Lots of bus routes are set to change in Boise area. See how your neighborhood is affected

Ian Max Stevenson
·6 min read
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Changes are coming to Boise-area bus routes in the coming year, as the local public transit agency grapples with its perpetual challenge: providing bus service that depends on taxpayer support but receives unusually limited funding.

On some routes, buses will run more frequently. On others, less — or none at all. There are new routes, and several routes travel to different places than before.

The changes aren’t final. The transit system is inviting feedback. Here are nine questions and answers about how your closest routes would be affected, and how else the system is changing.

1. What route is getting more frequent buses?

Route 7, which travels along Fairview Avenue, would get faster service: every 15 minutes during commuting times — 7 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. — and every 30 minutes at midday. The route would also have 30-minute Saturday service.

That’s a step up from the current service, which is every 30 minutes during commuting times and once an hour at midday and on Saturdays. The change would give residents of the Boise Bench a route that is in line with the fastest ones available in Boise, which are now State Street’s Route 9 and Vista Avenue’s Route 3.

Other routes — Route 3 on Vista and Route 6 on Orchard Street — would get more frequent evening service. Route 12 on Maple Grove Road would get faster weekday service, and Route 42 from Canyon County to Boise Towne Square would get hourly service.

2. What other routes are changing, and how?

The Orchard Street route would reach further north up to Hill Road and south to the Boise Airport. Those changes would connect the Orchard route to three others: Vista Avenue, Fairview Avenue and State Street, according to Valley Regional Transit.

In West Boise, Route 45, which mostly travels along Fairview, would shift, allowing for more connections with other routes.

The 26, a new route on Ustick and Maple Grove roads, would connect Boise Towne Square with the Village at Meridian once an hour on weekdays.

More service is also coming to Canyon County, in Nampa and Caldwell.

Service along Hill Road, Route 10, which now runs once an hour on weekdays, would be slimmed down to once an hour in the morning and at night, with no service in the middle of the day.

3. Can riders still get Lyft discounts?

The changes would expand the areas where riders can receive discounts on Lyft rides if they need to hail a car on the ridesharing app to get to a bus stop.

If a rider is within the service area, Lyft trips are discounted to $2 for rides within two miles of a bus stop.

4. Are any routes going away?

The bus route that extends to Harris Ranch — Route 1 — in East Boise would be axed.

So would Route 4, which travels along Roosevelt Avenue on the Bench.

Route 8x on Five Mile and McMillan roads would be consolidated into another route, and a loop of Route 6 on Curtis Road would go away.

The route that goes from the Boise VA Medical Center up 9th Street to Hyde Park, Route 16, would lose its North End loop.

Many of the routes that would be reduced or changed are ones that have lower ridership.

Route 1 along Parkcenter to Harris Ranch, Route 4 on Roosevelt, Route 10 on Hill Road and Route 16 on 9th Street were all in the bottom quarter of routes by annual ridership, according to 2022 data from the agency.

Harris Ranch had fewer than 33,000 riders, or 7.7 riders per hour. Roosevelt had 30,000, or 6.4. Hill Road had 27,000, or 8.3, and Hyde Park had 11,000, or 8.1.

‘What will our traffic look like?’ Why Boise bus service hasn’t kept pace with growth

5. Why were these cuts made?

Valley Regional Transit receives no funding from the state, which is unusual for cities of Boise’s size, according to analyses by the agency. While some comparable cities do not receive funding from state coffers either, they raise revenue through a local sales tax — a revenue mechanism not allowed by the Idaho Legislature.

That means bus service gets cobbled together each year by the transit agency, which asks each city for money, usually from property tax receipts.

This year, the agency said, it will receive “unprecedented levels of funding,” allowing an increase in the time that buses spend on the road to 98,000 hours from 90,000.

But it still faces constraints that have forced the agency to make a series of compromises: Should buses go more places, or cover fewer routes but come more frequently?

“Our goal has been to create a better bus system including a move toward a higher-frequency network,” CEO Elaine Clegg said in a news release. “Thanks to valuable community feedback, we believe we have struck a balance between buses arriving more often in critical places and offering service to areas that need it.”

6. Is overall ridership rising or falling?

Some of the added or expanded routes reflect the highest-ridership areas. Fairview had 73,632 riders in 2022 and was in the top quarter of routes by ridership, averaging 16.2 riders per hour.

Ridership declined during the COVID-19 pandemic from over 1 million rides in 2019 to under 800,000 in 2021. But that number has been ticking back up quickly. The agency had close to 872,000 rides in 2022.

7. What do bus rides cost?

Bus rides cost $1.50 one way and $2.50 for an all-day pass. The agency expects to generate $866,196 from fares and passes in the coming fiscal year, agency spokesperson Jason Rose told the Statesman by email.

A map shows the expected changes to Valley Regional Transit’s routes in the Boise area. Black routes were not changed, blue routes are new routes, and dotted red lines show existing routes on the chopping block. The gray box around Eagle is the area served by the agency’s on-demand service, which lets riders request rides through an app. That coverage area is not expected to change.

8. How can I tell the bus system what I think?

Valley Regional Transit is still accepting comments from the public on the proposed route changes, which are laid out on the agency’s website. Residents can take an online survey at rideVRT.org/redesign until Sept. 15, email comments to feedback@rideVRT.org, or leave phone messages at 208-258-2702.

The agency has also scheduled four public hearings:

  • Nampa: Thursday, Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. at Nampa City Hall.

  • Boise: Thursday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. at Boise City Hall.

  • Meridian: Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. at Valley Regional Transit’s headquarters, 700 NE 2nd St. in Meridian.

  • Caldwell: Thursday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Caldwell Police Department’s office, 110 S 5th Ave.

After the hearings, the agency’s staff and board may make additional changes. The board plans to vote on the issue on Oct. 2, according to the news release.

The changes would go into effect next summer.

“We have heard concerns about losing service with this change, and we have made adjustments to the proposal accordingly,” Clegg said in the release. “We also heard support for gaining service in places that don’t currently have any, and we are excited to extend service to places that we think will benefit.”

9. Is the ValleyRide name gone?

Residents who have lived in the Treasure Valley for at least a few years mostly know the bus service as ValleyRide. But Valley Regional Transit has quietly dropped that brand name.

The agency began referring to its service as Valley Regional Transit in late 2020, spokesperson Jason Rose told the Idaho Statesman by email. Some vestiges of the old ValleyRide name remain, including on bus signs.

“We are looking forward to updating those with the service change,” Rose said.