Moving LANTA Forward: Real change, real soon!

Last year, the LANTA Board of Directors officially adopted the Moving LANTA Forward strategic plan to guide LANTA’s policy decisions over the next decade. Moving LANTA Forward included three main elements: a service plan for the fixed route system; a marketing plan; and a land use outreach toolkit.

The service plan element of Moving LANTA Forward called for a redesign of the current fixed route network to accomplish various goals including:

• Establish a tier system of corridors to guide service and capital enhancements;
• Improve user-friendliness of the system through streamlined routes and a new route classification system;
• Reduce complexity by reducing variations and eliminating the separate evening service structure;
• Create new direct connections for prominent travel patterns with new through-routing links;
• Address route segments with “tight” running times to improve reliability and reduce operator stress; and
• Use flexible service models to address sparsely developed areas.

On Monday, August 29, 2011, LANTA will implement the first phase of changes designed to address these improvement goals. LANTA has developed a proposed service plan which will be a significant redesign of the current system. The proposals for changes will be made available for public comment starting Tuesday April 5, 2011. Members of the public will be able to review the proposed changes and provide their input at four separate public input sessions as follows:

Allentown
Tuesday, April 5th 1 - 3 pm and 6-8 pm
Baum School of Art - 510 W. Linden St

Easton
Wednesday, April 6 1 - 3 pm
Eastonian Hotel - 140 Northampton St

Bethlehem
Wednesday, April 6 6 - 8 pm
Hyatt Hotel - 45 W. North St - opposite the Metro Mart

In addition, information will be available at www.lantabus.com and members of the public will be given the opportunity to submit questions or comments through various electronic venues.

Rising Gas Prices Result in Highest Transit Savings in Two Years

The American Public Transportation Association's (APTA's) latest Transit Savings Report (released monthly) examines how an individual in a two-person household can save money by taking public transportation and living with one less car. Gas prices increased 28 cents a gallon in the last 10 days and are expected to continue rising. As a result, people who ride public transportation save, on average, $9,904 annually, and $825 per month. These results, based on the March 4 average national gas price and the national unreserved monthly parking rate, show the highest savings for public transit riders in two years.