By: Diane Benjamin
From July 2016 through May 2017 they lost $9,428,569 (PDF Page 8 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zAZemF_qQuZzVIekJtLTVTN28/view )
May 2017 ridership was up over last year, but year to date is still behind and they are way behind projections – See PDF page 11.
Are rides up because Bloomington-Normal now has more poor people who can’t afford cars? Are they up because people don’t want to risk damaging their cars on the pothole-filled roads?
A total of 2,157,583 people have ridden year-to-date. Total expenses year-to-date are $10,708,668. That means the cost for each ride was almost $5.
Total Revenue to date is $1,280,100. That means each ride generated $.59.
Obviously Connect Transit is merely a way to redistribute wealth. Add food stamps, housing subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credits, Obama phones, and Medicaid – nobody is helping poor people. They are making sure they STAY poor. Handouts make it useless to work hard so you can determine your own future. It’s much easier to not be a contributing member of society.
Ben Franklin was right:
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.
and this one:
The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.
Worse, Connect Transit must not have employees who know how to run the organization. They require Consultants.
If the consultants don’t have good advice, they can always travel:
Can somebody FOIA the details?
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/benjaminfr557666.html
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We not all poor on the bus. You should ride. You would see. I see st. farmers, guys in ties and jackets How am I supposd to get around with my daugher? Why are cars are the only way
How much of other people’s money are you entitled to to ride the bus? Commenting from Virginia? A suburb of DC no less?
?? I’m at Bloomington Library. On friends phone.
I look at the buses all the time and there is never anyone in them.. where are the buses with State Farm people in them? Where are the buses with more than two people in them?
At $5 a ride – maybe Uber vouchers make more sense?
But, but, they are ordering new buses!
Mike McCurdy of WGLT and a VP of Bike BloNo has direct influence on CT as a board member. He seems to think he is an expert on transportation and management. I have to wonder about the appointed leadership’s ability.
WONDER no longer Skunk! Leadership ability? Try incompetence!
New busses, huh? Wonder if they’ll have WiFi too??
The new LED signs will have WiFi capability.
I’ll post it again: Transit is part of a subsidized transportation network and a public good. As soon as we start charging homeowners for the full price solid waste collection or the full cost of putting out a fire at a home, or making every road a toll road, we can start talking about having riders pay full freight for a bus ride. Imagine the congestion if those 2.1 million people you cite using transit per year we’re taking those trips in cars?!?
That would be 6300 cars a day spread out over all the streets in Bloomington-Normal. Nobody would notice, especially since a large number of them are college students just headed out to Walmart etc.
Veterans Parkway can’t handle one car more during peak congestion. It’s awful! Well, you saw it here first folks: Diane Benjamin doesn’t think anyone would notice 6300 cars per day on B/N roads, and thinks more traffic congestion is okay. Lump her in with Bike BloNo!
Everybody drives Veterans? Not the intelligent people considering it’s falling apart. Nice try Rob. Bike Blono wants to create congestion on E. Washington. That’s real brains for ya! If the buses weren’t on Veterans, that would allow more room for cars!
Really Bob…? you consider the peak traffic time on Veterans as a nightmare scenario that only a functioning bus system can help avoid? Have you driven a Chicago lately during rush hour? What you might consider a horrible traffic situation for 15 minutes in Bloomington/Normal would be a joke in a major city. Let me clear… we have no traffic congestion issues of any significance in Bloomington-Normal. And eliminating a money wasting bus system here will not in any way make the traffic worse. Done correctly.. it could actually provide new jobs and stimulate the economy if the private sector provided the transportation for those who are in true need.
There may be places that public transportation makes sense. I think most of us here believe that one of those places is not Bloomington-Normal. Smart phones and credit for Uber for anyone with a low income? Or a massive expensive bus system that tears up our streets to carry one or two people to the dying mall? Really? This makes sense in June 2017 in Bloomington-Normal? We are not in Chicago or New York…. The same thing in happening in Champaign… empty buses running up and down the streets… and this is something that should continue without question? Make a deal with the cab companies – subsidize low income riders… whatever….
Champaign loses $30 million a year. A large number of their riders aren’t poor people – they are U of I students who will be poor by the time they pay the tuition.
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” Mark Twain – – – This one is for you Bob.
OK BOB! Let’s take your argument and have the government subsidize tractors, combines, sheds, herbicides, fertilizer, TAXES, roads and such for farmers who pay WAY more then their fair share (And work more then 8 hr a day) so they can feed your ilk?? How about that for a good Bernie plan? And they CAN’T be using the road if they’re working in the field to produce food for the REALLY starving folks!
Now, THAT’S a PLAN!!
Farmers don’t get subsidies? Diane, you can clarify this issue about government handout’s to farmers, right?
Sorry Rob, I thought you knew by now that we don’t farm.
really Bob? https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/farm-programs-payments Payments made by the Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency to US agricultural producers participating in Farm Bill programs including commodity, price support, disaster assistance and conservation. Payments may be searched by payee, program, year, commodity, state, county, farm, payment date and amount paid.
Check my math…do I see it correctly that nearly $30,000 was spent on consultants and travel!?! Lynn Montei facilitated the City Council retreats.
Actually, more like $34,000
That amount is more than a third of their losses. Do any of those people have any math skills? Any management or business skills? Boards of Directors/Trustees are to keep a close eye on the financial wellbeing of an “institution” like public transportation. If they are incapable, what use are they? They can’t even manage the routes.
Your math got fuzzy. They lost $890,000 in one month, only $34,000 was due to consulting and travel.
Yes, my brain malfunctioned…recalculating @ about 4% not 33%. Still a lot for travel and consultants.
Revenue doesn’t come close to covering payroll!