By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
Starting January 18, area residents may notice The Rapid buses on Gezon Parkway.
The Byron Township’s recent decision to reduce its level of contracted services opened up an opportunity for The Rapid to add a new route from Division Avenue down Gezon Parkway to Metro Health, said Bill Kirk, business affairs specialist for The Rapid.
“Under Our Mobility for All plan, one of the routes we were looking at adding was one on Gezon,” Kirk said. Mobility for All is a planning process exploring practical ways to improve the productivity and reliability of The Rapid system.
According to Byron Township Supervisor Don Tillema, the township board decided to reduce the township’s contracted services due to cost and low usage.
“There was a push to eliminate it completely but there are people in our community who do need it and we did not want take the service away from them completely,” Tillema said.
The route into Byron Township starts at 60th Street and Division, heads to 68th Street and turns west going toward Clyde Park. The route continues on to Clyde Park north to the 54th Street Meijer. That route will remain with buses stopping at 68th Street about every hour instead of every third minutes.
“This actually cuts our cost from $70,000 to about $35,000,” Tillema said.
With the reduction in service, Kirk said The Rapid had some open operational time. The staff decided to add a second route from Division Avenue down Gezon Parkway to Metro Health. The bus lines will alternate. The route 1B will follow the traditional Byron Township route, stopping at 68th Division and route 1M will turn down 54th Street and continue down Gezon Parkway to Metro Health – University of Michigan Health. Only the 68th Street stop and the Metro Health stop will be every hour. All other stops on route 1, whether 1M or 1B, will be every half hour including the stop at the 54th Street Meijer.
Kirk said The Rapid will monitor the new Metro Health route for usage, adding that the contract for the route runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.
The 1M route will be the second bus route The Rapid offers from downtown Grand Rapids to Metro Health. Route 16 moves through the southwest side, starting at the Central station and traveling down Clyde Park with stops on Michael Avenue, 36th Street and Byron Center Avenue, and at Metro Health.
For The Rapid bus schedules, visit ridetherapid.org. For more on the Mobility for All, visit therapidmobiityforall.com.
