One day when I was living in south Huntsville I was thinking about riding the bus to school at UAH to try and save some gas. There was a bus stop within walking distance to my apartment, so I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to get to. However, when looking at the route map my hopes of using the bus system to get to UAH was shattered. I would have had to make two transfers, and my trip would have taken over an hour to make one way. Here it is visualized in Google Maps.
I am glad that Huntsville has decided to put their routing on Google Maps. It becomes more accessible than from the city website. There are also improvements that are planned for the Huntsville Shuttle bus system, as it is called. Huntsville Development News sums those improvements up here, along with some ideas on how to improve the bus system.
A better bus system would complement my idea on light rail in Research Park well. I would recommend that the city at least complement circular routes with linear routes that serve a particular highway (University Drive, Whitesburg Drive, Airport/Carl T Jones/Bailey Cove, etc.). Then expand on that system as needed. Look at which roads are the most heavily travelled and base the system around that. After all, if I am going from point A to point B, I don’t want to backtrack (as I would have had to do above in my trip from my apartment to UAH) nor do I want a scenic tour of the city. Of course, some of the loop services make sense to keep, but I would challenge the city of Huntsville at adding some linear bus lines that complement the loop routes that are in place. Eventually, remove the circular routes that don’t have high ridership and use those buses elsewhere.
I have not ridden the bus system in Huntsville before. So I am not in too much of a position to write about it. Well, I am going to ride some of the city shuttle buses over the next few weeks. I would like to learn more about it and see how easy it is to use right now, and then see what improvements can be made.
I am glad that Huntsville has decided to put their routing on Google Maps. It becomes more accessible than from the city website. There are also improvements that are planned for the Huntsville Shuttle bus system, as it is called. Huntsville Development News sums those improvements up here, along with some ideas on how to improve the bus system.
A better bus system would complement my idea on light rail in Research Park well. I would recommend that the city at least complement circular routes with linear routes that serve a particular highway (University Drive, Whitesburg Drive, Airport/Carl T Jones/Bailey Cove, etc.). Then expand on that system as needed. Look at which roads are the most heavily travelled and base the system around that. After all, if I am going from point A to point B, I don’t want to backtrack (as I would have had to do above in my trip from my apartment to UAH) nor do I want a scenic tour of the city. Of course, some of the loop services make sense to keep, but I would challenge the city of Huntsville at adding some linear bus lines that complement the loop routes that are in place. Eventually, remove the circular routes that don’t have high ridership and use those buses elsewhere.
I have not ridden the bus system in Huntsville before. So I am not in too much of a position to write about it. Well, I am going to ride some of the city shuttle buses over the next few weeks. I would like to learn more about it and see how easy it is to use right now, and then see what improvements can be made.
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