Significant changes are coming to the University bus routes beginning Aug. 16. The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District held a public hearing at the College of Law about proposed changes to campus routes.

Members of the public were invited to come and provide feedback.

The changes came about because of requests from the University to make the system more efficient, said Jay Rank, a transportation analyst with transit district.

According to the handout “Proposed Core Campus System,” which provides details about the new routes, bus routes such as the 24 Scamp, the 21 Quad and the 26 Pack will be eliminated. Instead, new routes will cross campus from east to west and run in both directions, Rank said.

“The University asked us to take some trips off of Wright Street, to reduce congestion, and for safety reasons,” Rank said.

The new routes do not serve the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center, according to the route map on the handout.

Bill Volk, managing director of MTD, said this is not problematic because most of the new stops are less than a quarter of a mile away, adding that “walking is not a bad thing.”

Rank said they used data on ridership to arrive at the new routes.

The new service will provide an additional 15,000-20,000 hours of service that the current system does not have, said Jan Kijowski, marketing director for the MTD.

“There will be four main nodes that will allow you to get from one side of the campus to the next,” Rank said. “We want the new service to offer students more options to get off campus,” he said.

Kijowski also said that the MTD planned to get four more stretched buses to accommodate capacity.

Volk said he believes that new routes provide less waiting and allow more one-seat rides, which means students can go from one end of campus to the next or off campus.

“The new route system will allow direct service from places such as Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Halls straight to downtown Champaign,” Volk said. “Routes served will be identical when the University is not in session, but frequency will be reduced.”

One question that remains is how identification will be checked for students. Students do not currently have to show identification to get on campus buses. “When you board at a dorm we won’t be looking for IDs,” Volk said.

Volk added that Goodwin Avenue will be rebuilt during the summer, three new bus shelters will be created and new LCD screens will be made to let riders know when buses are supposed to arrive.

To help riders adjust to the changes, Rank said that many representatives from MTD will be on the routes for the first few weeks.

Brian Larson, a graduate student and student senator, said that the overall plans were impressive.

“I am happy the new routes connect all the major campus hubs,” Larson said. “However, for the law school we are losing one of the campus routes, the 23 Shuttle, and I understand that this is a problem for some of my fellow students.”