From here to there: Future will bring evolution in transit
By BILL VOLK

   As the 20th century began, most cities in the United States, including Champaign-Urbana, were served exclusively by either subways and/or streetcars.
   In the mid-1930s, after the rapid introduction and acceptance of the internal-combustion engine, buses replaced streetcars in cities as large as Los Angeles and as small as Champaign-Urbana.
   Ironically, this was influenced, in great part, by a corporation called National City Lines. It was a holding company financed by General Motors and Standard Oil, among others. Their usual business practice was to buy the streetcar company and replace it with buses, using GM buses and other products sold by the owners. They were convicted of antitrust violations and each fined $5,000.
   By the close of the last century, many large cities were rebuilding rail systems to help alleviate automobile congestion and poor air quality caused, in part, by the internal-combustion engine. Such a resurgence in railroad service in small communities, while its existence is common in Europe, has not occurred in the United States.
   During the 21st century, we will most likely go back to the past to witness the future reintroduction of "fixed guideway" service in Champaign-Urbana. Construction of this system will not begin tomorrow, next week or next year. An evolution of the current bus system first will be necessary to meet existing needs.
   Issues that must be addressed immediately center primarily around low-density sprawl that has occurred over the last few years. District boundaries established in 1970 included all of the urbanized area, but now the urbanized area extends beyond those boundaries.
   Many near-term decisions will be formed by a strategic planning effort now beginning by the district's board of trustees. From this effort a short-term option to serve outlying areas will, no doubt, include small feeder buses. Demand-response and fixed-route feeder bus service will enable trips to be made within a certain area and allow for transfers to buses serving other areas of the community.
   Limited-stop express bus service and the establishment of park/bike and ride will appear and evolve over the next decade. Express routes will be necessary to decrease travel times for those residing in outlying residential neighborhoods.
   Additional park/bike and ride facilities will be necessary to serve the University of Illinois and downtown Champaign and Urbana employment needs. Park/bike and ride locations will be coordinated with private-sector development and will include amenities that will serve the general public, as well as park/bike and ride uses, including convenience stores, dry cleaners, oil change shops and day-care facilities.
   Additional minitransit centers will be strategically located around the community. These will not rival the Illinois Terminal, but will provide a high level of comfort to passengers and make transfers between feeder vehicles and buses more comfortable.
   Once an acceptable share of local funding is found, countywide bus service will be initiated.
   Service from Rantoul, Mahomet, St. Joseph and Thomasboro to the Illinois Terminal will provide a spine for smaller feeder buses to connect with. Peak-hour service will meet employment and educational needs, while midday service will respond to the needs of the disabled and elderly.
   Just as all of the students, faculty and staff at the UI now have unlimited access to the MTD, others will be added this century. Parkland, all K-12 students and major employer groups will be able to access service anywhere at any time.
   Technology also will play an important role. Automatic Vehicle Location Systems using satellites will enable systemwide monitoring of all buses. Passengers will be able to subscribe to a service that will notify them when to leave their home or place of employment to reach the bus stop and when the bus will be there, rather than when it is scheduled.
   Shelters and main stops will be equipped with signs that will count down the minutes until the next bus arrives.
   On each bus, announcements will be made automatically informing passengers of major street intersections and landmarks just ahead.
   Hybrid buses will replace the all-diesel bus fleet. Hybrids will be a combination of fuel cells or electric-wheel motors with a small clean diesel engine. By 2020, this type of vehicle will be the only one being purchased by the district.
   All of these changes and increased emphasis on walkability, livability and land use will set the stage for the initial reintroduction of fixed-guideway service on the UI campus. This could take the form of trolleys, streetcars or people movers. Existing high density and trip making on campus probably already meet minimum standards to justify the move, but service will not begin operating until 2050. Gradually, spokes will push out from campus to service high-density residential development and heavy employment pockets and other high traffic generators.
   The public, community officials and developers will work together to improve livability by the adoption of policies designed to broaden, rather than limit, transportation options. This will be necessary if the community is to remain as mobile as it is now. Currently, 28 percent of all work trips are taken by walking, riding a bike or taking the bus. As a community grows, the tendency is to limit options, because density is lowered and distances increased.
   Fewer options mean more cars, more congestion and longer commutes. Commute times are now low, due in great part to high density and reasonable alternatives to the automobile. Thankfully, with the improvements mentioned here, Champaign-Urbana will remain highly livable, and that will be a good reason to celebrate at the turn of the 22nd century.

   Bill Volk, a native of Indiana, washed buses in college and worked as a driver for the Indiana University campus bus system. He was hired in 1974 as managing director of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, and, he says, "I haven't gotten a promotion since."

   The News-Gazette welcomes comments from readers on the issues raised in this article. Please send your comments to: Editor, The News-Gazette, 15 Main St., P.O. Box 677, Champaign, IL 61824-0677. Send comments by e-mail to news@news-gazette.com.