When bus riders look at the city’s bus map, they may notice a new look to VIA Metropolitan Transit’s map system.
The new color-coded map promises to be more comprehensive with visual details on the types of bus a route uses - like VIA Primo - and frequency of bus arrivals.
Josh Baugh, Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives of VIA, said the system map had not been updated for about 15 years.
“We wanted to make sure that we were providing something that was easy to navigate and clear for our existing customers and our future customers to be able to understand how our system works and how they can get around our region,” said Baugh.
Frequency was the focus for the map, and to ensure riders understand how frequent the bus stops in their area.
“The color-coding helps people understand where our most frequent routes are, and then make determinations on how they might want to move around the community based on frequency,” said Baugh.
Passengers riding Primo buses midday will see a dark red line representing buses arriving every 15 minutes or less, or a light red color line for every 20 minutes.
Those looking to ride the standard buses will see a dark blue line representing every 30 minutes, a light blue line every 40-60 minutes, and gold for over 60 minutes.
The redesign took about a year with community feedback on a draft map before the final one was released. It’s now making its way around the city.
“We're in the process now of updating displays at park and rides and distributing printed maps to the information centers across our service area,” said Baugh.
The reverse of the map includes a fare table and all routes listed with frequency times. On its website, VIA also offers a route planner to see which buses you need to take from your starting point to your destination.
