Amended bus routes appease critics

Excitement about the new bus transfer station diminished when Bloomington Transit proposed a number of route changes that would reduce bus service on Kirkwood Avenue, pushing the city to create a new route proposal.

The new transit center will be located at Third and Walnut streets, about two blocks southwest of the current center on Fourth and Washington streets. Routes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were adjusted because of the location shift. The original proposal would have halted bus travel on Kirkwood for Route 1 South Walnut, Route 3 College Mall and Route 4 High Street.

“When we learned that the bus company was proposing to make some route changes, we heard back from several customers and several members of our staff that those changes would negatively impact them,” said Sara Laughlin, Monroe County Public Library director.

Laughlin said Mary Frasier, child’s services reference librarian, feared that a number of children would stop coming to the library as a result. Parents might stop allowing their children to ride the bus if it didn’t stop directly on Kirkwood, she said.

Laughlin said she was also concerned about the effect the route change would have on students, parents and commuters.

“We actually see people almost every day getting off the bus with toddlers and strollers and bags of books, so being three or four blocks away would make that journey much more problematic,” Laughlin said. “It’d be OK on a day when it’s 70 and the sun is shining, but if it’s snowing or raining, it’d be much more challenging.”

Laughlin and a few other concerned travelers wrote letters to Bloomington Transit, asking the staff to reconsider their original proposal. After a public meeting, Bloomington Transit looked at alternatives and made the necessary adjustments.

“We came up with three changes to return the routes to Kirkwood, and — the routes 3 and 4 South — we proposed to operate them inbound on Kirkwood and then outbound on Third Street,” said Lew May, general manager of Bloomington Transit.

May said he believes the changes were a good solution that will help customers who need to get to Kirkwood and will allow the buses to make better connections downtown.

“Not a perfect solution, but a reasonable compromise that I think will help both the customers as well as the timeliness of our service,” May said.

Laughlin and the rest of the library staff agreed and were happy with the outcome.

“We were very pleased that they had re-added a stop on Kirkwood,” Laughlin said. “And I think it’s not just a library, but I think all the businesses on Kirkwood will be very pleased, too. We think of this as the main street in downtown Bloomington.”

May said there has been another proposed change to Route 3 Highland Village, which would no longer travel both ways on Park Square Drive and Gifford Road, but Bloomington Transit plans to postpone a decision until more data is collected.

The new transit center is still scheduled to open toward the end of June.

“It’s going to be a tremendous improvement in terms of passenger comfort, passenger amenities, more room for future growth and will provide us with a good home in the downtown Bloomington area for the next 30 to 40 years, so we’re excited about that,” May said.