Kirkwood-Webster Shuttle

According to Walkable City (p.155), transit works when you get four factors right regardless of scale: urbanity, clarity, frequency and pleasure. Urbanity essentially meaning that the route has walkable, significant, urban attractions at both ends; Clarity refers to the idea that routes should be easy to comprehend and visualize. Frequency is pretty self explanatory but 10 minute headways is the tipping point required for a system to work. Finally, Pleasure, perhaps the most surprising of the four, is the concept that the experience should be pleasurable in terms of view, comfort, people-watching, entertainment, etc.

Based on the potential for these four characteristics, I have a proposal: A weekend shuttle bus running between Downtown Kirkwood and Downtown Webster. While the current Metro Webster-Kirkwood Bus Route already runs along that route, it’s hour long headways outside of rush hour, poorly located stops and limited hours of operation all make it a fundamentally different commodity from what I am proposing. Here’s how:

Urbanity— The shuttle would have to take passengers to the heart of Downtown Kirkwood and Webster. My suggestion for Kirkwood is the intersection of Jefferson and N. Kirkwood while my suggestion for Webster (with the caveat that I’m significantly less familiar with the area, perhaps a better location exists) being W. Lockwood and N. Gore. In each of these locations a No Parking Zone and/or a curb bump out would need to be added. Further stops in dense residential areas, the intersections of Lockwood and Park as well as Lockwood and Berry would increase ridership amongst those just out of reasonable urban reach (~25 minute walks from their respective closest downtowns) without deviating from the existing urban-urban course.

Clarity— With essentially a single street comprising 98% of the route (Lockwood and Adams being two names for the same street) the route is about as clear as it gets, especially given the low bar set by existing Metro routes in the St. Louis area. 

Frequency— With two buses, the shuttle would be able to offer 10-13 minute headways in either direction. Original hours of operation would be Thursday-Saturday 6:00pm-12:00 midnight. The hours of operation could be extended to Friday, Saturday and Sunday during daytime hours based on the success of the original program.

Pleasure— In order to ensure a pleasurable experience, certain design factors should be taken into consideration. Amongst these are: quaint looking vintage busses (such as the ones depicted), on-board seating that faces inwards instead of the back of others’ heads, large windows on board, digital “Time to Next Arrival:” clocks, and comfortable seating, lighting and potentially shelter at the stops. One bus painted Webster Orange and the other Kirkwood Red would also add to the pleasurability of the system. Of course everything doesn’t have to be in place right off the bat but success will be based largely on getting at least most of these factors right.

The final factor, and most significant potential inhibitor is and will always be cost. While two vintage busses, fuel, maintenance, stop infrastructure and the cost of paying two drivers for 18+ hours per driver per weekend (approx. $30,000 in wages in total, per year) I believe these costs could quickly be covered through the potential for volunteer drivers, local business sponsorships, and the potential for a small ridership fee or even the selling of year-long passes. All of this is, of course, not even to mention the additional sales tax revenue to be gained from more accessible downtowns, and the inflated property taxes from homes being located in more livable neighborhoods.