Better Springfield Transit

Proposed Changes to Route 11

2009-02-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the Student Government Association meeting at UIS, and we discussed changing Route 11 through the UIS campus to serve more students. It is my hope that more students will take advantage of the new routing. If all goes well, the new routing will commence by April.

New Buses

2008-08-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

So traveling around Springfield I've noticed four new buses in the SMTD fleet, which is definitely wonderful news. We need new buses to replace those older buses from the 1980s. According to Linda Tisdale, managing director, the average life of a bus is 12 years. Some of these buses were double that. Just shows what good maintenance can do. Also, the buses were only running during the day for a max of 12 hours, versus the average transit system time of 18 hours. Night service is going to put new wear and tear on the buses, but when ridership on daytime routes is up 26 percent according to the last meeting, that's a good thing.

SATS

2008-02-11T03:40:00.000-08:00

I am looking into forming an organization in Springfield dedicated to improving bus, train, bicycle, and pedestrian transportation in Springfield. Called SATS, which is short for Springfield for Alternative Transportation Solutions, the organization would dedicate itself to making transportation alternatives to automobile viable for this community's 120,000 residents and the 35,000 who commute into it for work each weekday.

If you are interested in joining, please contact me by leaving a commentline. I hope to soon have an email address set up for this organization. I am going to speak with a couple of people who have better knowledge about the world wide web about some other interesting ideas.

Thanks everyone!

One step closer to college connection at night

2008-01-24T04:05:00.000-08:00

As a student at UIS, I often feel that my residence on campus here is not very close to many of the amenities in Springfield, including evening bus service. As the grant money was very limited for evening transit service, access to the colleges in southeast Springfield was put on the back-burner so that work places could be accessed by bus first and foremost, which for the most part I agree with.

So since transit is so limited out here, the university has decided to run a student shuttle from the university every hour to Capital City Shopping Center where students can "transfer" to the Southeast side night bus to access the rest of the city. While this isn't a perfect situation for many reasons, it is definitely progress. Two criticisms:

Non-university students, such as those who attend Lincoln Land Community College, and also residents who live in the apartments near the university, are not able to use the shuttle. This is due to the fact that the university is only able to be liable for students of its own institution.

However, I have a small solution. One that may not come easily, but one that guarantees a ride home for all students and residents of the area. UIUC in Urbana-Champaign lobbied to have a fee levied on students of $38 per semester to pay for better mass transit on the C-U MTD. This allowed for CUMTD to have night service going until 3:00 a.m. and also Sunday service.

My proposal: levy a fee on UIS, LLCC, and CACC students to pay for better bus service, while allowing all students in Springfield to use the service for free. Additionally, those living around the college complexes will be able to have access to transit, albeit for the normal fare. This will open the door to so many great changes in the community, namely the on-campus population at UIS will be able to attend without bringing a car, which is very important for namely one reason: Sangamon Auditorium. One criticism of patrons and students is that parking is very hard to find on auditorium show nights. Night service would allow more students to use transit to get to and from class if they live off-campus. For on-campus students, more students would be encouraged to leave the car at home and live using the bus.

While I own a car, I seldom use it unless a very busy day of meetings happens. I tend to use the bus as much as I can because, let's face it, although it does take some time to figure out, the gasoline savings are amazing. I have spent $26.00 on gasoline so far. For the average college student that has a very busy lifestyle, that is pretty good.

Now, huge changes aren't necessary to save gasoline. For example, using the bus even just one day per week will save 15% gasoline. If everyone rode the bus just one day a week, we would probably save upwards 15% of our gasoline in a year. Now granted, grocery shopping now almost entirely requires a car, and certain kinds of shopping trips require a vehicle of some sort. But if you live in one of Springfield's central neighborhoods and work downtown, small changes to your schedule can allow you to use the bus and save all of that parking money each month. If you do indeed need to drive your car to work, parking under the Old Capitol or in a municipal garage at the daily rate will still save you money.

It is through small change that we will be able to beat our environmental issues. Sweeping change is too swift for the American people to handle, while no change is not good either. Let's work together to make the world a better place.

I would like your ideas

2008-01-03T01:43:00.000-08:00

Hello readers of this here humble blog! I am looking for comments, suggestions, and ideas on the improvement of mass transit in Springfield. So many people do not use it because it is much more inconvenient when compared to driving, and anymore time equals money. People in Springfield want a transit system that can suit the needs of their lifestyles. While some sacrifice may be made by people who ride SMTD by choice, it generally turns out to be a good plan in the long run. Some comments that I hear about the service is that it doesn't reach all areas of the community, making travel by bus inconvenient, as if one wants to go beyond the boundaries of the city they must go home first and pick up the car. Nonetheless, I want to hear from you! So please either comment on this posting or send me an email at uisblackcat01 AT yahoo.com. Please leave your name and hometown (Springfield, Southern View, et cetera). I am trying to find out what people really want before I take any further action before the board and transit leadership.

