Pema Deki can’t go anywhere on Sundays.
Pema Deki, a senior Geology student at KU, is an international student from Bhutan. For most of the past three years, she has always tried to get her shopping or going out activities done by Saturday. Since she doesn’t have a car, the Lawrence transit System has become her major mean of transportation, and there is no bus on Sundays.
“Sometimes my friends take me to go shopping or go out, but not always,” Deki said. “I don’t want to bother them.”
Since the Lawrence Transit system was established in the winter of 2000, the service has improved a lot and it has provided a lot of convenience. Although it still needs improvements on a lot of aspects, because of the resource problem, it won’t make any dramatic change in a short time.
The Lawrence Transit System has two branches: the T bus is mainly for the general public and the T lift is mainly for people who can’t use T bus because of the disability. The ridership of the system is increasing all the time. In 2001, it provided 155,737 one-way trips on the “T” fixed route service and 44,408 one-way trips on the T Lift ADA complementary paratransit service. In 2006, five years after it was established, the Lawrence T bus provided 421,864 one-way trips, and the T Lift provided 55,176 one-way trips. In September 2005, the “T” received the FTA award for highest ridership increase for a small urban system in Kansas.
In 2006, it added Carpool Connection on its website, helped the University of Kansas start its Park & Ride system, improved passenger amenities by adding trash bins and route map decals in the shelters, and partnered with the University for the Coordinated Public Transportation Development Plan.
The Lawrence Transit system has been improving all the time. But on the website of the Lawrence Transit system, the two most frequent comments about what the system should improve is that the buses need to be more frequent and the riders want the system to increase bus times from 6am to 10pm or later instead of 8pm.
“I heard that there was no public bus seven years ago,” Deki said, “I do appreciate that it’s here while I am here, but I hope they could do better than that.”
“We realize that we need to add more shifts,” said Cliff Galante, the public transit administrator.
According to the survey that is provided on the website of the Lawrence public Transit system, 47% of the riders are for employment purposes and about 18% are for education purposes, which is mainly for the University of Kansas. And that already occupy two thirds of the total riders.
“A lot of riders are complaining about no late night buses,” Galante said. “Since a lot of riders are using T bus to go to their second shift, they can get there by bus but they can’t come back because there is no bus available after eight.”
Another problem is that the public transit system is available from Monday to Saturday, and KU on Wheels is available from Monday to Friday, which means there is no public transportation available on Sundays. So when people who don’t have cars want to go somewhere on Sundays, they have to walk there or ask for a ride.
“I don’t have a car and I don’t want to buy one since I’m graduating next year. So if I want to go to downtown on Sunday, I have to walk there and it takes more than 40 minutes from campus,” said Xiaosen Zhou, a senior Architecture student at KU.
Either more frequent buses or buses on Sundays and at night means more convenience and flexibility to Lawrence local people.
“There are a lot of things that could affect a person’s decision about what kind of transportation he is using, like gas prices and parking prices. They might change to bus because the gas prices are too expensive. We call these people choice riders, and we need better service to make choice riders become regular riders,” Galante said.
According to the 2006 Annual Report of the transit system, the revenue resources for the Lawrence transit system are mainly from four places: the Kansas state government, the federal government, the fare box and pass sales revenue and the local property tax.
“We have about $3 million dollars for transit system every year. If we want to increase the frequency, which means we make the Rout No.7 and Rout No.8 40 minutes once instead of 80 minutes once and the rest of other routs 20 minutes once instead of 40 minutes once, it requires double the amount of money we have right now, which is $6 million,” said Anson Gock, the senior transportation planner.
“It’s hard to get the money,” said Galante. “We understand them. We want to give people more transportation choices, but the city needs a balanced finical structure.”
According to Galante, because of the lack of resources, the public transit system won’t make any dramatic changes in the near future, but they are always trying to improve on small things.
“We always talk to the student representatives from KU about rout No.8, which goes through campus,” Galante said. “We are trying to coordinate with them and provide a better service.”
“I’m graduating next year,” Deki said. “I know that the T bus won’t change before I graduate, but I do hope that it could provide students who come to KU after me more convenience.”