Due to the results of a recent survey, Madison Metro Transit has decided not to change its weekday Capitol Square bus route.
Several businesses have advocated permanently moving buses off Capitol Square and onto the Capitol Loop route in order to provide more parking around the Capitol, according to Metro Marketing and Customer Service Manager Julie Maryott Walsh.
Buses currently take the alternate Capitol Loop route several times a week, including Saturdays and Wednesdays, because of the Farmer's Market and Concerts on the Square. The alternate route is also taken during special events like the Taste of Madison and the Art Fair on the Square. Normally, buses run around the Capitol Square, rather than the loop, which runs a block off the square.
Metro offered a weeklong survey to its riders to determine if they would be inconvenienced by a change in the route, Metro General Manager Catherine Debo said. The survey garnered 2,000 responses, twice that of a previous survey, but the results were similar. Fifty-six percent of respondents stated they would not like buses to reroute to the loop, she said.
Debo said she was 'not excited at the prospect' of rerouting the buses. She said she believes the current system is most convenient for the 6,000 people who board and depart on State Street each day.
People would have to walk up to four extra blocks to reach their buses if the route were changed, Debo said.
Walsh said Metro considers the State Street and Capitol area the heart of the city and of the bus system, and that people didn't feel as safe boarding the buses from the alternate route. Greater State Street Businesses Association President Chuck Bauer said he favors 'anything that can be done to keep a bus schedule regular instead of changing it.'
Bauer said he worried that people who don't regularly take the bus get confused by the alternate route and may miss their buses, adding that 'it seems like a good idea' to eliminate confusion by putting the buses on the same route all the time.
Bauer also said rerouting the buses to provide more parking around the Capitol would benefit all businesses downtown, not just those near the Capitol.
'It would revitalize the downtown area,' he said.
But when asked if local businesses are pushing to reroute, Bauer, who owns the Soap Opera, 319 State St., said, 'I think most people are dimly aware that [a change] is being considered.'