Thank you so much!

In service,
Steven

New Year's Eve/First Night Springfield Transit Information

2007-12-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

Springfield Mass Transit District will be offering an additional hour of transit to those wishing to stay downtown for the First Night fireworks on Monday evening. Typically the last buses of the night leave at 11:45 p.m. from the transfer point at the Old State Capitol, dropping off the last passengers on that trip and going back to the garage. Rather than going back to the garage, the buses will drop off the last of the passengers and then go downtown to pick up any remaining passengers that evening. If no passengers are present at Washington Street between 5th and 6th streets at 12:45 a.m (when the buses will leave downtown) the operator will drive the bus back to the garage for the night. Transit will not be running on New Year's Day, as this is a holiday. Regular daytime schedules will be run on Wednesday, January 2, 2008.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2008 turns out to be as great as, if not better than, 2007!

No Service Tonight

2007-12-24T11:33:00.000-08:00

Because of the Christmas Eve holiday, night service will not be provided by Springfield Mass Transit District or Access Springfield. The last buses will leave their usual daytime departures at the downtown transfer area on Capitol Avenue at 5:45.

New Year's Eve Celebration Transit Extension

2007-12-19T06:56:00.001-08:00

Because of the First Night Springfield celebrations, SMTD will be providing night bus service one hour later than usual, leaving downtown at 12:45 a.m. New Year's Eve. This will allow people to use the bus to get to the event and still stay later for the fireworks.

So far night service seems to be a success, however that is difficult to determine with only a month's worth of ridership numbers.

Unfortunately it does not run out to the university or community college, however I have a solution to that issue. Currently SMTD pays for what is called the Historic Sites Route, which runs between all the historic sites of Springfield. My suggestion is to cut that route during the academic year, as it coincides with winter and use the money from that route to provide a night route to the university and college. That would help give more students more options when it comes to getting to class. I hope to bring this up to the board soon, however I know I will face some opposition, mostly because the Historic Sites Route was suggested by the R/UDAT team.

I hope to be discussing several ideas with Linda Tisdale, the director of SMTD, about expansion of services. All of my goals, which I hope are shared goals, probably won't be reached for at least 18 months. They include the following:

* A 31-day bus pass that allows for unlimited use of SMTD during that period.
* A new route system that includes four transfer points and allows for easy travel from one edge of town to another.
* Bike racks on all buses, allowing for the people of Springfield to ride around town and also hop on at a bus whenever they please.
* A system that includes "peak routes," "off-peak routes," and bare-bones service, promising and keeping night bus service.

These are just some of my goals. The important thing to always remember when dealing with Springfield, many people turn into opposition when change happens. It's not personal, it's just the way Springfield is. I hope to overcome that.

Survey Says!

2007-12-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

So tonight I rode the 7S route for FOUR HOURS collecting surveys from people, asking how they liked the additional evening service. Overall, I think the new service is being handled very, very well. Some people are really confused about it for some reason or another, whether that be a confusion over the westside route being in both directions. But other than that, most people know what they are doing.

I think this was a step in the right direction for Springfield. Now that people have reassurances that they won't be stranded at 5:45 p.m. when the last buses leave the transfer point downtown, I think more people will even use the daytime service. I know over winter break I will use it much, much more. Although I will be living 15 minutes by walking from the route over the break, that is not too bad of a walk. It may be cold, but if I leave at just the right time and get there then I will be able to take the bus to downtown and White Oaks Mall, etc.

More importantly I made a lot of great contacts from this process. The process allowed me to meet people who are also interested in making transit in Springfield better. Now--I just need to work on the daytime routes.

Night Service Begins on 3 December 2007

2007-11-25T18:41:00.000-08:00

For those of you in Springfield that depend on mass transit, soon evening bus service will begin. According to an email sent to me last week, SMTD plans on beginning the night bus service at 6:45 p.m. on Monday 3 December 2007. While the routes can be considered even more bare-bones than the mainline system, it is a good start for Springfield.

For routes and other information, follow this link:

http://www.smtd.org/displayPage.asp?pID=28

Hopefully the service will be well-received, as it will show whether or not Springfield truly wants night bus service. I believe it really needs it, so hopefully the way the routes were drawn it will work out.

The service is being paid for with federal grants. The renewal of these grants is up in the air at this time.

The current system

2007-11-24T12:18:00.000-08:00

At the current time in Springfield, we have a bus system that runs on what is called a "pulse," that is every bus in the system meeting at one central point, which in Springfield is downtown, and departing the central point in "pulses." While this may have worked in 1968, when the system was first drawn out, the pulse system doesn't work anymore. This is because of several reasons:

*In 1968, 90% of all shopping and employment was in the downtown area. Most people used the bus to get to work and shop because parking was limited at this time and people were still accustomed to using a trolley system which had the same idea.

