City bus route changes that will go into effect in the new year will disrupt some Lawrence school district students’ rides to school.
Lawrence Transit on Dec. 5 announced its new bus routes.
Lawrence resident Sara Garlick has called attention to changes to routes that travel past Cordley and Schwegler elementary schools, Billy Mills and Liberty Memorial Central middle schools, and Lawrence High School.
“Our Lawrence students and families need as much help as we can give them, especially those families who are live on the ‘south side’ of town and who live with societal and educational inequities: students of color, students living in poverty, students who come from non-English speaking families, and students or family members with disabilities,” Garlick said via email.
Routes that go to Hillcrest Elementary School and Free State High School, on the other hand, will offer improved access for many riders.
Students, faculty and staff members who take city buses on several routes to get to school may have new bus stop locations and times starting Tuesday, Jan. 2. School resumes Thursday, Jan. 4.
Here are some specifics of changing routes:
• The bus on Route 5, Central Station to East Hills, will no longer stop in front of Harbor Freight Tools or the old Qdoba restaurant building to let students off to Schwegler. Those students will need to either walk from Naismith Street or walk down the hill by Campus View Apartments (behind Harbor Freight) and cross 23rd Street at Ousdahl Road.
Route 38 has stops near 21st Street and Stewart Avenue that are nearby, too.
• The bus on Route 7, Downtown to South Iowa, will no longer go directly to Holcom Park.
But Adam Weigel, transit and parking manager, said his staff heard from parents during their planning process that connecting students to Billy Mills and Lawrence High from the Holcom Park area was vital.
Weigel said to honor that, Routes 7 and 9 will be an interlined route, meaning buses will seamlessly travel back and forth between the two routes without requiring any bus transfers.
• Billy Mills or Lawrence High students who live in the Holcom area can board Route 9 eastbound near Holcom Park, and that bus will continue as Route 7 northbound after the 31st and Iowa streets stop.
For that route, the three arrival times to Billy Mills, where school starts at 8:15 a.m., will be approximately 6:28, 7:28 and 8:28 a.m.; arrival at Lawrence High, where school starts at 8 a.m., will be approximately 6:31, 7:31 and 8:31 a.m. Catching an earlier bus will get them to school quite early, but the later buses will not get them there on time.
As opposed to Route 7’s current model of two buses running each hour, students who rely on those routes will have two options to get to school on time instead of four. The bus will only run once per hour between 6 and 8 a.m. northbound, coming from Walmart on Iowa Street to Downtown Lawrence. Students will need to catch the bus on Route 7 at 7:15 a.m. near the post office to be early to school. If they catch the next bus, they will be late.
Route-7-2024During Lawrence Transit staff members’ 18-month route redesign study, they gathered that community members desire Sunday bus service. That’s why the changes to bus route frequency are happening, Weigel said.
Plus, the city isn’t providing additional funds to support the new Sunday on-demand service, so transit staff members have to modify existing fixed-route hours that have less ridership — such as early morning, midday and late night routes — to afford it.
“A reality of public transportation work [is] that we have to balance the needs of many different trip types,” Weigel said via email. “Getting kids to school is a very important trip as well as people to grocery, medical destinations and jobs. In a town like Lawrence, those destinations are not conveniently planned along simple corridors, so routes must deviate to try and connect the most useful destinations as possible.”
• Route 7 won’t go past Liberty Memorial Central Middle School anymore.
Weigel said it can be challenging to create routes that cross boundaries outlined in the district’s middle school boundary map.
Weigel added that besides feedback from individual parents, “there isn’t much data that would suggest a Holcom Park to LMCMS trip was key for school access.” He said community members involved in the planning process emphasized the need for new grocery store connections to and from low-income housing. That priority came out on top.
• The bus on Route 9 will no longer stop at the “Kasold bend” at 31st Stret and Kasold Drive.
Students who live there and ride to Billy Mills or Southwest will need to walk to a new bus stop to connect them to Route 7. Weigel said ridership was much lower on the Kasold bend than on Lawrence Avenue in the same area, so the route will now follow Lawrence Avenue through the neighborhood and near Holcom Park.
Route-9-2024• Route 7’s time change will also alter students’ access to Route 11, Central Station to 31st and Iowa.
Although the Route 11 bus itself isn’t changing, Billy Mills students needing to connect to Route 7 in the mornings will need to catch the 6:30 a.m. or the 7:05 a.m. buses southbound near Eddingham Place and The Rockland apartments, or just south of Natural Grocers, which is southeast of 23rd Street and Naismith Drive.
Another option is to get on the Route 5 bus, get off at Wendy’s, and then hop on the Route 7 bus at Pet World to get to school on time. Walking on the Naismith Valley Park trail to Route 7 could work, too.
• Additionally, riders from Free State High School will have eastbound and westbound bus stops for Route 6 instead of only westbound. Students will be able to board westbound at stop 85 or across Overland Drive at stop 473 to board eastbound. Weigel said this will shorten the ride for those traveling eastbound because they will no longer have to ride west to Rock Chalk Park and LMH Health West before heading back east.
• Currently, rides to Hillcrest Elementary are best on Route 4 via stop 213. With the new routes, Hillcrest riders will have better transit access via Route 2 and all of its route connections at the new Central Station, Weigel said. Route 2 will use the same stop, 213, in addition to stop 445. What’s different will be its connection to Central Station, which will provide rides to Hillcrest from many other locations in town.
Students living along Second, Third, Fourth and Sixth streets in the Pinkney neighborhood will have access to Route 2 stops that take them straight to Hillcrest.
• And Cordley Elementary will be served by three routes (Routes 1, 7 and 8) instead of one route (Route 7).
Other schools will have similar bus access to what they have today, Weigel said.
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Planning ahead
View an overall map of the new routes at this link. See the complete 2024 Lawrence Transit guide with individual maps and schedules at this link.
The new routes through town are set to go into effect beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
Along with posting maps, Lawrence Transit staff members have shared resources in attempts to help riders navigate the new routes.
Riders can participate in travel training. There’s also a new mobile app, called Transit, available on the Apple App Store or Google Play. It shows a preview of 2024 route changes as well as real-time bus arrival information.
Buses will be free to ride for 2024.
For help planning a bus trip beyond the above resources, call 785-864-4644.
Opportunities for feedback, planning ahead
Weigel said after receiving feedback from the school district community, Lawrence Transit will return to its normal annual route change timeline. That means staff will conduct outreach during spring 2024 for potential changes that would go into effect in August 2024.
Staff members have now opened a survey for feedback from riders in the first few months of the new year. The survey will be active through 11:59 p.m. April 1, 2024 and submissions can be made on the city’s website, via lawrenceks.org/listens/surveys/.
If in the future community members assert weekday fixed route hours are more valuable than having service on Sundays, Weigel said his staff will readjust accordingly.
The new bus routes, which Weigel said are part of Lawrence Transit’s first major redesign in 20 years, are in response to Central Station’s opening. It’s the city’s first major transfer station.
With the changes, Haskell Indian Nations University will also have year-round service as opposed to solely when school is in session.
“Keeping routes and schedules the way they are today denies the community the benefits of these changes,” Weigel said. “We are absolutely committed to making the system work the best it can for Lawrence, and we also know that change will always include some new challenges.”
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
