What do you want bus service to look like in the St. Cloud area? What are your current transportation habits and needs? Metro Bus wants to know because it is in the process of updating its long range transit plan accommodate the community’s changing transportation needs.
“Because this is a long-range plan, input is needed from a variety of sources to forecast what this community will look like in 10 years,” said Tom Cruikshank, Cruikshank, managing director of operations and planning, who is leading this project at Metro Bus. “We want to hear from local leaders as well as from those whose daily lives are affected by our transportation system.”
This spring, the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization hired consultants to assist Metro Bus with this project.
The consultants and leadership from Metro Bus have met with local city officials and leadership from St. Cloud State University to learn about their immediate and long-term needs and plans. Additional community outreach activities are planned for this fall to get input from those who are current riders as well as the community at large.
“We anticipate receiving a lot of ideas and need feedback from the community to help us prioritize,” said Cruikshank. “For example, what’s more important to you: to change our routes to serve new areas, or to run our service later in the evening on the weekends?”
The community will have the opportunity to weigh in on such topics and give input about their transportation habits with an online survey. A link to the survey can be found on ridemetrobus.com and is available until around August 21. The survey is intended for anyone who lives or travels in St. Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids and Sartell areas. “It’s just as important for us to hear from people who don’t ride the bus as from those who do,” said Cruikshank. “Maybe in some ways more, because we want to attract new people to our system and current riders will also have a voice with an onboard survey slated for after Labor Day.”
Metro Bus has been asked to explore expanding service to St. Joseph. It would require the city joining the transit commission. To help city officials and residence make an informed decision, Metro Bus will have a special online survey for St. Joseph residents later this summer.
The project is funded through a grant from the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization. Metro Bus is working with the project consulting firm Aecom and SRF Consulting Group to assist in the update of the long range transit plan. This plan update is required for federal funding, and is updated every five years.