*Now we are in 2007, living in a city which quite honestly has sprawled away from our downtown, and the pulse system as it stands makes some trips to the main shopping areas nearly 70 minutes long at times. For example, someone living on West Jefferson will need to take Route 4 eastbound to downtown, transfer to Route 7W and head back westbound to get to White Oaks Mall. This is a 45- to 50-minute trip, while driving is only 20 minutes.

*Some buses going inbound follow a different path for outbound. So if you live in the "outbound" portion of the route, going back in means you have to ride the bus to the end of the line, where it sometimes sits and waits five minutes, and then ride it back downtown, which is usually an additional 15 minutes just to get to the transfer center.

13 fixed-routes serve the city in addition to several specialty routes, including a bus which goes to the Harrison Park area of the western part of the city and a bus which is named the Historic Sites Route. Most of the buses leave the "transfer center" downtown on a 30-minute basis, while not all buses finish their entire route in 30 minutes, causing some confusion.

Other routes don't run for 30 minutes, but sometimes only every 60 minutes. This causes more confusion. In the same spirit of confusion, routes 4 and 13 don't even run in their entirety in the daytime, off-peak hours, causing the upmost confusion.

This confusion, I believe, is one of the main reasons that people in Springfield don't embrace public transit anymore.

Other attitudes about public transit in Springfield also exist. The prevailing attitude about transit is that only poor people use it and if you are fortunate enough to have a car you should use it. The only time that transit numbers seem to be boosted are during the Illinois State Fair when they have the 15-minute shuttle running until midnight and when winter weather gets to be too bad for many Springfieldians to drive to and from work. Otherwise people treat the bus system as something that they pay taxes toward, which many people don't even know they pay property taxes into the district, and they don't even use it!

The Springfield Mass Transit District, when it was first formed in the 1960s, was to alleviate the local transit company going bankrupt. It was formed to cover Capitol, Woodside, and Springfield townships (Springfield township, as many of you know, adjusts as the the city of Springfield expands). However, we have a foul-up: the transit district has not expanded in size with the rest of Springfield. As Springfield moved much of its commercial development out of the boundaries, the SMTD struggled to get service to the bare essentials for life for Springfield's poorest, which is partially why SMTD is seen as something only the poor use. Had the transit district grown with the rest of the city, buses would be reaching just about every subdivision of the westside on a regular basis. This exposure would have helped alleviate the "poor folk" attitude about mass transit in Springfield.

I will talk more soon about other reasons that transit has not been embraced in Springfield, and hopefully some of the solutions to that problem.

Introduction

2007-11-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome! I appreciate you reading my blog about transit in Springfield and how it affects us in the current world. I would first like to introduce myself and tell you about where I have come from and what I hope to someday do. I am a native of Springfield. I have lived in or around Springfield all of my life, since the very day I was born in 1988 at St. John's Hospital. I was brought up in the Lutheran schools for most of my education, with the exception of four years in which I attended the New Berlin school district for grades six through nine. In 2006, I graduated from Lutheran High School here in Springfield, a pretty average student for that school, ranking 14 out of 45 or so students.

Beginning in August 2006, I began my college studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield in the Capital Scholars Honors Program, living on campus in Lincoln Residence Hall, where I currently am residing. My major began as Political Studies and has since evolved into Liberal Studies with hopes of going into city management someday.

My interest in transit stems from several different areas in life. One was the hope that Springfield could have more of a "city feel" and attract more great learners to the university. Another is to battle with pollution, despite not many people in Springfield acknowledging it to be present in Sangamon County. But the biggest goal of better transit is to help recreate our inner neighborhoods, including but also most importantly the east side neighborhoods. So often these neighborhoods feel left out of the city, and primarily for one reason: the people who live there are too poor to drive to work, so they can't work, so they are too poor to try to get a way to work. It's a vicious cycle.

Currently the transit system, at best, can be considered basic. But I believe that spending a budget of $9.6 million a year for just "basic" is a waste. This money, in addition to more resources and a new attitude about transit, can be used in such better ways to make Springfield a "true" capital city. So often I hear people in Springfield complaining about how all the politicians in Chicago don't pay attention to Springfield. Did they ever think that perhaps those politicians have a better time in Chicago and that Springfield should up the ante a little bit?

I hope to chronicle my work with the Springfield Mass Transit District and other entities on improving, in one way at least, the quality of life for 130,000 people in the immediate Springfield area. Even if I fail, at least I can say I tried and take this experience with me "wherever life takes me."