BATA Next Wave is a Transit Master Plan (TMP) that provides a five to ten year roadmap to guide the agency’s priorities. This plan helps to identify how best to use the agency’s resources to maximize the benefits that transit can bring to the community.
BATA Next Wave evaluates variables unique to the region, assesses transit demand, identifies potential opportunities, builds off BATA's recent successes, and makes recommendations based on guiding principles, stakeholder and community input, and technical analyses.
This effort prepares BATA for future challenges while also improving transportation options, helping our community’s residents be better connected to jobs, services, and educational opportunities.
Why a transit master plan?
As Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties continue to grow and the region cements itself as a premier tourism destination in northern Michigan, (BATA) is preparing to meet the changing needs of the community. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has led to a drastic shift in how people travel across the country and in the greater Traverse City region. Although transit ridership has regained much of the ridership from pre-pandemic levels, rider expectations and transit demands have changed.
In the five years before the COVID pandemic, BATA had increased ridership, launched a high-frequent fare-free Bayline service, upgraded tourism-based services, developed a mobile-ticketing program, improved rural door-to-door service, began the Link On-Demand service, and planned our new LaFranier Rd transit facility to support future growth of the agency. BATA Next Wave builds on these successes to develop guiding principles and implementable goals for the agency through the end of the decade.
Download BATA's Next Wave 2022 Transit Master Plan:
Plan your day with an easy to read timetable of stop locations for your route.