Good news for ART bus riders: Sunday and holiday service will come to all routes in 2018 and the City of Asheville will add eight additional hours of evening service hours Monday-Saturday, distributed to multiple routes.
In the 2017-18 budget adopted by Asheville City Council, additional funding was allocated for expanded ART bus service that will begin in January 2018. The budget includes funding to provide Sunday and Holiday Service on all routes and expanded evening service on select routes, totaling 8 hours daily. City Staff also requested and received federal grant funding to include 1 additional daily trip on Route 170 which connects Asheville and Black Mountain.
We want to hear from you, the riders, in choosing which routes should benefit from the additional evening hours of service!
Ways to share your feedback
Online survey
The City’s Transportation Department is reaching out to the community and stakeholder groups to get feedback to help inform the decision. Starting today, ART riders can take a survey — available in English and Spanish — on Open City Hall Asheville. Log on and vote for the routes you would like to see offering expanded evening hours.
Take the survey in English here.
Tome la encuesta en español aquí.
Drop-in meetings
The City will also hold drop-in meetings where the community can learn about the expansion opportunities and provide their feedback. These meetings will be held:
- 5-7 p.m. Sept. 11 in Lord Auditorium at Pack Library, 67 Haywood St.
- 1-3 p.m. Oct. 7 at the Edington Center, 133 Livingston St.
Pop-up opps
Surveys will also be circulated on the ART buses themselves! Look for pop-up opportunities.
Survey and public input feedback will be presented at the ART bus station on Oct. 17. That same information will be presented to the City’s Transit Committee and Multimodal Transportation Commission in October.
Look for the changes to be announced in November and implemented in January 2018.
About ART
The City of Asheville encourages everyone to try using the transit service. Asheville Redefines Transit (ART) operates 18 bus routes throughout the city.
Riding the bus is an eco-friendly act. The City’s Transit fleet operates seven hybrid buses, and all vehicles in the fleet are fueled by biodiesel.
Routes originate from the ART Station, 49 Coxe Avenue in downtown Asheville (next to the U.S. Post Office). The ART Station provides restrooms, indoor and outdoor seating and an on-duty information assistant until 9:30 p.m. At the ART Station, you can get route maps and schedules and buy a monthly or annual pass.
Asheville City Council made expansion of Transit service hours a priority in the City’s budgeting
process for the 2017-18 fiscal year by including $630,000 in transit system improvements. Council’s Vision 2036 identifies transportation and accessibility as a key value, with a goal of having: “Public transportation (that) is widespread, frequent, and reliable.”
For bus routes and a map, visit ashevllenc.gov/findbusroutes.
For more information about the route expansion initiative, contact Transit Planning Manager Elias Mathes at EMathes@ashevillenc.gov or 828-232-4522.