Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector - Frequently Asked Questions
February 2006
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Frequently Asked Questions Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector February 2006
A public involvement process was conducted during November and December 2005 to gather comments from the public. Based on the comments received, several questions can be anticipated that members of the public will probably ask about this new bus route. This document seeks to address these directly. Location A number of questions may be expected concerning why the proposed bus route does not serve particular locations. This section focuses on these questions. Why doesn’t the bus route go to… …Diehl Road, including Northern Illinois University and DeVry? One of the survey questions asked respondents to choose between a route that operated on Ogden Avenue and a route that operated on Diehl Road. Among respondents who had a preference, approximately 60% favored Ogden Avenue and 40% favored Diehl Road. However, there was strong support for Diehl Road from a number of businesses and institutions in the corridor, in addition to numerous comments from individual respondents. In general, the greatest demand appeared to be for connections to Metra stations to allow reverse-commuters to get to work. Pace Route 781 provides an option for reverse-commute trips, picking up from the Metra station in the morning and dropping passengers off in the Diehl Road corridor, and making the opposite trip in the evening. Maps and schedules for this route are available at www.pacebus.com. However, this route only operates twice per day, and does not make ideal connections with the trains that would be used by reverse-commuters. In the upcoming year, the City of Naperville plans to work with Pace and the educational institutions, hotels, and offices in the Diehl Road corridor to examine improvements that could be made to this service. Individuals or organizations who are interested in being involved in this effort should contact Bob Dean, Transportation Planner, at deanb@naperville.il.us to indicate their interest. …DuPage County Government Center? The DuPage County Government Center can be reached by transferring to Pace Route 712 at the Wheaton Metra station. The public survey that was conducted in fall 2005 did not identify significant demand to get to this location; of the fourteen destinations listed, the County complex ranked 12th. It is expected that this demand will be served by Route 712.
Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector - Frequently Asked Questions
February 2006
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…Fox Valley Mall? The Fox Valley Mall can be reached by transferring to Pace Route 530, which runs to Fox Valley Mall every 30 minutes. Transfers can be made at either the Naperville Metra station or Edward Hospital. As Route 530 already exists, duplicating this service with the new bus route was not desirable. …Glen Ellyn? There are two main reasons for the proposed routing of the bus to Wheaton rather than Glen Ellyn: • Pace already operates Route 715, which provides service to Glen Ellyn from the College of DuPage. Maps and schedules for Route 715 can be found on Pace’s website, www.pacebus.com. Rather than duplicate this service, it was judged to be more effective to provide a direct link to Wheaton. • Wheaton is an important transfer location for Pace routes. Three all-day Pace routes – the 711, 712, and 747 – provide access to the Wheaton station, and not the Glen Ellyn station. On these routes, riders could travel north to Stratford Square Shopping Center, west to the DuPage County Government Center, or east to Oak Brook and the Forest Park CTA station. Glen Ellyn has fewer opportunities for transfers. Access to Glen Ellyn will still be possible from the bus route, but a transfer would be required. A rider could either transfer to Pace Route 715, or use Metra’s Union Pacific West service to travel to Glen Ellyn from either the Wheaton or College Avenue Metra stations. The public involvement process identified a great deal of interest in traveling to Glen Ellyn from the College of DuPage and other points. Once the Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector begins operating, Pace may examine whether changes can be made to Route 715 to improve service to Glen Ellyn. …North Central College? The proposed bus route provides service along Washington Street, which is about ¼ mile west of North Central College. While the bus route will not go directly through the college’s campus, it is easily accessible with a short walk. Possible deviations into North Central College’s campus will considered in future years. …northern Wheaton or Carol Stream? The northern end of the route is proposed to be the Wheaton train station for the first years of the route’s operations. However, the long-term plan is to extend the route north to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, passing through Carol Stream and Bloomingdale, including the Stratford Square Shopping Center. There is not a timeline for when this northern extension will occur, and it is not expected to be implemented for several years.
Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector - Frequently Asked Questions
February 2006
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…Route 59 train station? The Route 59 train station can be reached by connecting to the Metra BNSF line at the downtown Naperville Metra station. Since service is already being provided to one station on the BNSF, the downtown Metra station, it did not appear necessary to provide service to the next station as well. Also, it can be reached via Pace by transferring to Route 530, taking this to Fox Valley Mall, and then transferring from this to Pace Route 535. Metra schedules are available at www.metrarail.com, and Pace schedules and maps are available at www.pacebus.com. …southern Naperville? The southern terminus of the route is currently proposed to be Edward Hospital. However, the long-term plan for this route is to extend it south along Washington Street to 95th Street, and then have it follow 95th Street to the eventual STAR Line station west of Route 59. (The STAR Line is a planned Metra service that will connect to Joliet, Hoffman Estates, and O’Hare airport.) This is the plan for the long-term alignment of the route, but it may be many years before this is realized. In the shorter term, once the route has been operational for a year or so, the feasibility of an extension to 75th Street will be examined. … Wheaton College? Wheaton College was not identified during the public involvement process as an important destination. Indirect access to Wheaton College is possible with the recommended routing, because the bus will be operating just south of the Union Pacific West rail line through Wheaton. Riders going to Wheaton College would need to get off the bus on the south side of the tracks, cross the tracks in one of several locations, and walk about ¼ mile north to get to Wheaton College. Although the route does not run directly through the Wheaton College campus, it still provides fairly good access to this institution.
