has also increased significantly, with passengers per hour increasing by 122% from 2001 to 2009 (9.85 to 21.87 passengers per hour).

Route 9 – Alpine

[IMAGE '423' /]Route 9 – Alpine has experienced significant ridership and performance growth across all days and time periods over the past several years. Since 2001, weekday average daily ridership has grown by 64%, Saturday by 55% and Sundays by 57%. Additionally, average weekday evening  service ridership has grown by 137% (from 114 to 270),  resulting in an increase in passenger per hour of 75%  (from 24.31 to 42.62).
 

Route 11 – Plainfield

[IMAGE '424' /]Route 11 – Plainfield has experienced significant ridership  and performance growth across all days and time periods  over the past several years. Since 2001, weekday average  daily ridership has grown by 45%, Saturday by 31% and  Sundays by 61% Additionally, average weekday evening  service ridership has grown by 111% (from 79 to 167),  resulting in an increase in passenger per hour of 196%  (from 13.08 to 38.77).


See the Full Master Transit Plan