SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Transit Authority is considering several changes to bus routes across the city next year, which could include not having a bus route through Peaceful Valley in 2026.
STA’s plan for revising Route 20 includes taking out five stops in Peaceful Valley along Main and Clarke. The route would instead run along Riverside Avenue through Browne’s Addition.
STA says it doesn’t have a bus route for that area of the city yet, but many people who live in Hillyard are requesting it.
“When we assessed that 20 doesn’t necessarily warrant the high frequency of service that it has now, that’s tied to the split routing on Clarke and Riverside avenue,” said Emily S. Poole, the interim chief planning and development officer at STA.
STA says the route through Peaceful Valley is underperforming and doesn’t have enough riders to continue it. It expects far more bus riders to use the route if it’s shifted to Hillyard.
Peaceful Valley Neighborhood Council Chair Bill Forman says there is no convenient alternative if Peaceful Valley loses its bus service. It’s nearly a half-mile walk to the nearest bus stop from Clarke Avenue.
“As I get older, I’ll need it,” Forman said. “We certainly have elderly people who definitely need the bus service. There are some families down here that need the bus service. Living in the city, it’s important to have bus service.”
Both STA and the Peaceful Valley Neighborhood Council will take STA’s survey on the proposed revisions to the bus routes. They hope that the people who will be the most impacted by these changes will respond to this survey.
“If anybody read the report they can read a description of it in the survey, and then we ask questions about how riders would potentially be impacted and how they feel about those impacts,” Poole said.
STA will continue collecting feedback from that survey through Dec. 15.
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