Rock Region Metro to consider on-demand service to Philander Smith College, other routes

The future of transit is coming sooner rather than later in central Arkansas.

On Tuesday, the transit agency board in Pulaski County will consider a proposed pilot project to implement on-demand service for one of its regular bus routes.

It is one of several route modifications the Rock Region Metro board will take up at its monthly meeting. Another proposal is to create the first cross-town route in North Little Rock, which will allow riders to remain on the north side of the Arkansas River.

The board originally was to consider the latest modifications in August, but the agency’s new executive director, Charles Frazier, said he wanted more time to study them. He began work in late June.

Frazier said he supports the changes, which include testing on-demand service to Philander Smith College on Route 11. A route review two years ago added a route deviation off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to serve the four-year college. But that change attracted few riders.

“I’m OK with all of these proposals,” Frazier said Friday. “The purpose of these are to improve on-time performance, improve efficiency, provide additional mobility or access to the system.”

Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore, who is a member of the Rock Region board, expressed concern about eliminating service to Philander Smith, particularly because it came at a time when the transit agency was securing fare agreements with area institutions of higher learning. Under the agreements, the institutions would make annual payments so that students would have free access to the bus system.

The agency staff met with Philander Smith officials, but the college wasn’t ready to form an agreement with Rock Region.

Moore said he supports adding the on-demand option over eliminating the route to Philander Smith altogether.

“I think it’s brilliant,” he said, likening it to other forms of on-demand service such as Uber. “It’s sort of an on-demand service which a lot of us are expecting now. I think we try it as a pilot and hopefully, it catches on and we eventually can develop and execute an agreement with Philander.”

Frazier said last month that he planned to test some sort of on-demand service on other routes next year, but the Route 11 option presented an early opportunity.

“It’s a test run,” he said. “It’s the only one. However, it’s not the only opportunity for doing this throughout the system. But this is the one we’re going to test on.”

Frazier said he expects the on-demand service to begin in March if it receives board approval Tuesday. The three months will give the agency time to prepare riders for the project.

“We want to be able to do lots of outreach,” he said. “We want to be able to talk to the people that are along those three or four stops on that deviation. We want to make sure we get to them, explain how the pilot will work, what they need to do to call the bus before they need it.”

Frazier said the pilot project will allow the agency to see how well it works, or doesn’t work.

“We will see how easy it is to manage,” he said. “Were people responsive? Did it help us improve on-time performance.? Did it help us to become more efficient?”

There is no question that not accessing the school via Daisy Gaston Bates Drive, Chester Street and West 12th Street will save time.

“We can take those trips that we’re saving and it helps us adjust the schedule a little bit and improve on-time performance and we may be able to get an extra trip or two in the day,” Frazier said. “We might be able to start a little earlier or go a little later.”

Frazier also was bullish on proposed changes for Route 18 that would create the first cross-town connection in North Little Rock.

The proposal extends Route 18 to a Walmart store on East McCain Boulevard, which was made possible by the opening of a $10.17 million railroad overpass on McCain Boulevard nearly a year ago.

The store already is served by Route 10, which is the agency’s busiest line on the north side of the river and will eliminate the need for Route 18 riders to go to the Two Rivers Travel Center in Little Rock to catch the Route 10 bus.

Route 18 generated more than 137,000 trips in 2017, averaging 433 weekday riders.

“Now all of those people are going to have access cross town to get to the mall, to get to the medical center,” Frazier said. “I’m excited about that one.”

Proposed modifications to two other routes also are on the board agenda.

One is to revert Route 3, which serves Baptist Health Medical Center, back to Sandpiper Drive and South Hughes Street. The route was modified last year to accommodate the Arkansas Department of Transportation’s decision to replace the Hughes overpass on Interstate 630 as part of an $87.4 million project to widen a 2.2-mile section of I-630 between Baptist Health and South University Avenue.

The change, transit officials say, will provide more direct service to midtown, add service to the Briarwood neighborhood and eliminate redundant service along University Avenue.

The other modification will eliminate an off-peak pattern on Route 4, which provides service to the Levy and Amboy areas of North Little Rock. Route 4 runs on Donovan Briley Drive only during the morning and evening now.

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