06/16/2026
For week 11 of 20 Years in 20 Weeks, we’re highlighting the changes we launched in 2021 that came as a result of our 2020 transit development plan, referred to as “Redesign Streamline”. A Transit Development Plan (TDP) is a plan done every 3-5 years and generally looks at the next 10 years. Sometimes these plans involve small tweaks to service, and, like we saw in 2020, sometimes these plans involve complete overhauls.
Prior to our TDP in 2020, Streamline has circular routes since its beginning in 2006. Circular routes do one thing really well, and one thing very poorly. With a 60-minute circular route, you can cover quite a bit of distance but roundtrips end up taking an hour. For example, if you lived a 10-minute bus ride from the library, on one of our old 60-minute circular routes your return trip would have taken 50 minutes.
This issue, paired with the rapid growth Bozeman had already been seeing for years prior to 2020 led to the new routes that offer bidirectional service, while still maintaining most of the coverage that was offered prior to the redesign. The coverage that was removed was driven by data: surveys, ridership data, and public comment periods ensured we were able to identify the least utilized areas of our service.
The result? Bidirectional service covering Bozeman’s most visited destinations. Going back the library example, with bidirectional service, if you live 10 minutes from the library, your ride home will also be 10 minutes. Changes like this dramatically increase ridership experience and help make transit a more appealing mode of transportation!