Other Questions In addition to questions concerning location, there may be many others. Some questions, such as the fare for the route, the expected vehicle type, and the schedule for beginning operations, can be found in the Service Description document. Other possible questions include the following: Where did the idea for this route come from? This route was initially proposed in the DuPage Area Transit Plan, a long-range plan for improved public transportation throughout DuPage County. The route was identified as a high priority for immediate implementation. The full Transit Plan can be found online at www.dupagetransitplan.com.
Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector - Frequently Asked Questions
February 2006
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Why doesn’t the bus operate on weekends? The original proposal for this route included service on Saturdays with 90-minute headways. The current recommendation for service does not include service on Saturdays. This change was recommended for two major reasons: • The survey conducted in fall 2005 indicated that there was much less interest in Saturday service than there was in frequent weekday service. As the resources available to operate this route are limited, it appeared more beneficial to focus these resources on periods when there was high interest in using the bus route. • The 90-minute headways that were proposed were extremely long, and would deter many potential riders. It was determined that instead of offering 90-minute headways which would appeal to few people, more funding would be sought to offer 60-minute headways on Saturdays instead. Once more funding becomes available, the service will be expanded to offer hourly service on Saturdays. Sunday service was not included in the original proposal, and is not included in the recommended proposal either. There appears to be little demand for service on Sundays, and most other Pace routes also do not operate on Sundays. How can Naperville residents get to the route? The bus route travels down Ogden Avenue and Washington Street in Naperville, but does not provide direct access to many residential neighborhoods. Naperville residents who do not live near the route could access it in the following ways: • The commuter routes that Pace operates in the morning provide service to many Naperville neighborhoods. People wishing to access the Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage bus route could take one of these to the downtown Metra station, and transfer to the new bus route at this point. The use of these commuter routes is limited by their schedules – they generally only operate from approximately 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. • Naperville is investigating the possibility of creating a park-and-ride area at the route’s southern end, near Edward Hospital (but not on the hospital’s campus). If this is successful, people could drive to the park-and-ride location, drop off their cars, and take the bus route north. If not, there are limited on-street parking spaces on Martin Avenue that would serve the same function. More information on this possibility will be made available as discussions with nearby property owners progress. • Senior citizens or people with disabilities can use the Ride DuPage system to access the route. More information on the Ride DuPage system can be found by searching for “Ride DuPage” on Naperville’s website, www.naperville.il.us. • For those residents who are not able to use any of the above options, access to the bus route may not be easy. In future years, it is hoped that more supporting transit services will be in place to allow transfers, but as this is one of the first new transit services to be initiated in Naperville in some time, these supporting transit services do not yet exist. In addition, the bus route is planned to be expanded south in upcoming years. In the short term, it is hoped that residents can use one of the above options, walk, bicycle, be dropped off at Edward Hospital or the Metra station, or use another means to get to the route.
Naperville-Wheaton-College of DuPage Connector - Frequently Asked Questions
February 2006
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Given the demand for service on both Ogden Avenue and Diehl Road, couldn’t the service be split, with some trips on Ogden and some on Diehl? This option was considered, as there is considerable demand on both Ogden Avenue and Diehl Road. However, this is not recommended for several reasons: • The service frequencies are proposed to be approximately 30 minutes between buses during peak periods, and 60 minutes during off-peak periods. Service frequencies would become unacceptably long if the route were split. If half of the trips served Ogden and half served Diehl, peak period service in each corridor would be 60 minutes between buses during peak periods, and 120 minutes (two hours) between buses during off-peak periods. Frequencies that are this low would discourage many people from using the service. • Another possibility would be peak service to Diehl Road, and off-peak service to Ogden Avenue (in other words, the buses would travel down Diehl Road only during the morning and evening rush hours, but not during the rest of the day). If this were the case, people using the bus to get to Diehl Road would be stranded during the middle of the day, or during the evenings. If they had to leave early, stay late, or otherwise leave their location at some time outside the peak period, they would not be able to do so. • Routes that operate on different alignments at different times of day can lead to confusion among riders. While this is less of a problem for people who use the bus every day, occasional riders often have difficulty interpreting schedules that vary. Please see the additional discussion of the Ogden Avenue versus Diehl Road recommendation in the question titled “Why doesn’t the bus go to…Diehl Road, including Northern Illinois University and DeVry?”