Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
Is there still a need for this bus? IIRC it was set up back in the 70s as a "downtown circulator" type system to move people around to shopping areas, but as we all know, downtown shopping no longer exists in any meaningful way.
The last time I took the Downtown Spirit bus it ended up being slower than walking and most of the people on the bus seemed like they were just hanging out as opposed to going somewhere.
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It provides a very convenient connection straight into the Forks. Living downtown I use the Portage-Exchange-Forks portion frequently. It's fast and decently well used.
The Spirit also provides the only meaningful midday transit service along Broadway.
If the Spirit routes were axed, they would need to, at a bare minimum, extend the 38 into the Forks at all times. Right now the 38 only goes to the Forks when the Spirit is not running (i.e. rush hour and evenings).
The route cuts that were floated last month were not really a "proposal", though. It was just a worst-case scenario, part of the budgeting process every year. The only difference was that it was made public this year.