An historical diversion
Additionally, if we had a bus loop that circulated Downtown, people could park more on the fringes and not drive through the heart of it. This is another big issue with why Downtown doesn't thrive more... public transit there is not good. It also shows how undesirable the Skyway is as it reaches to some of those fringe areas for parking and people still don't use it much - maybe because it doesn't stop close enough to desired locations? is unreliable? runs too infrequently or for too short hours? fringe parking isn't safe? too expensive? not marketed well? not enough of it? in the wrong places? How hard is it answer these questions and come up with some viable solutions? Does anybody even care to look at these things?
jaxlongtimer, you probably realize this, but you have just invented the Downtown Circulator system JTA started in the mid-1970s. Originally two routes, each serving fringe parking lots. One served parking lots on Liberty Street near State and Union, and lots on either side of Market Street, between Union and Beaver. The route looped through the downtown core serving most of the retail and office destinations. A second route served parking lots on the Southbank (before it was called that). One lot was adjacent to the then site of the JTA offices, on Prudential Drive next to the Main Street approach to I-95. If I remember correctly, there was also a parking lot along Prudential, east of Main. The south route crossed the Main Street Bridge, and served similar destinations. It being the US Bicentennial, they were called the "Blue" and "Red" routes (respectively, I think). JTA purchased 35-passenger buses (most buses had 45-50 seats) with upgraded seating for this service. A couple of years later, a third route was added, connecting to parking lots near the Gator Bowl. The Bicentennial being over, the red, white, and blue, color scheme was dropped, and geographic names adopted. At some point, the 35-foot coaches were replaced with similar sized buses that looked like old-time trolley cars. When downtown was busy, so were these circulator routes.
The Skyway was supposed to provide a spine to connect parking on the edges of downtown with the core. Circulator bus routes were supposed to extend the reach of the Skyway by connecting the stations to parts of downtown beyond a typical walk-distance. In the original concept, these circulator buses would have been the only ones within the core. The suburban bus routes would terminate at one of the end stations of the Skyway, and passengers would transfer to the elevated system. With the potential of very short headways (time between Skyway vehicles), it was calculated that switching from bus to Skyway would be quicker than staying on a bus caught in downtown congestion.
But, alas, offices and retail left downtown, taking with them the Skyway riders. That, and JTA didn't do a great job of keeping the thing operating reliably.
