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Metro to eliminate 115 bus stops deemed underused, redundant

Posted at 1:05 AM, Mar 02, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-02 10:25:17-05

CINCINNATI — Metro will on Sunday eliminate more than 115 bus stops from bus routes in an effort to make trips faster and more efficient.

“A lot of people can tell you, there’s some stops where you think, ‘Wasn’t there a stop a block away?’” Metro external affairs specialist Heather Norris-Garcia said. “We’re trying to eliminate those stops especially.”

Metro began gathering data on its more than 4,000 total stops in 2008. The yearslong analysis measured how frequently stops were used, how far apart they were, whether they were accessible to people with physical disabilities and whether they had places to sit or stand, among other factors.

The agency’s findings combined with the results of online rider surveys allowed it to select the stops it deemed unnecessary for the health of the system.

“If we were removing a stop, we made sure the next-closest stop isn’t too far away,” Norris-Garcia said. “A quarter-mile is the maximum total distance we’d require anyone to walk.”

The Metro does have some stops as little as 500 feet apart, but Route 17 rider Derrick Turner said he didn’t support eliminating them.

“That’s a bad situation for me,” he said. “I think they should keep it just like it is.”

Norris-Garcia encouraged people who feel the same way to fill out Metro’s online survey, which is still open.

“From the feedback we had gotten from riders, more than a dozen stops we had initially planned to remove we’re going to keep instead,” she said.