The Bay Area Transportation Authority has taken recent steps to get a wider range of customers on board, but extending service to some areas has meant leaving others feeling stranded.
"The cilia in my middle ear are gone, so I cannot drive because I have no balance," says Sandee Brown. "So you don't want to see me on the road."
So for the past six years she has been a faithful bus rider, taking it from her home in Northport to Suttons Bay for work and to Traverse City for shopping.
That changed earlier this year, when the Bay Area Transportation Authority rerouted its bus lines. Regular scheduled bus routes to Northport were discontinued because there are relatively few riders in town.
Brown can still schedule to be picked up, but she has to call ahead.
"You have to call BATA the day before, which doesn't always work out because sometimes your appointments - you'll have one hour to go where you're going," she says. "So it's like useless as far as I'm concerned for that reason."
The idea behind the changes is to better serve busier locations like Suttons Bay, for instance, or Kingsley.
Unfortunately for Brown and others, that has meant dropping towns like Northport from BATA’s scheduled route system.
We do not intend to take service away from anyone.
Kelly Yaroch, BATA’s operations director, says numbers dictated the changes.
"We do not intend to take service away from anyone," Yaroch says. "We really just have a responsibility to the taxpayers and to the greater region to make the best decisions that we can."
Ridership this fall has been 10 percent higher than last year.
And on a weekday morning, the terminal near downtown Traverse City is a bustling place when several buses arrive at once.
Emily Sklodowske, a hotel auditor, is the kind of professional BATA is trying to attract.
"I don’t have a car, actually, but that’s by choice," says Sklodowske. "I don’t want to deal with the payments, so I opt for the bus instead."
Four years ago, a new director stepped in at BATA and was charged with overhauling the service.
Newer buses and an increased effort at keeping them clean was the start of it.
But better routes and punctual service is the most effective way to bring in more riders, says James Bruckbauer, who studies and promotes green transportation for the Michigan Land Use Institute.
"That way it becomes more attractive to people who are trying to get to work because they know that they can get to their destination at a set time," he says. "They know when they have to leave for work and it's just more reliable for them."
BATA is looking at continued improvements, including newly drawn routes in Traverse City, new shelters at several stops and the ability for people to track approaching buses on their smart phones.