Safe Travels, Treasure Valley. Logos for ACHD Commuteride, City Go, Boise GreenBike and Valley Regional Transit

As your transit authorities in the Treasure Valley, we are working hard to ensure everyone has a safe experience getting where they need to go. Read our weekly updates to see the latest safety measures we're taking to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Illustration of a bar chart, using black roads with yellow stripes as the bars

Valley Regional Transit Ridership Trends 2020

2020 has been a tough year for public transportation everywhere, and the Treasure Valley is no exception. Unsurprisingly, when the Governor issued a statewide stay-home order on March 25th, ridership on Valley Regional Transit buses took a nosedive. Service on several routes was suspended or curtailed, but the frequency was increased on more popular routes to provide greater social distancing for passengers. Still, weekday ridership saw a significant decline at the end of March and still hasn’t fully recovered. Weekend ridership has had peaks and valleys but has mostly returned to pre-COVID levels.

Key Dates:

March 25th – Governor Little issues the statewide stay-home order
March 27th – Services are suspended or curtailed, frequency of some routes increases, fare collection is suspended
May 4th – Full service resumes on routes 11, 16, and 17
June 15th – Normal operations resume, fares collection resumes, Main Street Station reopens
June 24th – Main Street Station closes, fare collection is suspended

Weekday Average Ridership: January–August 2020 Chart Visual

Weekend Average Ridership: January–August 2020 Chart Visual

Illustration of a Ven Diagram showing an intersection between buses, walking, biking and the wifi symbol

How to support a healthy commute for employees returning to work

With Idaho currently in Stage 4 of reopening (modified Stage 3 for Ada County), many organizations are now planning ways to provide employees with a safe commute back to the office. With employees traveling from different locations and using a variety of transportation options, identifying your employees’ commuting plans and concerns is an important part of your organization’s strategy. Commuteride assisted the Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) in developing recommendations to inform employers, commuters, and communities on how we can all get back to the workplace safely and efficiently.

Learn how to support employees returning to work

Ridetober Virtual Challenge October 1–11

Ridetober starts next week

Dust off your trainers and air up your tires, it’s time to walk, run, or bike the Ridetober Virtual 5K/10K Challenge! The virtual race can be completed anytime, anywhere between October 1 - 11. You decide when, where, and how to complete your own race at your own pace. Create a profile and register for the challenge, map your route and get started using the Commute Tracker app! You can even get your friends and family to race with you.

Illustration of an orange road sign showing a black upward arrow with a yellow dashed line through it's middle, like a roadway

What safety measures are happening across shared transportation?

Valley Regional Transit:

Drivers and riders are required to wear masks.
Riders are asked to board buses through the rear door to provide greater social distancing with drivers.
Staff will continue to wipe down the inside of the buses between trips.
Every in-service bus is cleaned and disinfected every night.
Cleaning crews are paying special attention to frequently touched areas, like handrails and seat backs, and utilizing foggers to treat the insides of the buses.
Riders are asked to sit as far apart from other riders as possible.
Riders are asked not to use public transit if sick or have recently been sick.
Main Street Station in downtown Boise is currently closed while the Happy Day Transit Center in Caldwell remains open.

Read more on the Valley Regional Transit website

Club Red:

Vans are sanitized and are equipped with medical-grade disinfectant.
Vans may run with as few as 3 passengers for the time being to allow distance between riders.
Riders are asked to sit as far apart from other riders as possible.
Riders are asked to practice good hygiene, wash hands, and/or use sanitizer before entering the van.
Riders are required to wear a face-covering while riding in vans.
If you need a face-covering, please contact Commuteride at 208-345-7665.

Read more on the ACHD Commuteride website

Boise State Bronco Shuttle:

The Boise State Bronco Shuttles are operating at reduced service. Accessible students will be prioritized so please walk or bike, if possible.
Only the Blue and Orange routes are running. The Blue on-campus route and the Orange downtown route run Monday to Friday, 7 am to 6 pm.

Bronco Shuttle Rules:

Riders are responsible for their personal safety.
Riders must wear a cloth face-covering at all times.
No food or drinks allowed on the shuttle.
No more than 10 passengers are allowed in a shuttle at any time.
Riders are asked to space themselves out and to not sit on seats with an ‘X’.
Riders will occasionally be asked to exit and transfer to another shuttle for COVID-19 cleaning protocols.

How are communities doing around the Valley?

As of September 24, there are 39,234 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state of Idaho. The following is the latest report from Central Health District and Southwest District Health for Ada and Canyon counties. (Data current as of 9/24/20.)

	Confirmed	Probable	Combined	Deaths
Ada County	11,495	1,079	12,574	141
Canyon County	7,564	496	8,061	101
Total	19,059	1,575	20,635	242

Illustration of two individuals waving at each other while standing 6 feet apart

Rider safety tip of the week:

Don't follow the crowd

Stay healthy and safe by limiting crowd exposure

Illustration of a smart phone displaying options for different means of getting around

Transportation shout-out of the week!

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is based on a simple premise: transportation isn’t an end in and of itself. Rather all the modes of transportation available to us: transit, carshare, micromobility including bikeshare and e-scooters, on-demand rides such as microtransit, and ridehailing, serve one essential purpose: to get you from point A to point B.

The promise of MaaS is to integrate all options in a single interface, with a single payment mechanism. Valley Regional Transit is working to create a MaaS environment through programs like City Go, and through an integrated mobile app that will allow users to purchase fare for many modes of transportation all in one place that will be introduced next year.

The Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC) recently issued a new policy paper, Towards the Promise of Mobility as a Service in the U.S., that provides the public and private sectors with guideposts for working together to achieve MaaS.