The Bloomingtonian reached out to the City of Bloomington after community members began asking about proposed changes to the 2022 Bloomington Transit bus route (#2).
Zac Huneck, who is the planning and special projects manager for the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation replied with this answer:
“Thanks for reaching out on our service changes on the 2 West. I’ll give you a rundown of the proposed changes. These were originally developed and approved back in early 2020. At that time, we met with members of the BHA residents council who helped to shape this iteration of the route. The pandemic has since put everything on hold.
Our objective here is to improve the on-time performance of the route, thereby ensuring that riders can reliably make their transfers at the downtown transit center. Route 2 West buses currently miss transfers at the downtown station on a daily basis, meaning increased travel times for riders, and long periods without breaks for drivers. To improve overall reliability, these service changes shorten the travel distance of the route and reduce the total number of stops.
Of course, we are sensitive to the impacts these changes may have on riders. I’ll point out where we’ve responded to concerns we’ve heard, and where we may look at other options to ensure the least disruption:
Circled in blue: we know that many residents at the new apartments on Crescent are transit riders. With the reorientation of the route heading southbound on Crescent, rather than northbound, they would lose the stop directly in front of their complex. For this reason, we included the deviation through the neighborhood just to the north, with a stop on Marquis & Crescent. The stop there is within 750ft of the middle of the apartment complex. We consider this a temporary solution until such time that we may install a stop directly across from the apartments on the west side of Crescent.
Circled in red: the new configuration eliminates these three stops and does create a lengthy walk for those in the far NW side of the neighborhood. We are looking now at how we may be able to preserve these stops perhaps by heading northbound on Lindbergh from 11th St.
Circled in black: one of our considerations with these service changes is the significant grade on Lindbergh here that forces buses to detour during extreme weather events. We seek to eliminate these hazardous areas whenever possible.”
