Did you know that bus rides in downtown Cedar Rapids are free? Most people don’t. Transit systems unintentionally create communities of users and as these users talk, they tend to share tips on navigating the system. These tips could be loop holes, but many times they are little known facts that can make your life easier or save you money.
We’re trying to scare up some tips about the CR Transit system to share the knowledge, and today’s tip will help save you money and maybe a little time too. If you get on and off a bus within the Cedar Rapids downtown area, which includes the Lot 44 transfer site, your trip is free! Now downtown Cedar Rapids isn’t terribly large, however, this could come in quite handy during the cold, rainy, and snowy months to make it more comfortable between locations. The most practical use of this service feature is to get a free trip from downtown to Lot 44 to catch another bus or pick up your car.
You won’t find this tip posted anywhere, at least not to my knowledge, but I learned about it from several of the bus drivers as I was catching a bus to the transfer site. This also means that there isn’t an official posting of what CR Transit considers the downtown boundaries, so I did some investigating. My source (a bus driver) says that the free area is between 1st Ave and 12th Ave and 1st St West and 8th St East as shown in the map below.
Give this tip a try now that we’re entering the cold season, and save some time and money.
Any other tips or tricks you have for public transit? Please share in the comments or email us and we’ll try to research it and share what we find.
Map cropped from the Corridor MPO site.
Tags: cedar rapids, tips
