KCRag Forum

Those must be, like, 49 shades of gray.

KCATA will start buying battery electric buses: https://twitter.com/RideKCTransit/statu ... 9677685760

Currently, the fleet is less than half compressed natural gas. The rest is diesel.

The new vehicles should be on the ground in 2019.

Clay Chastain will get a boner from this news.

kcjak wrote:Clay Chastain will get a boner from this news.

As will "SmartKC"! It was THEIR idea!

DaveKCMO wrote:KCATA will start buying battery electric buses: https://twitter.com/RideKCTransit/statu ... 9677685760

Currently, the fleet is less than half compressed natural gas. The rest is diesel.

The new vehicles should be on the ground in 2019.

Have they decided on a vendor? Or are the two busses going to be from two different vendors to test? There are really only two choices.

Gillig, for now.

There are actually at least four "Buy America" options for traditional (40') battery electric transit buses: BYD, Proterra, New Flyer, and Gillig.

There are also vendors that rebuild existing buses as battery electric.

Gillig will deliver their first vehicles in 2019. KCATA's entire fleet right now is Gillig, as is Johnson County's.

Oh, I didn't realize Gillig or New Flyer made electric busses.

That makes sense. I'm sure it will make everything a lot easier to stick with the same company.

I guess this could go in various threads. I enjoy hearing what other municipalities have to say about KC's transit adventures. I posted another link in a local paper where Cincinnati leaders were discussing their issues running their streetcar (low ridership, maintenance, questionable governance with a third party operator). Sounds like our neighbors to the South want to learn more about how things are going too.

Northwest Arkansas residents hear from transit officials, planners from Missouri, Oklahoma
https://talkbusiness.net/2018/08/northw ... oklahoma/

“Transit really needed a win,” [Keith] Sanders [chief engineer for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority] said. “We needed to change our image.”

The plan was to develop a new system without new taxes and to expand the service to more choice riders. Between 40% and 50% of the system provided service to riders who were dependent on transit. The first bus rapid transit line opened in 2005 and has more than 6,000 daily riders. The second route opened in 2011 and has 8,000 riders. A third line should open in 2019 and projected to have 6,000 daily riders.

An advantage to bus rapid transit compared to light rail is cost. A mile of light rail ranges between $50 million and $70 million, compared to $5 million a mile for bus rapid transit. Also, a year after the line opened in 2011, he said crime along the route declined 23%.
The line that will open in 2019 will include platforms to easily board buses, technology improvements such as 55-inch touchscreens along the route and traffic signal priority that will use an algorithm to determine how it will receive priority at traffic signals. A late bus or one with 30 passengers might receive more priority at traffic signals.

The KCATA needs a refocus on the basics like wayfinding and mapping, two things I would expect to be a major focus with management making sure everything is super accurate.

Bus route 37 was renumbered with a route redo 2 or 3 years ago. So why is/was a sign for this route still up? The entire northland was renumbered to the 2## series and a new 201 sign was put up next to it. Then most of the Metro signs were replaced on the route with RideKC (but not this one). Then I reported this about early May since things do get missed. It was still up in August when I reported it again, having been promised months before they would look into it. It took a lot of people to not do their job time and time again. This is far from the only case of this. Of four routes at SB 10th Ave and Burlington, only three of them have the 2017 renumbering, also not fixed when reported early May.


The system map base data is horribly out of date too. I figured the mapping base is from before 2008.
http://ridekc.org/assets/uploads/route- ... temMap.pdf

Russel near Parvin is shown which contains a street segment that was removed between 2003 and 2006. It's subtle so it's not the best example but it gives a possible age.

There's a section of NW 64th shown that was turned into a bike route between 2008 and 2014. And Waumokis and 68th were realigned around 2009. 234 is marked on streets that don't exist in that configuration. The T of the intersection was turned 90 degrees which gives this one away.

The Bond bridge project moved Front St back in 2010. It's still on the map and the new front st is missing. Semi-related, 77 on the system map follows a different route than on it's own map. It follows Front St.

Route 229 on the map passes by a section of Skyview removed around 2010, still on the map.

I reported an incorrectly titled schedule (schedule was otherwise correct) posted at a stop and it was fixed in 24 hours. All of the information was accurate except for the stop title. I was impressed. YMMV

Free rides for high school students in three KCMO school districts: https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/ri ... blic-buses

Free rides for vets too. Any interest still in pursuing a fully free bus system or at least a few major lines?

earthling wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:25 am Free rides for vets too. Any interest still in pursuing a fully free bus system or at least a few major lines?

It's a constant discussion, but fraught with unknowns. I believe it will be formally studied in 2019.

DIfferent ideas for free rides:

A rider who takes 47 to Troost MAX to 12 to go downtown, they get the first and last leg free for using a high frequency, high speed route. So 21 wouldn't get this treatment but Main, Troost and Prospect would.

If you stay within a route zone your ride is free. If KCMO south of the river is four zones, the tax could make it be free to ride in the same zone and have increasing costs above that, like $1.00, $1.50, $2.00 and so on. The idea is to encourage people to ride inside their general neighborhood, like to go shopping and to find work close to home, or to move closer to work. I could also see this working as a sponsored idea. Ride within the sponsored zone and your fare is free. A group of merchants along a street could pay for the fares.

The system doesn't need to be 100% free. A long-distance bus like 535 or 595 could have a cost still.

Can someone explain why it would be advantageous to the city to provide free bus fare into the core from a far flung suburb? Shouldn’t we be pushing people to move into the core and the cost associated with the bus fare be an incentive to move closer in and save that recurring cost? Would ‘The Jo’ be seperate from any free fare plan?

I think one reason would be that it would lessen the need for surface lot and garage parking--freeing up land for more productive uses.

I don't know that it would be advantageous to provide *free* busses to all of the suburbs. It's why I mentioned zones earlier.

If the cost was free near to downtown and cheaper outside would be a step forward. ex. 12th and Prospect would be free, 12th and Van Brunt half price, downtown Independence, full price.

The idea is that we need riders. A dedicated tax should provide a baseline of assured income and the cheaper fares increases ridership so the total income is more than today. Then use this to increase service so even at full fare, the bus is quicker/more frequent from downtown Independence and becomes commute competitive.

You provide those long distance routes better than we do today and work to change zoning/policy so developers want to build along the bus line.
Then as routes become popular, upgrade the ones that have enough density to rail lines in demand order.

You only give out free to people who move close in.

I suspect if there is a significant expansion of zero fare that it would have to include the entire region for Title VI purposes.

Also, we just got the KS burbs back into the ATA, let's not give them a reason to bail.

And KS would also be required to pay any tax to cover the cost?