Due in part to a 40 percent decrease in ridership since 2000, and with hopes of meeting the increasing demand from urban centers and a fast-growing Hispanic population, Pace has developed a new plan for bus service for the Kane County communities it serves.

Now, Pace is holding a series of public meetings to get feedback and tweak the plan prior to a public hearing and roll out later this year. The meetings are designed to explain the chances in some detail and to provide the opportunity to ask questions.

More information about the data collected and the proposed service changes is available on Pace’s Fox Valley Initiative page and much of the information is pasted further down in this article.

Pace staff plans to present the results of the public hearing to the Pace Board of Directors in August. Implementation of the plan is scheduled to take place in two phases, the first in October, which will focus on central Aurora and areas north of the city. The second phase is tentatively planned for December and will include proposed new service on and around the Route 59 corridor.

The four meetings will be held:

• 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2015 at the Prisco Community Center, 150 West Illinois Avenue, Aurora, IL 60506.
• 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, June 25, 2015, at the Santori Public Library (new Main Aurora Public Library), 101 South River Street, Aurora, IL 60505
• 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, June 29, 2015 at Batavia City Hall, 100 North Island Avenue  Batavia, IL 60510
• 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 30, 2015, at the City of Aurora – Customer Service Division (located at Fire Station 8), 3770 McCoy Drive, Aurora, IL 60504

The public hearing will be held:

• 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 15, 2015, at Aurora City Hall , 44 East Downer Place, Aurora, IL 60505

Fox Valley Market Analysis & Restructuring

Introduction

Over the past two decades, the Fox Valley area has seen significant population growth, but ridership on public transit on buses in this area has dropped by 40 percnet since 2000.

Additionally, while the Hispanic community represents 41% of Aurora’s population, only 19% of our riders are Hispanic, according to a recent survey, indicating there are opportunities to improve service for this community. To address these trends, Pace began a study of the Fox Valley area’s transit needs and to redesign our bus services accordingly.

A market analysis studying the area’s travel patterns and preferences was completed in February, 2015. This study included a survey of 878 local residents and employees, as well as focus groups of Hispanic residents. More information on this effort can be found in the “Project Documents” section below.

Based on what was learned from the market analysis, Pace staff identified a set of goals to guide the bus network redesign. In the section below, Pace outlines these goals and describe the changes that are proposed to improve Pace services so that they better match current travel patterns and community preferences.

Fox Valley Network Restructuring Goals

Pace set four basic goals for this restructuring. These were selected primarily to reflect the priorities that were identified in our market analysis survey.

 

1. Extend service to new destinations that have high travel demand. This was the top-rated improvement chosen in the survey, and several major destinations were identified that are beyond the reach of our current network.
2. Provide more frequent service during more hours of the day. The survey results show a strong desire for service to be more frequent and run for more hours of the day. Current riders were especially interested in adding evening service, while non-riders were especially interested in service frequency.
3. Simplify the transit network. Our research showed that most people are unfamiliar with existing bus service. We plan to build a new network that is easier to understand and better meets the needs of the development occurring in the communities we serve.
4. Replace routes that perform poorly, but maintain service to key destinations. Many of Pace’s Fox Valley-area routes fail to meet ridership goals and should be redesigned. Important community destinations will continue to be served in the new network, but we will work to find methods of serving them in new ways that can attract better ridership.

Proposed Improvements

A map of the restructured Fox Valley network can be viewed by clicking this link. The proposed network extends service to new destinations that have developed near Aurora’s eastern and northern boundaries. New timed transfer points are created where customers can easily connect between routes. And service frequency improves on most routes to every 30 minutes, with evening service running until at least 8 p.m. on weekdays.

Detailed maps of how each route would be impacted can be viewed below.

Existing Routes

• Route 530 West Galena – Westfield – Naperville is mostly unchanged
• Route 714 College of DuPage – Naperville – Wheaton is mostly unchanged
• Route 524 West Aurora is modified
• Route 533 Northeast Aurora is modified
• Route 802 Aurora – Geneva via Lake is modified
• Route 521 East Circulator is replaced
• Route 528 Aurora – Rush-Copley Medical Center is replaced
• Route 529 Randall Road – 5th Street is replaced
• Route 532 Illinois Avenue is replaced

New Routes

• Route 540 Farnsworth Avenue is proposed
• Route 559 Illinois Rt. 59 is proposed
• Route 722 Ogden Avenue is proposed
• Southeast Aurora Call-n-Ride is proposed
• Naperville-Aurora Call-n-Ride is proposed

The restructuring represents an increased investment by Pace, with financial assistance from the RTA ICE program. These improvements involve dramatic changes to the Fox Valley network with an emphasis on building ridership by serving the destinations and areas with the highest demand. After the changes, Pace projects bus ridership in the area could grow by approximately 30%, and the number of residents in the area with easy access to transit could grow by approximately 21,000.

Project Documents

• Fox Valley Market Analysis Project Summary
• December 2014 Update
• Fox Valley Market Analysis Study
• June 2015 Update

Get Involved!

Questions or comments? Send an email to FoxValleyStudy@PaceBus.com.

Para esta información en Español, por favor llame al 847-228-4298.

Be informed when this information changes.