Future of public transportation bus stops gains public
participation

[January 14, 2016]  LINCOLN - On Tuesday, January 12, 2016, the Executive Committee held their monthly board meeting with chairmen of committees.

Andy Anderson brought forward an update from the new Public Transportation Committee and the Public Transportation Advisory Committee, which primarily concerned plans for new routes.

The Logan County Board decided to move forward with plans for deviated fixed routes in October, and a Transportation Advisory Committee was set up in November. The Transportation Advisory Committee started meeting in December and will meet two times a month. Anderson said, though it may take a few months to get the routes set up, both the Transportation Advisory and Public Transportation Committees are working hard to put together the plans.

Anderson said the Public Transportation Committee is talking about having fifteen stops that would cover all of Lincoln. With two busses running, one would go all the way from Cracker Barrel to Precision Products and the other from Lincoln Park District to Lincoln Christian University.

Anderson said the stops would be about three minutes each. Both busses would leave the Community Action building at 7:30 in the morning.
The first one would go down Fifth Street with the first stop at CEFCU. The other bus would leave Community Action and start the route at the old Comcast building near Lincoln Christian University. Though the busses would start at opposite ends of town, they would be in constant communication with one another.

Anderson said the routes would take about one hour and forty five minutes. In the morning, these routes would be run twice, and in the afternoon, they would also run twice.
Anderson said the routes will not be called deviated fixed routes because of concerns about keeping on schedule. He said if someone expects a bus to be at a stop at 9:30 in the morning, but it has deviated five times before getting there, the bus could be delayed in getting to the stop. For any deviations, people would still need to call Community Action about rides.

Anderson said the public is coming up with many of the ideas. Bateman said it is good to hear public support since it seemed that so many were fighting against changes early on. Now, more of the public knows about the routes and the people who would ride the busses are the one's coming up with ideas, which is the way it should be.

Anderson said one gentleman who lives in Centennial Courts suggested the stop near the old Comcast building. Some of the stops may be at places where there are shelters such as the High Rise apartments on College Street where the bus could pull in under the awning. The downtown depot would also have shelter.

Anderson said some of the plans will take time because they have to get approval from some businesses for busses to sit in their parking lots for three minutes at a time four times a day. The Committee also has to get liability contracts in case someone would get hurt in one of the parking lots. He said Zoning Officer Will D'Andrea and County Engineer Bret Aukamp have helped them figure out what is needed.

With the current grant, there is a certain amount of miles the busses can cover, so Community Action will have to look at how many miles are left on the current grant.

Bateman asked if someone is rewriting the grant.
Anderson said that grant will be rewritten in upcoming months. He said the plans are taking longer than the Committee initially anticipated with the contracts and other areas they need to consider, but the plans are coming together well.

[Angela Reiners]