Transit staff seek rider feedback on proposed route changes, survey open through March 31

Felice (interim director of transit) told the Connected City Advisory Group on April 14 that transit staff have posted proposed annual route changes and are asking riders and residents to comment through a survey on Lawrence Listens that closes March 31.

She said the agency conducts annual updates and will “write a report, after all comments are in and we call it closing the loop,” showing how proposed changes were adjusted based on input. “We usually do pie charts of positive, negative, neutral, and you'll see every comment accounted for, responded to in the appendix,” Felice said.

Why it matters: transit-route redesigns affect daily commutes and service frequency across the city, including KU circulator routes and intercity connections. Staff framed the changes as a refinement following a major route redesign in 2020 and said some proposals delay implementation until rider patterns are clear.

Key details: Felice said KU-related routes see seasonal changes tied to the university calendar; staff do not expect the ridership increases on routes 11 and 12 to be sustained year-round and plan to scale them back to university-level summer service. She described frequency patterns: Route 6 is mostly 30-minute service because of its length; the new Route 10 and new Route 4 have near-30-minute service most of the day; many routes remain at 30 minutes in peak and off-peak and drop to hourly service at some times. KU circulator and on-campus services retain higher frequency. Staff also noted a small alignment adjustment at 30th and Iowa on Route 7.

Public process and accessibility: staff said surveys are available online, on paper at Central Station front desk and at the Seventh and Vermont transit platform, and include alt text for screen readers. Felice said the transit team collects responses manually where needed and compiles a closing-the-loop report that will respond to individual comments in an appendix.

Budget and service-level context: staff and commissioners discussed trade-offs between increasing headways and adding services such as Sunday operations. Felice and other staff characterized Sunday service and higher-frequency headways as budget-dependent; the group noted a city sales-tax-funded service discussion tied to 2027 funding timelines.

Where discussion stands: no formal action or vote on route changes occurred at the meeting; staff encouraged commissioners and the public to review the proposals and submit survey responses. The draft proposals and the survey are hosted on Lawrence Listens.