For changes to Kansas City bus routes, RideKC seeks public input through survey
The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is seeking community input on a planned redesign of bus routes and timing.
Following a survey in the summer of 2019 the agency looked at every bus route in the city to create a new plan aimed at bringing faster and more frequent service to riders, said agency spokeswoman Petrina Parker.
Now, Parker said, the KCATA is looking for feedback to determine whether the new plan is “on point” with what riders said they were looking for.
After the survey is completed, she said, the agency may adjust plans based on responses.
The proposed routes, Parker said, are not major changes. Some routes are moving over a street, while others will see a bus come more or less frequently depending on location.
Additionally, she said, the plan would expand bus service on the weekends with routes running every 15 to 20 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays.
“It’s not a drastic overhaul of the system but there are going to be some notable changes on some of the routes,” she said.
The biggest change, Parker said, can be found in Kansas City’s urban core, where routes traveling from east to west have been expanded.
“Which will put more people closer to jobs,” she said.
According to KCATA’s website, the agency accomplished this by removing or redesigning bus routes that had fewer than 200 riders per day and reducing the number of routes that ran less than a quarter of a mile apart.
The deadline to respond to the survey is March 16. The new bus routes are expected to go into effect in the fall, Parker said.
The new survey, and details on the plan are available on KCATA’s website.
