BATA to offer free festival shuttles

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A Bay Area Transportation Authority vehicle travels past a Cherriot bus stop on State Street near the intersection of Union Street. Record-Eagle/Keith King
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June 20, 2012

BATA to offer free festival shuttles

Two buses will travel a multi-stop fixed route on the hour

BY JAMES RUSSELL jrussell@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Wed Jun 20, 2012, 07:14 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — Festival-goers this summer will have another way to get around town.

The Bay Area Transportation Authority will offer a free shuttle service during the eight-day National Cherry Festival in an effort to alleviate congestion in crowded Traverse City. Two buses will travel on the hour between Northwestern Michigan College and Thirlby Field, with stops along Front and State streets, just blocks from the Open Space.

A similar service is planned for the Traverse City Film Festival, with schedules and routes to move patrons between movie venues.

"A lot of our economy in Traverse City is based around festivals and the influx of tourists, but one of the issues here is all the congestion downtown," said Carrie Thompson, BATA's director of business development. "We felt this is something we can do to ease the congestion. We hope it takes off this year and grows each year from here. It's important to do this for the community."

The festival routes are among a series of changes under way at the public transit agency. A strategic plan released last November called for an increase in regional fixed routes and a reduction in dial-a-ride zones. Rather than bring people all the way into Traverse City, dial-a-ride buses would take riders to regional hubs where they can catch a fixed-route bus to town.

Thompson said BATA does not plan to reduce dial-a-ride zones until next spring.

This summer, renovations to BATA's Cass Street facility are expected to be finished by August, after which they will implement a series of technology upgrades to their system and fleet.

"This summer is going to be very busy... we'll introduce electronic fare boxes, mobile data terminals, new dispatch software and a new website. They all have to be implemented by the end of September," said Thompson.

Last week BATA also introduced a new fixed route along what they call "hotel alley" on U.S. 31 on East Bay, then east along M-72 with stops at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa and Turtle Creek Casino.

The resort pre-purchased tickets from BATA to give their employees a discount. Human Resources Director John Miller said employees can ride the bus for an entire month for $30.

"We are cognizant of the price of gas and how that affects our employees," Miller said. "We looked at the possibility of public transit and hooked up with BATA for a route to our work sites so we could help our employees."

Cherry Festival Executive Director Trevor Tkach said the free routes will benefit their volunteers.

"We did a volunteer survey at the end of the Cherry Festival last year ... out of 28 areas of satisfaction, the lowest ranking was parking," Tkach said. "We're trying to answer that, but not only for volunteers, but festival-goers, vendors, downtown merchants and employees as an alternative to fight traffic."

BATA Executive Director Tom Menzel said his agency benefits as well, though the festival rides will be free.

"This is part of our growth strategy. My feeling is that we're going to be getting demographic profiles of people in buses that currently don't use public transit, and have never even thought of using public transit," he said.