KCRag Forum

Great to see it actually happening. One downside is that MAX could have been used as a temporary 'free streetcar extender' from Union Station to Plaza until streetcar line extension completed. Having to walk over to Crown Center takes a little effectiveness out of it. Maybe 47 Line could be used? Wonder if the 47 line will move from Grand to Main through downtown?

Oct. 1 "Catch the MAX" event to celebrate the alignment change: https://www.facebook.com/events/877739485736916/

Changes for other bus lines Oct 1. Was hoping to see 47 line changed to go down Main instead of Grand downtown but no announced changes...

http://ridekc.org/bulletins/bus-service ... tart-oct-1

Has the authority thought about purchasing a few articulated buses to use during increased utilization (events, rush hours, etc.)? I was on the Main max last night heading to the art fair and it was standing room only the entire way down at 7:30pm. The 15min schedule could've had something to contribute to this, but otherwise I always see packed MAX buses. I feel like it would be our next big jump into "big city" life.

gfenn11 wrote:Has the authority thought about purchasing a few articulated buses to use during increased utilization (events, rush hours, etc.)? I was on the Main max last night heading to the art fair and it was standing room only the entire way down at 7:30pm. The 15min schedule could've had something to contribute to this, but otherwise I always see packed MAX buses. I feel like it would be our next big jump into "big city" life.

Articulated buses would require a fairly expensive facility retrofit. Better to just run higher frequency, which is what most cities do.

I like the idea of articulated, but in this case adding service so people wait less is the clear winning idea.

Yeah as a bus rider I want more frequent service over larger buses. Frequent service is more important than capacity per bus to bus riders. And being 'on time' isn't as important if a line runs at most every 10 minutes. Larger buses would likely cause less frequent service and less frequent service sucks.

When are the new shelters supposed to be added to Grand?

JBmidtown wrote:When are the new shelters supposed to be added to Grand?

I've been wondering the same.

Are they looking into upping the headways? I've noticed drivers are often stalling at stops to keep on schedule after the move. I assume this is because they are now going faster than their schedule?

if KCATA were to "refresh" main MAX while we wait for the streetcar extension in 2022-23, what changes would you make?

DaveKCMO wrote:if KCATA were to "refresh" main MAX while we wait for the streetcar extension in 2022-23, what changes would you make?

- Free to ride - all MAX lines if possible
- Extend to North Oak
- Promote MAX Main to visitors as a streetcar extender (streetcar announcement as approaching US) to Plaza to boost awareness

The MAX move to Grand was great overall but one downside is that it no longer connects to Union Station. Maybe put in yellow brick sidewalks from US streetcar stop to CC MAX stop, with a 'follow the yellow brick road' announcement between the two stops.

A Single MAX line from the Cerner campus, along Bannister, up Wornall/Brookside/Main to downtown up N Oak to Barry and into Tiffany Springs industrial. This one line would connect a huge number of people to the major jobs centers of KCMO and dramatically minimize the number of transfers between them and the urban core.

it might not take that much less time than transferring twice but the psychology of a single seat from Gladstone to the bannister complex can't be understated.

^I like it but wonder what the commute time would be from downtown to Cerner campus with so many stops. Cerner could have their own shuttle buses (with WiFi) from the campus to downtown as many Silicon Valley companies do in Bay Area. That is if they find a large chunk of employees live downtown.

Then again, given MAX buses have free WiFi, the commute time could be considered work time for some commuters who can work from laptop on the way in/out. That's how it works with some of the companies using shuttles with WiFi - the transit commute is considered work time - OK to arrive well after 9 and leave before 4 depending on 'workable' commute times via laptop, a kind of telecommuting hybrid.

Could work if Cerner gets on board with 'workable commute' time. The commute time is then out of the equation for everyone, traffic/accidents are irrelevant, it can boost public transit ridership, reduce need for parking spaces, all kinds of benefits.

Hmm, after more thought 'workable commute' might be something for KCATA and City to promote to all KC businesses along a bus line. Less need for parking spaces could be a big driver, especially in city core. Would be a good trend to establish with HR depts, at least for employees who can work from laptops during commute.

It's not the travel distance, it's cutting the wait times down. "Workable commute" is a great phrase

Imagine the ride is 45 minutes of actual travel time with either setup for the sake of argument.

Today there's 15-30 minutes of wait for the first bus, 10-20 for bus 2 and 10-20 for bus three.

So cutting transfers improves the real travel time.

A 60 minute bus vs a 45 minute is arguably not bad
A 2 hour bus ride vs a 45 minute drive is not a choice many will make

How about a fully dedicated travel lane? Start prepping for streetcar.

Forget Cerner! Why should we provide for better transportation options for their employees when they have shown a total disregard for the core of this city and actually taken steps to stop its improvement?

Because Cerner isn't a democracy, and the CEO (who's preferences were probably a good part of why they have a suburban campus) is dead. And because we actually want people to ride the bus, and Cerner has a lot of people.

I get the tendency to want to exclude people from a service that they didn't want, but if you let them use that service, they will be more supportive of it in the future, like Obamacare, Social Security, Medicare, etc.

Not sure if the bannister complex is smaller but if we can’t get better transit into that part of town we will end up with another giant parking lot there. That’s why I figured an eastern bend of a cross city bus line made sense.

Imagine 10-15000 more cars heading to 435 and 71 in south KC.
It can hold that many in an office park setup too. An early 20th century use had parking for 20000 cars and during ww2 there were 21000 workers on site. The streetcar was used heavily during the war though

Nothing would drive bus system demand like 2x 15,000 worker office parks in one area. Even a 1% rate of use would be more busses at peak that run on some routes in an entire day.