By: Diane Benjamin
https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/Board%20Packet%201-28-20.pdf
Connect Transit didn’t meet for a regular meeting in December, so November and December are reported together for the 1/28/2020 meeting.
November 2019 loss – PDF page 8
December 2019 loss – PDF page 14
Every person that rides costs around 4 times more than the person riding is paying: (PDF page 15)
Connect Mobility is FAR worse: (PDF page 16)
Every dime Connect Transit has in Operating Assistance is money you worked hard for. The “Working Group” is rumored to be recommending both Bloomington and Normal fork over more money.
On PDF page 26 Connect graphs the time smart phones used their app:
It’s pretty easy to see students are the biggest users. While other people pay $1 per ride, ISU is paying $.825 per ride: PDF page 3: https://www.connect-transit.com/documents/SpecialMeetingDecember17.pdf
Ridership mirrors the App use: (PDF page 20 or original link)
Why do ISU students get a discount? Remember that when Connect wants more from people who don’t and will never ride.
Are taxpayers getting used to losses of more than
$900,000 every month?
A couple of responses to the Citizen Summit question something to the effect of “Future you is looking around at a successful Normal. What do you see?”
A town that doesn’t need a ‘minister of propaganda’
A town whose public transportation system doesn’t need a million dollars of taxpayer money every month.
Make all rides free, slash the staff, consultants and staff travel. Turn over CT management to ISU, IWU, U of I business schools to develop an MBA or PHD credit program to run this black hole. Surely, students can devise a more common sense approach. CT will never make money, but the losses can be cut to half of that currently. And, structure a Board that has a collective IQ of more than a porous rock to apply common sense and critical thinking rather than collecting their per diem as their primary mission.
Stick, you’re scaring me. You’re making way too much sense for Connect Transit to comprehend.
It appears there is no accountability for these losses. I say that because the results are the same month after month – when does it end?
Unreal. First, ISU students ride CT because to them it’s “free” as it’s baked into their tuition as a mandatory, line-item fee that few people read. If it were not a mandatory fee in the tuition bill, I wonder how many students would pay out of pocket for the service. Anyway, I don’t begrudge students for riding CT since they are forced to pay for it regardless. I do, however, believe that CT cut a deal with ISU in the interest of juicing its ridership numbers and taking a fraction of some money (82 cents on the dollar) over little or no money were students to pay out of pocket on their own. At a macro level, things will not change at CT until our so-called “leaders” view this as a social service for the disabled and most needy rather than a full-scale public transportation service for all. They are doing just the opposite by refusing to be ADA compliant and listening to the needs of those most vulnerable, while pitching CT to the general public who do not want transportation on a government schedule, especially with an average commute of under 10 minutes and the logistics of after-school and/or after-work activities. The leadership at CT has tried for the longest time to sell the unsellable to the general public at the expense of the disabled and working poor whom many, if not all of us, agree should be the focus of a reliable and safe transportation system. Another local taxpayer grab (if true) is only buying time for this fiscal house of cards, kicking the can down the road and avoiding a discussion of how to address the bigger structural issues of CT.
To point out again……Leftists absolutely HATE the liberty, individualism and freedom from government control that private vehicles provide. They really do want to “take your car keys”–one way or another. Therefore, they will always support so called “public transportation”, no matter how mismanaged, inefficient, corrupt, or expensive it is.
It has very little to do with providing a service. It has almost everything to do with destroying your freedom.
BTW: They are also after single family housing (private homes)…….mark my words.
ALL of the above are BRILLIANT observations, and speak the truth WAY more then the Pantagraph or WGLT ever will. Basically, a GOOD PUBLIC transit system is to provide rides to those who NEED it the most, and BRING THE RIDE TO THEM, and not drive to some far fetched Ulan Bator local! CT is WAY out of touch on SO MANY points, one cannot begin to start. They basically drive west-east in town and thru the country and on Veterans, and we CAN NOOT FORGET that ultimate tourist destination of “uptown koos-ville”
However, were they to have GOOD management and SOME inkling of WHAT the people NEED and WANT and DELIVER, while using smaller busses, I believe it COULD actually be something of a benefit to the community that ALL could be proud of. But so far, I don’t see them winning ANY awards for sustainability!
“Business as usual” just like right fit, reinvent, bike lanes, arena, and so on..
As a youngster in town, I rode the bus, and got there in 20 minutes or so. TRY THAT NOW! Let me know how that works for you!
How exactly do I get on this gravy train?
In a true socialist society , like the one Jen and her liberal pals want the bus rides should be free and the workers should get no pay just the satisfaction that they are part of the collective. It boggles my mind that,what was once , BLONO public transit used to be the system of ridership that was envied and copied by all other cities. Now it is one of the biggest jokes and the worst money monster , right up there with Boston’s Big DIg! So sad!
I think that connect is a viable option for me to go to work, shopping, and anything I need for transportation. Try calling a cab or Uber to do these things.
Subsidies are the way to go! Forget that “Ask not what your country can do for you . . . “
As Diane has said before and since, the ‘non-establishment’ (aka Real citizen representative) people on the CT Working Group need to produce their own report. I’m happy to help with formatting and wording, but they have to make the first steps of what they want, saw, and thought.