This summer, Brookfield is trying out a free shuttle service on alternating Saturdays to encourage shoppers to hit both the farmers market at village hall and the Brookfield Shops at Eight Corners.
The shuttle first ran on July 12 and is scheduled to run on July 26 and Aug. 9 and 23. On that first day, it ran in a loop from the farmers market to the Congress Park Avenue parking lot at Ehlert Park, the Brookfield Shops and the village-owned parking lot on 31st Street from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., the same hours as the farmers market.
Libby Popovic, Brookfield’s community development director, said the program is a collaboration between the village and the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce, which runs the farmers market. The village-run Brookfield Shops retail incubator’s six stores are open Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. That means they’re open at the same time as the farmers market.
“Because they’re in two different locations, we were thinking of having a shuttle service because parking is always an issue. Once someone parks at either the Shops or they’re parking at the farmers market, there would be a shuttle that would bring visitors back and forth,” Popovic told the Landmark. “The intent is to drive some of the traffic that’s already going to be there into either location and make that as easy as possible.”
She called the first day a “test run” of the program and said the hours and stops could vary throughout the summer as Brookfield and the Chamber learn how people would use the shuttle.
She said it would likely start running at 9 or 10 a.m. to get closer to the opening of the Brookfield Shops and either run directly between the shops and farmers market or make one additional stop at a parking lot in town.
“The Chamber had suggested that we try those two additional stops [at parking lots] because it does get somewhat congested around village hall during the times that the farmers market is going on, but we found that no people used it,” she said. “We’re testing out what works best during the hours that the Shops are open.”
Popovic said the bus used for the shuttle was borrowed from the parks and recreation department, who use it for kids’ programs, like the STARS before- and after-school program. She estimated the shuttle would cost Brookfield $250 per day to operate, including paying a bus driver and covering insurance costs.
Despite the low usage, she said the first attempt went well but that Brookfield plans to improve its signage advertising the service in the future.
“We heard a lot of residents that didn’t use it that wanted to use it,” she said. “It’s one of those things that we have to test out a couple of times to really get some good metrics on it. There weren’t a lot of people using it; no one used it from 31st. No one used it from Ehlert Park. We didn’t anticipate a lot of usage initially because the word needs to get out there, so we’re testing out and playing around with times and locations to see what works best for everyone.”
