From Staff Reports

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Asheville is conducting a Comprehensive Operational Analysis — costing $300,000 — to improve its ART bus system, with a focus on the trade-off between increasing bus frequency in busy areas versus maintaining wider service coverage, AI Overview reported on Oct. 13.

“Recent ridership for fiscal year 2024 was over 1.58 million, an increase from previous years, but still below pre-pandemic levels of about 2 million,” AI Overview stated. “Public input is being gathered through surveys to inform the final plan, which is expected to be released in spring 2026.” 

To that end, the Asheville Citizen Times reported on Oct. 3 that “the city and its contractor, Portland-based Jarret Walker and Associates, are looking for feedback from riders and residents.

“The current system leans toward coverage, with many routes spreading to the farthest corners of the city. But this means buses run less frequently — every 30 minutes or an hour, versus, say, every 15 minutes.

“A ridership concept would favor frequency, with routes concentrated along areas with more people and jobs — a significant reduction in wait times, but much fewer routes.”

Meanwhile, at a Sept. 30 meeting, hosted by nonprofit MountainTrue, in coordination with the city, the ACT noted that “attendees were presented with the extreme sides of either option.

“The ultimate solution could fall somewhere in the middle, said Ricky Angueira, a principal with Jarret Walker and Associates, and lead project manager for the city’s study.”

Regarding the concepts, Angueira was quoted by the ACT as saying, “It’s really hard to choose between these two. They both include things that I’m sure that each one of you care a lot about.”

The newspaper added, “The good news is that it is a spectrum, he said: ‘The question we are asking in this study is where on this spectrum should Asheville be?’

“The study will result in a redesigned transit network, intended to improve the city’s bus system and align resources with community needs. It will analyze ridership data, demographic trends and roadway conditions to get there.”

The study “will also include other recommendations for short- and long-term strategies,” the ACT reported. “A final draft report is expected in the spring.

“The design will be ‘cost neutral,’ meaning it will be ‘do-able’ within the city’s existing transit budget of about $15.2 million.

“The system has a fleet of 35 buses, over half of which have racked up more than 500,000 miles and are past their useful life, according to previous reporting. It has 652 bus stops and 18 routes extending the city’s arteries north, south, west and east.”

Meanwhile, the city reported that, in fiscal year 2024, bus ridership recorded its highest numbers since in years, with more than 1.58 million rides. But it is still lower than pre-pandemic levels, which hovered around 2 million.

The ACT added, “The Ridership Concept focuses on providing frequent service where there are the most people and jobs. Here, a bus would arrive every15 minutes. This means that people would wait less time for a bus.

The Ridership concept concentrates more frequent service where there are more people, jobs, and opportunities. Fewer total routes. This would cause some riders to have longer walks to their bus stops, while others may not have service at all. Buses would come more often, and more people would likely find the service useful, so more people would ride the bus.

“Buses on five corridors would come every 15 minutes, concentrating on main corridors like Merrimon Avenue, Biltmore Avenue, Haywood Road, Patton Avenue and Tunnel Road. The number of people near frequent service would increase from 0 percent to 30 percent, reducing travel times across the city.

“The total number of people near any transit service would decrease from 61 percent to 40 percent. Examples of places that would lose service include Montford, Shiloh, Emma, Deaverview, New Leicester Highway, Charlotte Street, Kenilworth, the Asheville outlets and Haw Creek,” the ACT noted.