Comprehensive Plan - Carbondale, IL

Adopted June 22, 2010streets’ improvement would be the expansion of narrow sidewalks to a wide,off-street pathway.q. Prepare standard street cross sections for each functional class and charactertype that include right-of-way and pavementwidth, number and width of lands and medians (asapplicable), and provision for on- and/or off-streetbikeways, sidewalks, and transit improvements.Focus Area 3.4 - Enhancing Public TransitServicesThe Saluki Express is funded by a mass transit feeassessed to students and by a subsidy from the City.The subsidy from the City allows the Saluki Expressto continue operating while SIU is on Summer andWinter break. Students ride for free, while faculty, staff,and the general public are welcome to ride for a smallfee. Since the service is primarily funded by students,the route alignments are expressly for the purposeof transporting students to/from campus and otherpopular student destinations. As a result, the routeschedules do not coincide with typical work hoursnor are the route origins and destinations suitable fordaily work trips. While many of the routes operate inproximity to many of the major employers, they are notcounted among the primary stop locations. As a result,Saluki Express is viewed as student transportation.Figure 3.12 | BIKE PARKINGSTANDARDSThe transit system is serving a valuable role as it had415,235 boardings in 2008. Since 1996 when there were277,040 boardings, the service has steadily grown, onaverage, by 3.6 percent annually. 2 This is to say thatroughly 207,618 vehicle trips were saved in 2008. 3This helps relieve congestion, reduce potential traffic incidents, and cut vehicleemissions. Should the City, University, and other benefactors collaborate to adaptthe service for the general public, the benefits would likely increase exponentially.Doing so, however, will require a new funding model whereby expanded routesand extended days and hours of service are underwritten by transit patrons,together with the City, benefitting businesses and institutions, and other public andprivate funding.Most of the routes originate on campus at the student center. While there are stopsat the Amtrak Station, there has been public dialogue as to the warrant for a multimodaltransit center at (or near) the Downtown Amtrak Station. This would allowbetter coordination of routes, times, and providers, thereby potentially increasingridership and generally improving local and regional mobility. It could also serve asan impetus for a significant mixed use Downtown redevelopment project focusedaround a transit station. It could be a central hub for a citywide transit system withconnections to the Amtrak Service to Chicago, Greyhound service to St. Louis andChicago (and beyond), direct transfers to Jackson County Mass Transit (see Figure2 This is based on ridership numbers provided by Saluki Express.3 This assumes a boarding each for the original and return trips and that the vehicle tripwould be by a single occupant.Encouraging bike travel also meansproviding adequate parking spaces atkey destinations. The zoning ordinancedenotes the number of bike parkingspaces, but does not address the mannerof the bike parking. Bike parking must besafe and provide secure options to lockup the frame of the bicycle.Comprehensive Plan3.21Community Mobility