The RTC of Washoe County today held an Open House to get the public’s input on the future of the regular, fixed-route public transit service they operate. I was unable to make it, being out of town, but I still did some thinking on the subject that when all is said and done, makes for an interesting report.
The first thing I did was think through my “pet” service change regarding bus service in the route 13/19 area (Wells Ave neighborhood and old SE Reno). The second thing I did was build a spreadsheet of the bus routes in town and their usefulness by my measures. See the whole shebang after the jump.
So. The 13/19. Lately I have been of the mindset that the 19 is either the most useful bus in town or the least useful, depending on when you want to ride it. The 13 was much more useful when it ran more than once an hour. The 19 runs on Wells Ave and goes to the airport, the 13 runs for some mystifying reason on the Locust/Kirman couplet and goes, well, as far as I can tell, to Costco. The 19 runs from 6:45 am – 5:45 pm M-F, once an hour. So it is pretty useless, especially for a bus that goes right down a major city arterial. The 13 on the other hand runs from 6 am – midnight 7 days a week, albeit once an hour, though the route it runs seems quite inefficient.
Route 13 and 19, before I take the axe to them.