MATBUS Transit Wants You to Tell Them How to Improve
Just in the past two years, nearly two million people used MATBUS as a way to get around the metro.
The need for public transportation isn’t just in the big cities.
Just within the past decade, MATBUS ridership has increased by almost 80 percent in Fargo-Moorhead.
That’s why MATBUS and FM Council of Government are looking to update its regional transit plan and they want to hear from you on ways to improve it.
Joshua Schwebach takes the bus around three times a week.
“I started using MATBUS when I first came here. I learned about it and thought that’s a great way to not have to drive and if it goes by my place obviously it saves me time and money,” says the NDSU Senior.
Over the next two days, MATBUS will hold meetings across the area providing future plans and hoping to hear some comments too.
One of the plans is to offer a direct route from NDSU to West Acres Mall.
“One of the reasons that we’re here is to gauge students on whether they would use that service,” says Senior Transportation Planner, Michael Maddox.
And that’s just one of the options. The plan includes both short term and long terms goals.
“Part of the plan is to extend the hours of the MAT BUS but that could happen at any time within the next five years.”
Extended hours would be a huge help for Michael Mealey, who doesn’t have a car.
He works at five in the morning, and MATBUS starts at six.
Which means rain or shine, you can bet Mealey will be walking to work.
“It’s slippery, it’s nasty, I can’t ride my bike I have to walk,” says Mealey of Fargo.
Maddox says they’re looking at a midnight, 1:00am and 3:00am option.
Currently the bus stops running at 10 at night.
“It really is for people to get around the region without having to drive a car. People who don’t drive a car, it’s very important to provide those kind of trips for those people,” says Maddox.
While many community members rely on MATBUS, students tend to fill the bus first.
Maddox says half of MATBUS riders are students.
