http://www.arounddesmoines.com/reviews-artstop-september-7-8-2007/ Blogging Des Moines Iowa Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:41:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://www.arounddesmoines.com/reviews-artstop-september-7-8-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-266 M.R. Field Sat, 08 Sep 2007 20:59:25 +0000 http://www.arounddesmoines.com/reviews-artstop-september-7-8-2007/#comment-266 The bus delays have been explained. The bus company hired to provide transportation between Artstop locations had to re-deploy two buses. This resulted in a subcontract with DART for two of its buses. The drivers were given the standard Artstop bus route map, which has some slight misdirections on it (e.g., the route shows buses going up 4th Street in West Des Moines when the stop is really on 5th Street, which is noted in the text). In addition, the new DART buses apparently are 45 feet, whereas the contracted company's buses are 40 feet. This caused the DART drivers extra difficulty at the Artstop location by The Art Store. Interestingly, the regular #1 route apparently was re-routed to go up 5th Street instead of across Elm Street in order to coordinate with Artstop. At least I saw one of the #1 buses do that detour. I have comments about what I observed with DART today, and I passed them on to the Artstop people and will pass them on to DART. In short, it demonstrated why we need more regular bus service and less special service. There were several more people riding the Artstop buses on Saturday, though. The bus delays have been explained. The bus company hired to provide transportation between Artstop locations had to re-deploy two buses. This resulted in a subcontract with DART for two of its buses. The drivers were given the standard Artstop bus route map, which has some slight misdirections on it (e.g., the route shows buses going up 4th Street in West Des Moines when the stop is really on 5th Street, which is noted in the text). In addition, the new DART buses apparently are 45 feet, whereas the contracted company’s buses are 40 feet. This caused the DART drivers extra difficulty at the Artstop location by The Art Store. Interestingly, the regular #1 route apparently was re-routed to go up 5th Street instead of across Elm Street in order to coordinate with Artstop. At least I saw one of the #1 buses do that detour. I have comments about what I observed with DART today, and I passed them on to the Artstop people and will pass them on to DART. In short, it demonstrated why we need more regular bus service and less special service. There were several more people riding the Artstop buses on Saturday, though.

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