If you typically ride Gwinnett County Transit buses, you may have some extra company this weekend. Officials with the transit system will be riding buses to various busy locations on Saturday, July 29, talking to people about their likes and dislikes concerning the bus system. It's one of the first steps in what the county is calling a "top-to-bottom review" of the current transit system.
The initiative is called Connect Gwinnett: Transit Plan, and in addition to Saturday's bus tour, the effort will include visits to other community events, telephone surveys and an online survey.
The idea is to develop short, medium and long term plans for Gwinnett County Transit as the population grows. The estimate is that the Gwinnett population will swell to 1.4 million in the next few years.
"We’re going to continue to grow so we need to start working on transit solutions now to be prepared for the future," said Board of Commissioners Chairman Charlotte Nash in a press release. “Improving mobility is important for our residents and our businesses."
According to the press statement released Friday, the plan will address issues such as matching Gwinnett’s needs with the right balance of transit modes, determining frequency of trips, ensuring coverage to different areas of the county and identifying funding over the short-term (up to five years), the medium-term (five to 10 years), and the long-term (10 years and beyond).
Transit options explored in the plan include:
- Expansion and upgrade of the bus system
- Bus rapid transit, which resembles light rail but instead has buses, often longer articulated ones, using dedicated lanes
- Light rail transit
- Heavy rail transit train network
- Commuter rail, which uses existing train tracks and/or parallel tracks on shared right-of-way with stops three to five miles apart
An online survey, available through the end of August, allows county residents to give feedback at their convenience. The survey is now available.
Throughout the process, county staff and consultants will be talking to residents, communities and stakeholders from across Gwinnett. In addition, staff will be attending community events and conducting phone surveys.
Information on the process will be kept up to date on the Gwinnett Transit Facebook page.
Once all the needed information is gathered, plans will be developed for presentation starting at the end of 2017. The final plan will be ready to present to the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners in spring 2018.
