NextStop Blog
August 5, 2011
Bus Stop Evaluation Program: Routes #11 Chippewa & #90 Hampton
Return to BlogBelow you will find the lists of the proposed MetroBus stops under consideration for elimination for:
#11 Chippewa
#90 Hampton
These stops are being proposed for elimination as part of Metro’s Bus Stop Evaluation Program to make the system more efficient and faster.
Please submit your comments for the #11 and #90 by Monday, August 22, 2011.
NS – Nearside of the street-before you cross the street
FS – Farside of the street-after you cross the street
MB – Midblock after the street midway down
If you have any problems reading or accessing these lists, please email Courtney at clsloger AT metrostlouis.org to receive a copy.
Categories:
When we use the bus we use Hampton & Mardel and 5543 Chippewa. It’d be quite a walk for people in our neighborhood if you eliminated these stops. For some it’s probably nearly half a mile or more already. There’s quite a few elderly people in North Hampton.
I’m a little confused by all this: aren’t you making the bus harder to get to by eliminating stops? In theory the bus probably stops less, but I would imagine that buses spend more time waiting in traffic than stopping to pick people up, especially in the city where the lights aren’t timed properly. As an automobile on Chippewa, I pretty much keep time with the bus.
Who do I contact about this? I don’t even see a link on the main web page notifying people who use these routes.
Thanks for your feedback, Mark. I’ll pass along your comments about the #90. The idea behind the bus stop evaluation program is just to try to remove some of the extra, unused or less used stops too close together or ADA inaccessible. We have over 8000 stops right now, and we haven’t underdone a stop evaluation in many years. This will hopefully help us make changes that reflect also the demographic and employment shifts we’ve adjusted our service toward. We do want feedback, however, to make sure that necessary stops stay in the system, so the information about the Mardel and Chippewa stop is useful to us.
The 90 Hampton stop at DeBaliviere & Waterman should be kept. My stop to get to work (@ Federal Center) 🙂
Please make the tables more user-friendly. Spell out Direction, Opposite, Far-side, Near-side, Mid-block. Better yet, map it.
The stop at Southwest and Hampton is essential to the system. It is one of the busiest cross-streets along Hampton, it holds a Bike St. Louis Route and is a key arterial to areas like the Hill and Maplewood. I would advise that that stop not be eliminated and maybe even get a bench. 🙂
I arrived in St. Louis from Toronto last Thursday. I paid for a two hour pass, even though other stations sell the one ride fare, took the freight elevator, and arrived on the platform only to find that all doors on the train were closed and would not open except for the front and rear. This has never happened before and I hope it does not again. It was unacceptable. Upon leaving the main terminal, I was greeted by a driver who could barely compose a sentence enough to shout out the bus connections. Perhaps he is new?
Yesterday I took the Hampton 90 at noon in order to get downtown. The driver was very nice, however I was dismayed to see it going down 40. Why exactly is this going on? I thought it was going to stop at Central West End station, but no it then went down Forest Park Parkway. What is the point of not going through the park and only from 9am to 5pm? I saw no road closures. I asked an older person at Forest Park Station, who said he had been using Metro for 4 years, about why there is no longer a bus schedule posted. I also asked about why the bus does not go through the Park. He said it was because “Metro wants tourists to use the Trolley, they don’t care about everyday riders.” He then offered he a schedule and said he gets them from the library. Riders should know whenever they approach a stop when the next bus will be arriving. It should not be their responsibility to check online or stockpile bus schedules. It must be posted at every stop.
Why do we have this Muny Bus and the FP Trolley? I was waiting for the 90 for 40 minutes and these two dumb buses came by empty, stopped, and no one got on the bus. Perhaps Metro shouldn’t plan for the weekend white suburbanites but the people who use the system every day? Even if it wanted to plan for white people who have other alternatives, they aren’t going to chose Metro when it’s doing bus cuts, has a lack of posted schedules, and 40 minute transfer times. You can paint the Hampton 90, call it the Hampton Trolley of Excellence, but people aren’t going to choose to use it if service is bad. Those that have to will complain to themselves and wish they had a car.
That being said I used to take the Mardel stop for years as this was my street. A lot of elderly do use the 90. My great aunt used to take it all the way to Riverview TC back in the day. Removing stops isn’t about efficiency but an unwillingness to fund transit. Stops are placed far enough apart and if people don’t always use them it doesn’t cost a lot of money to keep a metal sign standing. If anything Metro should be upgrading their fleet and frequency of service. Why does it not even have GPS so people can text to get the next bus arrival? Again when you walk to a stop, even the small ones Metro wants to remove, it should have a posted schedule.
I agree that the Hampton stop at Southwest should not be removed. It is an easy connection to those who want to catch the #30 and it is also a connector to The Hill area.
Courtney,
Thanks for your explanation of this stop elimination program. But I do have a question. Right now, you are effectively asking the entirety of St Louis which stops are being used. That seems sort of scary. Aren’t you Metro? Don’t you own the buses? Aren’t they equipped with GPS systems? Therefore, shouldn’t you already know which stops are being used? If you don’t, then maybe that’s your first order of business.
How do you decide what routes to add? Can’t you use this same information here?
Also, I hope you would agree, it seems strange that you would be eliminating stops after a tax increase. Are you planning an equivalent program to add stops?
Thanks,
Mark
Mark, right now not all of the buses are equipped with GPS systems, so we cannot guarantee that type of data. And right now we aren’t asking which stops are being used – we do know which ones are popular – but rather asking which ones, out of a list of those evaluated based on our service standards criteria and ADA requirements, if there is additional information that will help inform the process. Like for example, one blog reader told us about her mother having needing a stop due to physical difficulties. That is information that is difficult to get through data all the time, but is important for consideration.
When im riding the #90 those stops are always being used in the early morning and late evenings, and i ride it all the time from NORTH COUNTY area because i shop in the SOUTH st.louis area.