UDS surveys workers for lunch shuttle

Downtown restaurants may benefit from a survey conducted by the Urban Districts Alliance of more than 500 public service employees on their downtown dining habits.

UDA last spring surveyed 534 city, county and City Utilities employees to determine their interest in and the feasibility of a CU bus transit system among the Busch Building, county offices, CU offices and downtown.

The survey determined a majority of the employees surveyed, approximately 62 percent indicated an interest in using a lunch transit service, but that 53 percent of those surveyed indicated they seldom or never dine downtown during the lunch hour because of lack of parking or not having enough time.

The survey determined of the 330 respondents who expressed an interest in a lunch time bus service, 206 indicated that lack of parking is the biggest barrier, and 82 respondents cited "not enough time" as their greatest barrier to eating lunch downtown.

CU Manager of Transportation Kathy Fritts said CU is in the preliminary stages of deciding if a downtown lunch shuttle is feasible and is a service CU wants to provide to downtown. She said the issue will be presented to the CU board in a few months.

"Right now we just have the survey we haven't had a chance to talk to the board about the shuttle system at all and/or assess if the amount of ridership would justify it or not," Fritts said.

The shuttle would serve anyone in the Government Plaza vicinity, not just government and CU employees, who want to travel to the downtown business district, Fritts said.

About 88 percent of the employees surveyed stated they would be willing to pay 25 cents for a one-way trip downtown during the lunch hour.

The survey also asked if a shuttle making trips every 15 minutes would provide enough frequency, and 85 percent of those surveyed indicated it would. UDA representative Barb Baker said the idea for a downtown lunch shuttle is not a new one.

"This idea has been tossed around for years through Downtown Springfield Association and UDA, and we just thought it might be a way to get people down here for lunch," she said.

Mille's owner David Bauer said that while he has a free parking lot for customers next to his restaurant, he hears complaints about lack of other parking nearby when his lot is full.

"The shuttle service is a great idea to serve the business clientele who want to eat lunch downtown but think they don't have enough time to walk to the restaurants...there are a lot of parking lots down here, but they're mostly private lots. There are free parking spaces, but you have to find them, and that takes time," Bauer said.