Background
The Minuteman Advisory Group on Inter-Local Coordination (MAGIC), a sub-region of the 101 cities and towns in the MAPC region, requested and funded this study to inventory, analyze and recommend improvements to suburban transit systems in the sub-region. This study builds upon work completed by the Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) in the 2005 “Regionwide Suburban Transit Opportunities Study Phase II” which looked at suburban transit services throughout the entire MAPC region.
In 2012, MAPC worked with the MAGIC sub-region on a Phase II of the MAGIC Suburban Mobility Transit Study. Phase II included follow-on tasks that were recommended as part of the overall Phase I assessment report. These included a town by town transit survey, an assessment of Council on Aging services in each town, and a report detailing the opportunities and challenges associated with using school buses as a form of public transportation.
Objective
The main objective of the study was to inventory existing services and determine what recommendations could be made to improve suburban transit services in each of the MAGIC towns. The follow-on tasks provide additional detail as to how a regional transportation service could be developed and operated in the sub-region. This work has lead to the formation of the Crosstown Connect Transportation Management Association that will be serving several MAGIC towns.