YOUR AD HERE »

Steamboat city buses return to 20-minute service intervals at night

A passenger disembarks a Steamboat Springs Transit bus at Seventh Street and Lincoln Avenue on Monday afternoon. (Photo by Eleanor Hasenbeck)

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Steamboat Springs city buses will switch to their winter schedule Sunday, adding routes to accommodate ski season traffic.

The daytime winter schedule is very similar to summer service this year, said Steamboat Springs Transit Manager Jonathan Flint. He said he’s glad to be able to build the consistency of service in different seasons.

The city’s night-line buses will be at bus stops every 20 minutes this winter.

In 2017, Steamboat Springs Transit increased the interval between night-line buses from 20 minutes to 30 minutes as a cost-saving measure. City staff believe the change in the bus schedule played a role in decreased ridership.

“We saw a decrease in ridership last year of about 10 percent, and some of that I would attribute to the 30-minute service at night,” Flint said.

He added that warmer, drier weather also meant that some people who would normally park their car in winter weather and ride the bus were comfortable driving.

“One of the nice things about 20-minute service at night is you really don’t have to think about the schedule that much because of the frequency of the buses coming through,” Flint said. “With 30-minute service, you really do have to plan your evening activities around when the bus is going to be there.”

Maps and bus schedules are available online at steamboatsprings.net/166/Transit.

Paratransit riders will benefit from a new accessible bus, which has more options to safely restrain wheelchairs than before. It allows the city’s paratransit system to accommodate passengers in a variety of wheelchairs, from sport wheelchairs to motorized wheelchairs, Flint said.

“It’s a little bit smaller, so we’re able to get into some of the more confined areas,” he said. “It’s also got four-wheel drive, so that will help quite a bit with access as well.”

To learn more or apply to the city’s paratransit curb-to-curb service, visit steamboatsprings.net/871/ADA-Paratransit or contact Steamboat Springs Transit at 970-879-3717.

To reach Eleanor Hasenbeck, call 970-871-4210, email ehasenbeck@SteamboatPilot.com or follow her on Twitter @elHasenbeck.

 


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.