DeKALB — Public comment on a plan for the potential merging of the HuskieLine bus system and a county transportation program will come to a close 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The 2017 Transit Development Plan, which was completed by DeKalb Sycamore Area Transportation Study officials, NIU officials and Voluntary Action Center officials, was made available online for public review Aug. 11. The plan would modify the HuskieLine bus system and the county’s Voluntary Action Center, known as TransVAC, to cater to students and community members. TransVAC operates three bus routes in the county.

“I think we have opportunities to be more efficient with our dollars [and] to create routes that serve both the students and the communities better than they do now by integrating the bus lines,” acting President Lisa Freeman said. “And I think another benefit is having students and community members ride the same buses regularly. I think sometimes students are scared of community members and vice-versa.”

In 2015, the HuskieLine cost $88.99 per hour, which was above the average cost of $70.90 for public bus systems, according to the plan. The system, which is managed by the Student Association, still served satisfactory for service efficiency, according to the development plan.

The idea of integrating community and university bus lines is not a new idea. It has been implemented in Lawrence, Kansas and has worked well for the city’s transit commuters, Freeman said.

“I think that this has been an idea in the heads of people on both the university campus and in the community for a long time,” Freeman said. “But I think that the actual discussions through the [Dekalb Sycamore Transportation Study] mechanism are relatively new and kind of exciting.”

The outcomes expected through the collaboration of the TransVAC Lines and HuskieLine anticipate cost reduction for both the community and university.

Commuters seek more frequency, a longer service span and a larger coverage area for the bus service, according to a survey provided in the development plan.

The proposed changes to the bus routes, if passed, will provide more “prompt” scheduling and arrival times. There would also be an evaluation to track success and progress of the changes.

“We assess everything that we do, and I’m sure that as the plan comes together, there will be built in mechanisms for assessing success, and those will look both at the budget, ridership and the consumer satisfaction aspect of it,” Freeman said.

An Overview

The DeKalb Region Transit Development Plan would include changes to several existing lines to increase cost efficiency and route options.

The TransVAC Green Line is the most productive route for the community and will be a part of the revised route system, according to the plan.

However, the TransVAC Blue Line, which connects to Sycamore, hasn’t had the same ridership as the Green Line, so the running hours would decrease.

If established, a proposed Core Network will include a revision of HuskieLine routes 6 and 7 and the TransVAC Green Line, which would connect riders to campus, places of employment, medical facilities, commercial areas, the middle school and the high school. The hours of operation for the Core Network, which would serve as the central system, will be from 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Sunday.

Other changes proposed would affect routes 1, 2, Barsema Express, 3, 4, 5, 9L and 10. Some routes would be combined, some would run more frequently and some would be shortened, all to create more efficient routes. The plan will also eliminate routes 8R and 11, while expanding existing routes.

“I think if we have consumer satisfaction surveys that show that people are happier with the new routes, then we can show that the bottom line has come out ahead because we’re working together with the city,” Freeman said.

As a bus rider of the HuskieLine, sophomore engineering major Siobban Kelsie said this kind of change could be positive and negative for students.

“It could reign in the positive light of adding more routes onto the HuskieLine and the DeKalb line because this year they actually took off routes and combined routes,” Kelsie said. “I guess it would be a negative at the same time because it’s not like a campus thing anymore; it’s a mixture of the campus and the city, and the routes might be extended longer, so you’ll have to plan around that, as well.”