The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) has received $3.8 million, a good-sized share of the $46.7 million in Federal Transit Administration funds recently granted to the state of Michigan for mass transit projects.
AATA now has $2.6 million to put towards the purchase of five hybrid-electric buses to be deployed as part of expanded bus service on the No. 4 Washtenaw corridor route. The service expansion will commence in January 2012, says Mary Stasiak, AATA community relations manager.
"We have received an overwhelming number of emails and comments from our customers telling us that they're very much in favor of the enhanced service and that it will help with the overcrowding of the service today. The buses are very full," Stasiak says.
Ridership on the Washtenaw corridor exceeds 3,000 trips per day and over 800,000 per year. The $2.6 million covers 80% of the cost of those buses, with the remaining 20% originating from state grants, Stasiak says.
The remaining $1.2 million will fund a study to determine a community-preferred alternative for a rapid transit service from the north side of Ann Arbor near Plymouth Road through downtown and central campus and potentially out to Briarwood.
The study is required for eligibility to receive federal funding to implement such a project, Stasiak explains. It is a follow-on to the
Ann Arbor Connector Feasibility Study, which found sufficient demand for a rapid transit system in that corridor. That corridor handles 30,000 trips on current bus service, a figure she says is "...well above what other types of rapid transit services that have been in place throughout the country have had initially or projected."
Options under consideration are light rail and a bus rapid transit system, she says. A bus rapid transit system offers flexibility in that such buses can run both in their own dedicated lanes, or fixed guideways, and on regular roadways.
Source: Mary Stasiak, AATA community relations manager
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.