In an effort to speed up transportation and promote rider safety, Gainesville’s Regional Transit System is looking into adding more bus bays — separate bus stop zones on the side of a main roadway.
RTS recently compiled a list of the top 10 bus pullout locations that surround the most congested parts of Gainesville.
The RTS survey includes data compiled from Alachua County, City of Gainesville and UF bus stops, including the number of routes, the daily number of passengers and the location of specific buses.
“At first, my strategy for picking the most important stop was to be consistent,” said Tavane Griffith, who serves on the RTS Advisory Board.
Griffith said perhaps the top priority for the next bus bay is near the Meridian Behavioral Healthcare facility on 13th Street. Currently, the bus stops in the middle of a block, and medical patients must walk in the street next to oncoming traffic to reach it.
Greenwich Green Apartments, located on Southwest 39th Boulevard, is also being considered for the next new bus bay location.
Klaudia Gryfik, a 22-year-old UF finance senior who lives in Greenwich Green Apartments, said she thinks having the bus bay at that location would make the street safer, especially because the street is not wide.
“Traffic is the problem,” she said. “When the bus stops in the middle of the street, people get angry and impatient. Having the bus bays would help with traffic and would help make transfer more fluid.”
But Leilani Johnson, a 21-year-old UF health science senior who lives in The Landings Apartments — another area candidate for a bus bay — said the current roadside bus stop isn’t a problem.
“There is always another bus that comes quickly, and it’s a four-lane road,” she said, “So cars can easily go around the stopped bus.”
A version of this story ran on page 8 on 8/26/2013 under the headline "City studies adding more bus bays for rider safety, convenience"
