By: Diane Benjamin
h/t Doug Fansler, Normal resident
Besides devouring at least $800,000 a month government stole from you to fund it, Connect Transit is destroying infrastructure. The roads weren’t built for huge buses. The roads weren’t built so buses could make right turns, especially if traffic is sitting in the far lane.
Remember when a Connect Transit bus that took out a fire hydrant on St. Joseph’s Dr? https://blnnews.com/2017/09/23/did-anybody-see/
I have seen buses turn on to E. Washington using the bike lane for more space. It’s good to see somebody using those expensive lanes, bikers rarely do!
That brings me to Portillos. The pic below is the road north of the restaurant turning east from Landmark Dr. When no traffic is sitting on Parkway Plaza Drive, buses use their lanes to make the turn.
What happens when vehicles are sitting where this bus is in the pic?
The bus destroys infrastructure! The video below is on 55 seconds, sound isn’t needed but nice anyway.
You are fleeced by government to fund empty buses, then you get to repair the damage they do!
Looks like brand new handicap accessible concrete and some kind of utilities marker! Connect Transit keeps buying more huge buses, local government continues to fund this lunacy. Anybody with brains planning to run for office early next year? Let me know, most people aren’t this stupid.
.
.
..
.
.
..
.
.
.
.
When you get dummies in charge, you get dumb results OR in Corporate LINGO
GIGO !!!
But, but, DUMMIES??? These are the “smart people” don’t you realize that? They always refer to themselves as the “smart people” or sometimes the “grown ups”. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious that these incompetent people now have such power and sway. Somehow, some way they have to be removed from positions of authority or things will just steadily get worse, and that, is unfortunately, an inevitability, because they will NEVER be competent at anything practical. I have said it often and will again, there is NO need for these giant buses in BloNo, none, zero. Perhaps that could be the first step, then learn how to use proper mixes on the roads and sidewalks that can hold up for a while, that could be step two. I swear letting this bunch run the city is like giving 3 year olds a saw and a hammer and a pile of trees and telling them to build a house – they can’t do it, simple fact.
It’s the CT Board who make the decisions to buy those buses. The board members are appointed by the Mayor and can’t be voted out.
Imagine that. This is how a County Election Commission would function.
$800,000 a month could be spent so much better. Pay down debt. Hold the line on taxes and fees. Incentives for new, scalable businesses (e.g. tech companies, startups). Connect Transit is a failure by any reasonable, rational measure. However, it will be funded into perpetuity because it’s a voting block – employees, riders, and the BN non-profit industrial complex. How quickly will the lefties attack someone for questioning Connect Transit as “hating the poor”, “discriminating”, “voter suppression” (Nikita)?
Most of the money is Federal funding to the State of Illinois. It needs to be cut off there!
Good call! However, the money doesn’t magically show up in BN, our “leaders” with their agenda write grants, pander for the funds, and congratulate themselves for helping our local economy.
why you speak about state/federal funding please say taxpayer money. we are being taxed by the city/state and federal gov for this bongdoogle of a transit system.
People should be asking Darin Lahood and Rodney Davis why! Voting Democrat won’t help, they will double the subsidy.
This video is very telling…. what will that corner cost “again” to repair? So we have $800,000 a month and $________ in road and curb maintenance and repair? As I said before, a fleet of limos might be cheaper….
Haha! It would be more efficient to subsidize Uber or Lyft drivers to provide rides for those truly in need. Accountable customer service, on-demand transportation. Why hold large CapEx gas guzzling liabilities that burn fuel and destroy roads?!
Would it? Where’s your research to back that up? Or are you just guessing that Uber and Lyft is less expensive. I’m a bus rider. And I sometimes have to use Uber or Lyft. I can’t imagine you’d be willing to have taxpayers subsidize my $20 round trip when I can ride for $2 now. Will state again, never empty. And I’ve never been in one that hit a curb.
Hey Serving Him: I am already spending $20.00 on your $2.00 ride. At least Uber and Lyft would not saddle me with pensions and extras. Get real and learn basic math please.
