Transit is much more than the car in your garage. With the new transit research in Rapid City, alternative transit options are being assessed alongside roads and sidewalks.
Busses, bike lanes and other alternative transit options are on the docket of Rapid City’s safe streets assessment as the growing city seeks to maximize the value of existing infrastructure.
Kip Harrington is Rapid City’s long range planning division manager. He said it’s a matter of how to best utilize the puzzle pieces when it comes to bike lanes.
“We’re always looking at opportunities to increase safety with bike lanes and other opportunities for non-motorized transportation in Rapid City," Harrington said. "Right now, we only build bike lanes when a road gets reconstructed, and we have the existing right-of-way that allows us to fit bike lanes in. That’s been our big problem lately, but we’ll continue to work on that and identify those opportunities and construct them when possible.”
While Rapid City does house a robust biking trail through the park network, commuters along roads are often competing for space with cars without dedicated lanes.
Another big item includes the local bus network. Right now, Rapid Transit is assessing the viability and efficiency of current routes. However, as the city continues to grow more robust bussing will be needed.
Harrington said it’s an item that requires attention.
“One of the problems with public transit is that Rapid City is very spread out," Harrington said. "We have a lot of square footage for the amount of population we have. That makes running our busses difficult and expensvie to operate and operate in a timely fashion. Over time, more densification will help, and also funding. It’s very expensive to run a public transit system, it does not pay for itself. So, we would require more funding from City Council to increase out transit services.”
Fare and route information for Rapid Transit can be found here.