Pace is conducting a study throughout Kane County to gather information about how to best serve suburban riders, officials said.
The transit company has made changes, developing innovative programs, to offer riders convenience and options, Pace Spokesman Patrick Wilmot said.
“We know there is a core demand for travel through the suburbs on our existing service,” he said. “A lot of these bus route have operated for decades and go back even before Pace was created in 1983. At the same time, with the changes and development occurring, we are working with the other transportation agencies to come up with some cost effective, innovative solutions to deal with the traffic congestion and transportation demand changes we are seeing in the region.”
Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke is the liaison between Pace and Kane County. He gave an update at a recent county board meeting of what Pace is doing, including adding a Call-n-Ride service from Geneva to Batavia.
Pace’s budget for the upcoming year has no cuts or fare increases, Schielke said. Its capital budget calls for 265 new vehicles, 75 buses for bus routes and 190 vehicle for bus pools leased out to nonprofits and governments, Wilmot said.
Pace uses different types of vehicle for its services. The traditional bus is used for fixed routes, but it is also moving toward providing services to smaller, targeted riderships. A new service Pace started last month in Batavia is a Call-n-Ride, a hybrid of a regular bus route and a Dial-a-Ride program that is available to seniors.
Call-n-Ride,
http://www.pacebus.com/sub/schedules/call_n_ride.asp
, is a reservation based curb-to-curb bus service which operates in a defined zone, Wilmot said. The Batavia route travels to the Geneva Metra Station, Fermilab, the Kane County Government Center and shopping on Randall Road. The base fare is $1.75. Reservations must be made an hour in advance.
“We are finding we do have the ridership, but we have to key that ridership into things they want to do,” Schielke said. “The old days of having the bus go down the road and hope someone is waiting are gone.”
A St. Charles-Geneva Call-n-Ride route has been available for two years and replaced a traditional route, Wilmot said. The route has averaged about 1,200 rides per month year to date, he said.
“It is a service type we have expanded in recent years to serve areas that might have a little bit lower population density, but where a demand for transit still exists,” he said.
In northern Kane County, Pace is working on creating Bus on Shoulder programs on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. Bus on Shoulder began operating on the Stevenson Expressway in 2011 through a partnership with the state of Illinois Department of Transportation, the RTA and Illinois State Police. Buses are allowed to use some segments of the shoulder on the highway while traveling about five miles faster than traffic, Wilmot said. Ridership has risen in the triple digits since the program began, he said.
The Illinois Tollway’s reconstruction of I-90 includes larger shoulders for a Pace bus route, Wilmot said. The reconstruction project also incorporates Park n Ride lots and other infrastructure, he said.
“We think this will be a highly successful program,” Schielke said.
“I am kind of excited about some of the things we are doing,” Schielke said. “This is cutting edge stuff. It is getting to the chase of what people want.”
