Instead of getting exercise walking across campus, today’s kids need a bus to the taxpayer subsidized work out facilities and classrooms.
Heartland will only be paying 82 1/2 cents per ride. Sounds like a war on the poor who are forced to pay $1.
They will vote on a 6 month extension. https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/SpecialMeetingDecember17.pdf
Does the “Redbird Express” run at night on week-ends ?
When I went to school, I only rode the bus when the car was getting worked on, and parked at the END of Franklin ave, and walked around campus all day to classes. I guess that millennial’s NEED to ride the bus so they don’t get hit in the cross walk while talking on their phone.
It’s ACTUALLY fun to watch IWU students at the Emerson street cross walk light, because as SOON as they get there, they PUNCH that cross walk button, with a regularity like Tari does with spewing out a rant. Might be a connection?
Self entitled lazy brats!!!
Yes, the students are bussed downtown to the bars on weekend nights, even though there is an over supply of independent bus services and ubers and lyft and taxis and lions and tigers and bears, oh my. So much traffic that a Blm. squad car sits at Madison St. just south of Locust to quell traffic. It is forbidden to encourage students to walk in a quality of life walkable community. Where are all the bicyclists now that they got their own lanes??? Mike??? Seriously,,,all these hacks do is steal from the taxpayers to redistribute wealth to the “friends” of a crooked government.
Connect Transit needs to juice their ridership numbers. Since the kiddos don’t look at the line item fees on their tuition bill, they think its “free.” If it wasn’t a pass-through on the tuition bill, I’m not sure many students would pay out of pocket for a single ride.
While I don’t doubt there are an appreciable number of ‘Self entitled lazy brats’ among the local student populations, I also know it’s not unheard of for students to live more than a mile from their classes. And while I know a mile is certainly walkable to those of us who walked two miles uphill both ways through the drifting snow under a blazing sun to get to school, and with no shoes except on Sundays, 🙂 few of us would actually Choose to do so if given another viable option.
Connect Transit costs taxpayers a considerable amount, largely due to the number of buses that drive around nearly empty. Given the frequency that I see ISU-specific buses well more than half full, student-focused lines certainly lose much less than most and may even be profitable.
Not saying everything is puppy dogs and rainbows – there is definitely room for improvement, but one needs to try to look at all perspectives and try to find the best balance possible.
According to Connect’s reports, rides cost them around $4. ISU won’t be paying anywhere near that, so break-even is doubtful.
Break even is not based on cost-per-ride, but on the number of riders offsetting the cost-per-bus-mile. … I wrote up a couple paragraphs with estimated calculations, but bottom line is you’re right, the student buses are probably profitable for some legs, but overall break-even is still doubtful.
When I was a student at ISU, I walked everywhere. Some students rode the bus to the mall. It never occurred to me to ride the bus. In fact one reason I liked ISU was for the walkability. A visited as friend at the U of I and was turned off by the distance one would have to travel between classed and thr residence hall. Paying $10,000,000.00 a year to CT so the ISU students can have bus service is a poor excuse.
Of course, how else is Connect Transit going to inflate their rider numbers?