Transit Center Location Study

OBJECTIVE

Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization (KMPO) study to select a preferred location for a transit center in the Coeur d’Alene metropolitan area.

BACKGROUND

Citylink is a partnership between the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, KMPO, the State of Idaho and Kootenai County. Citylink provides free public transportation to Southern Kootenai and Western Benewah counties, including the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Reservation. Citylink is operated by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe through the transportation department at the Coeur D’Alene Casino Resort Hotel.  

Citylink consists of five routes covering over 200 miles. Six buses with a total yearly capacity of more than 600,000 riders serve the system.

Since 2005, the Riverstone development in Coeur d’Alene has been used as a park & ride and transfer location.  All three of the Citylink Urban Routes serve the Riverstone transfer station and the Link Route connects the Coeur d’Alene Casino transfer station to Riverstone.  Recently, Citylink was notified that the Riverstone property would no longer be available for Citylink use. 

This news started discussions in the transportation community as to the need for a centralized transit center.  In addition to Citylink, other area transportation providers could also utilize a transit center, such as KATS-LINK, Northwestern Trailways, Greyhound, Omnibus, Inc., the Kootenai Medical Center (KMC) Shuttle, the North Idaho College (NIC) Shuttle, White Tail Transportation Service, Benewah Area Transit (BAT), and Spokane Transit Authority (STA) vanpools.  A centrally located maintenance base is also desired to reduce the cost and time delay for road calls. 

The study area for a transit center site encompasses the Coeur d’Alene metropolitan area and will consider the following criteria:

• Site size - ability to accommodate current and future transit service
• Turning movements on site and on adjacent roadways
• Circulation on site and on nearby roads, vehicle ingress and egress
• Bus routing and access to site
• Impact to surrounding traffic flow including potential signalization changes
• Capacity for bus storage and layovers
• Parking capacity and impact to surrounding use
• Parking demand
• Pedestrian and bicycle circulation and safety

Click HERE to view the Scope of Work
Click HERE to view the timeline
KMPO Transit Center Location Study Draft Final Report (23 MB)

The steering committee for the project will include officials and staff from agencies such as:

• KMPO Board
• Citylink
• NICE-KATS
• Panhandle Area Council
  
• City of Coeur d’Alene
  
• KROC Center
• Idaho Transportation Department, District 1

This study is being financed through funds provided to KMPO through the Federal Highway Administration’s Planning Funds and from local funding. 

Consultant Team:

The Land Group, Inc.
Coeur d'Alene, ID

LSC Transportation Consultants, Inc.
Tahoe City, CA