ICTC downtown, campus connector route sees low ridership in first year

• Tweet
• 

Less than 3 percent of all rides given this academic year by Isabella County Transportation Commission have been to or from downtown Mount Pleasant.

But Dennis Adams, director of marketing and public relations for ICTC, is not disappointed by the low percentage, and believes the route will gain popularity over time.

“It’s going to take time to grow it to what it can be potentially, but we are perfectly happy with what we’ve achieved,” Adams said. “We’re making changes and doing service in a way that is not familiar.”

He said the original shuttle service also had a slow start, but grew from about 12,000 rides to more than 225,000 annually over the span of 37 years.

The City Commission requested an evaluation be conducted, counting the number of people who got on and off downtown on a given day. The count will probably be conducted in early May, Adams said.

The Tax Increment Finance Authority Board approved $6,900 to be used to promote the downtown route on the side of the buses. The Mount Pleasant City Commission first must approve it.

Downtown Development Director Michelle Sponseller hopes to see more students take advantage of the downtown route.

“It’s a good thing for downtown businesses and wonderful for students,” Sponseller said. “I hope they keep it around for as long as possible.”

She said downtown has plenty to offer to students, such as a theater, art classes, shopping, restaurants, concerts, festivals and even yoga.

She would like to see more underclassmen students get to know the area sooner in their college career, even if they do not own cars.

“I think they’re going to be really surprised when they find out what we have to offer,” Sponseller said.

Saginaw senior Chelena Eli is an ICTC rider, but has never taken the route downtown.

“I heard about it but I’ve never taken it,” Eli said. “But I heard it was pretty cool.”

Ohio sophomore Andrew Coutts likes the downtown area, but said he would rather ride his bike there in the warm weather.

“It’s a really nice area, I like the old shops and stuff,” Coutts said.

Adams said the riders experience many advantages, such as not worrying about parking tickets, gas prices, and scraping snow and ice off their cars in the winter.  The bus is always free, despite the name change.

ICTC changed its bus service name to iRide to make buses more identifiable, especially for visitors from out of town.

The ICTC logo, which was designed by CMU marketing students, is removed from the buses but will remain on the website and business cards.

The full name was also added to the back of all buses.

ICTC is not considering eliminating the downtown connector route.

“It is growing and we don’t anticipate a downswing,” Adams said. “We certainly don’t see ourselves as perfect but we’re always striving to get better.”