I wonder how many members of the Connect Transit board, EDC, Chamber, and Normal and Bloomington councils ride the bus. Even once a month. Why not? Oh, because they’re inefficient and run on the government’s schedule, not the consumer’s schedule. Hmm… It’s funny how these “leaders” have no issue riding the bus together for a photo op, but when it comes to the day-to-day these clowns wouldn’t be caught dead on the bus.
My idea for a fleet of limos would solve all the problems. Nikita Richards would be happy (maybe). Our public officials would finally be using “public transportation”. Our elites would start using public transportation too. And just think of the national attention we would get from the press? Move to Bloomington/Normal, our buses are limos! It’s a win win! We solve the public transportation problem and boost the population while saving millions of taxpayer dollars. I can imagine seeing CNN doing a story on the only city in the world that uses limos for public transportation. If we combine this with our mayor’s sanctuary city crap, we could have thousands of illegals swarming in our area in no time.
They can’t make the turns either
OK – Cargo vans with seats that say Blono Limo Service?
We should ban semi-trucks, UPS, and Fed Ex, too. Any vehicle that hits a cub. There is lots of curb damage all over town…on streets that buses DON’T run. Explain that, please.
Explaining anything to you is an exercise in futility.
Seriously… a waste of time completely. I am done responding to his/her silliness.
I gave you solutions (alternatives to the current bus system) in another article when you asked for them and you never responded. Yet you try to gaslight us with silly stuff like banning delivery trucks, etc. Can you just go serve someone else somewhere else… FYI – no one here takes anything you say seriously…. you are in the “crackpot category”
Oh look, Serving Tari is back.
A vehicle’s ability to make a turn without hitting the curb or using improper lanes (extra wide turns as pictured above) is a simple matter of geometry. Longer vehicles (like CT buses), unless they are appropriate less narrow, cannot make the same turns as shorter vehicles like cars or even UPS/FedEx delivery trucks. Just as with your money questions above, you either need to learn basic math or quit trolling.
If these are socialist buses then they should only turn to the left. Are CT drivers certified by CT and not tested by Jesse White ? Or is the testing done by untrained Jesse White
State Examiners ?
Our streets weren’t made for buses? Streets are designed to national specifications. Funny how “big” buses run all through similar sized streets in Chicago (where my daughter lives). Don’t let your anger towards CT cloud your mind on this issue.
See the pic? Watch the video! Sounds like a NO
Anger? More gaslighting from the motorcycle…. I have spent plenty of time in Chicago and other major cities…. I have never seen city street corners destroyed like the one in the video…. must be the drivers then? They got big city bus drivers who can drive around corners without destroying them? FYI… pointing out the complete insanity of Transit Disconnect is not anger…. it is pointing out the complete insanity of Transit Disconnect and how wasteful and damaging it is to our infrastructure. To suggest that this as anything to do with the emotion “Anger” is an attempt to gaslight and will not work in this forum.
What all the elitist and establishment shills have in common in this town is their incessant use of gaslighting as a way to respond to anything that challenges them. They do it for three reasons: #1 They are followers and have not really thought out positions or subjects so they are not prepared to debate with anyone who is very smart or knowledgeable #2 Gaslighting is easy… just question their judgement, their sanity, their emotional state and you immediately hold the high ground and distract or redirect the debate where you want it to go. #3 Elites believe that because they have moved up in the system and been financially rewarded they are intrinsically superior to regular people. So as you can see with this Yamaha 2004, he always seems to be talking down to everyone in the comment thread. This is because he (in his mind) is superior to us plebs and is obliged to straighten us out with his words of wisdom from his elitist perspective.
The age of information has changed everything everywhere on the planet. We can talk back now… and the people are talking back around the world. We can now challenge the system and the elites – Yes, they don’t like it… but thanks to technology… we are not going to shut up or go away….
Hey, at least the busses are not as heavy as they could be…as there are no one riding them!