(03-12-2022, 03:18 PM)Bytor Wrote:(03-11-2022, 02:08 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: For me the Victoria / Highland should be the next stage 3... This route would service the transit hub as well. If it ended at the Boardwalk, then the next natural progression would be that Waterloo route.
204 pre-pandemic was stagnated at roughly 2,250 weekday riders on average since at least 2016, maybe before, so no where near needing an LRT. Also, it was the only existing iXpress route that did not a see a bump in ridership when LRT service started in 2019.
Given that both Highland and Victoria terminate well south of the south end of the Boardwalk, I'm not sure that the Victoria/Highland route is the best one to get LRT access to The Boardwalk. The King/University/Erb route at least terminates at the north end of The Boardwalk, even i fthat isn't ideal.
Not turning onto Erb and just continuing down University Ave W to Ira Needles would get you to a central part of The Boardwalk, but there's that big gap ith no good destinations from Erb to Fischer-Hallman.
Unless one could build both Victoria/Highland and King/University/Erb routes and connect their tails via Ira Needles?
You're looking at it the wrong way. Passenger numbers was only half the reason why we built the LRT. The other half was because it's a great catalyst for transit oriented development. You can't just look at raw data of the present and form opinions or draw conclusions as that's flawed, especially when it comes to planning. Half the bus routes in the city wouldn't exist if we were just talking ridership numbers to justify them.
While this isn't a great comparison, take a video game like City Skylines...or anything capable of modeling. Plop down a rapid transit system in an area, adjust zoning and watch how fast the areas around the stations grow. If the region had unlimited money and built a bunch of light rail or subway lines around the city, you'd see previously stagnant areas suddenly flourish. The 204 may not have the highest ridership, but if we replaced it with rapid transit you'd see more people taking transit and you'd see more development around it (which means even higher ridership).
In planning, you have to consider the future, not just the present.