GVT temporarily changing routes to keep buses on time

Grand Valley Transit is making route changes aimed at improving on-time performance, which has struggled due to ongoing roadway construction projects. These changes will go into effect on Oct. 12 and continue until further notice.

Route 1 will detour from Main and 7th Street to the Downtown Transfer Facility via 7th Street. As a result, all stops on Main Street west of 7th Street will not be served, nor will stops on Ute Avenue and Pitkin Avenue (these stops will continue to be served by Route 5 and Route 11). Inbound and outbound courtesy stops will be provided at 7th Street south of Colorado Avenue near Enstrom's.

Route 3, which is already under a significant detour due to construction on Orchard Ave, will convert its courtesy stop on Warrior Way south of E ½ Road to a by-request only stop.

To request a pick-up, passengers must call 970-256-7433 before :30 past the hour. To request a drop-off, passengers simply need to inform the bus driver immediately upon boarding the bus.

Route 10 is currently in a long-term detour due to the start of construction of 32 ½ Road in Clifton.

“We take these decisions very seriously. On the one hand, we don’t want to negatively affect our riders who use certain stops. On the other hand, transferring from bus to bus at our transfer facilities is a critical part of our system design. So missing transfers creates a significant delay for our riders. We wouldn’t be making this change unless we saw a prolonged and consistent pattern that needs to be addressed” said Andrew Gingerich, Transit Planner for the Mesa County Regional Transportation Planning Office.

Route 4 is also in a long-term detour due to construction activity on F Road. However, these detours are not due to on-time performance issues. Detour, stop closure, and other system updates can be found on the GVT “News” posts at the GVT trip website.

“It’s been a difficult year for us on this issue. At various points 10 of our 12 routes were going through major construction zones, and some of them hitting multiple projects at the same time. With fixed-route transit, you can’t easily just change course, you have a line that you are running, and you have to stay on that line. If you get off that line you have to communicate that with your riders, and we are a public transportation agency, so our rider base includes the entire public,” said Gingerich.

“We aren’t complaining, these projects are being done by our local partners, with whom we work closely. Ultimately, we run our buses on the road, so improvements to road condition and road safety are good for us too. And a lot of these projects are funded from non-local funding sources, so as a community we should be happy that we are receiving these investments.”

For more information visit the Grand Valley Transit website.