[Durham INC] Bull City Connector

[Ken Gasch]

I don't know how to get other people to ride. I do know that we would ride
it a lot more if it was on time. Just last Friday night, my family waited 11
minutes past the posted arrival time for a stop and just decided to walk in
the end. We then walked the route for 5 blocks and never saw it. When it
runs on time, we will ride it.


print <http://www.heraldsun.com/printer_friendly/13876522#1>
Free bus ridership falling short
06.05.11 - 11:05 pm
By Ray Gronberg

gronberg at heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- Ridership on the Durham Area Transit Authority's downtown-to-Duke
free shuttle service has settled into a weekday average in the
1,400-to-1,500 range, short of the expectations backers had for it going in.

The numbers have Durham officials looking for ways to better market the Bull
City Connector, particularly to folks at Duke University and to people who
visit downtown on nights and weekends.

"The positive is that [the average count] appears to be very stable," city
Transportation Director Mark Ahrendsen said. "Our charge is to try to make
more people aware of how they can use the service."

Officials launched the connector -- which links Duke, downtown and the
Golden Belt business center -- last August with heavy fanfare.

The idea is that riders can count on seeing one of the cantaloupe-colored
buses pass any given stop along the Main Street corridor every 15 minutes on
weekdays and every 20 minutes nights and Saturdays.

Grant money, subsidies from Duke University and revenue from
vehicle-registration fees are helping pay the shuttle's annual operating
expenses.

When they launched it last August, officials said they were hoping the
connector would be serving 1,125 riders a day after a month, 1,575 riders a
day after six months and 2,035 riders a day after a year.

Ridership growth met the one-month target, but it fell short of the
six-month mark and as of mid-May wasn't on track to hit the one-year goal.

The average boarding counts grew steadily from the connector's Aug. 16
launch until just before Thanksgiving, when they slumped. The numbers stayed
down through the holidays, only beginning to climb again after the start of
the new year.

But it took until late January and early February for the average to make up
for the lost ground. Since then, it's held fairly steady around the
1,400-a-day mark, though the general trend remains modestly upward.

>From talking to riders, it seems clear that there's a disconnect between
general awareness that DATA operates the connector and specific knowledge of
how the shuttle works, Durham Public Affairs Director Beverly Thompson said.

"There are some people who don't know it's free, they don't know what the
schedules are, or where it takes them exactly," she said. "People know
there's a Bull City Connector, but they're not sure what it does or what the
service is. We have to figure out how to bridge that."

Saturday ridership is more prone to fluctuations than the weekday average,
but usually runs somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of the weekday count.
Ahrendsen said the Saturday highs tend to coincide with special events at
Duke and in downtown.

The single-day peak for boardings on the connector came on April 14, a
Thursday, when drivers reported serving 1,892 riders.

The spring run-up in gasoline prices didn't seem to have any drastic impact
on the numbers, at least none clearly different from the changes that came
after the holidays as people got back into their normal routines.

Other transit providers in the area, Triangle Transit most notably, have
reported increases in ridership this spring that they think were a response
to the rise in gas prices.

The ridership numbers were current as of May 14. Ahrendsen's staff keeps
track of the counts and from time to time forwards a spreadsheet containing
them to higher-ups in city government.

The connector all told had served 267,490 riders from Aug. 16 to May 14.

Ahrendsen said officials "are comfortable with the service in how it's
currently provided," meaning that they think its routing and schedule are
right.

City officials are convinced they can secure more riders among Duke faculty,
staff and students, in part because parking on campus is both limited and
costly. They also think their counterparts at Duke will help with marketing
because the school long-term would like to avoid the costs associated with
building more parking decks.

The shuttle helps link the campus to Duke operations based downtown.

The other growth opportunity city officials see is in convincing more
residents and visitors to Durham to use the service to get to restaurants,
clubs and other social hotspots downtown.

Thompson said her staff will work with officials at Duke and Triangle
Transit to plan the revised marketing effort. They hope to have a plan
together in a month, so they can be ready when most students at Duke and
N.C. Central University return in August.
© heraldsun.com 2011

Ken Gasch
REALTOR, Seagroves Realty
Contractor, TurnLight Partners, Ltd.

C: 919.475.8866
F: 866.229.4267

www.KenGasch.com

Follow my latest restoration at http://wheelerhouse.blogspot.com/
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