By: Diane Benjamin
Virtually empty buses are still roaming the streets of Bloomington Normal, we all see them. If Connect Transit used the huge buses where needed and didn’t where they aren’t, they wouldn’t be losing close to a million every month and the infrastructure wouldn’t be destroyed by them.
Some transit systems have figured out a better way: https://www.govtech.com/fs/transit-leaders-praise-innovative-on-demand-programs
Rides on Connect Mobility buses have increased, but even those are big for going to on-demand. The article talks about partnering with taxi services, do they even still exist in town?
The article also talks about LA transit turning into a food delivery service, not unexpected for California. It isn’t government’s job to create dependency unless you are a democrat.
What Connect isn’t:
An “innovation culture” wouldn’t be running empty buses.
Connect Transit is not responding to change, that’s difficult to do when the same people get appointed to the board over and over and over.
They would be better off working with Uber and lyft. I know many times I pick up a rider who just missed the bus or didn’t want to wait for one.
heck, for all the money that’s being wasted they could buy a car, gas and insurance for everyone that regularly rides the bus
In my humble opinion, Connect Transit is a self-serving entity with a demonstrable history of not caring about its riders nor taxpayer dollars. CT appears driven by a flawed ideology that everyone ought to take mass transportation and a selfish desire to serve its “leadership,” employees, vendors, and all that benefit from the mere existence of this entity, irrespective of its success. I highly doubt CT is interested in evolving its business model. At last check, they attempt to discredit alternative business models, such as smaller buses or partnering with ride-sharing apps, on their website. It’s doubtful that any meaningful change will come from within. Change is unlikely to occur at CT unless and until its funding is yanked.
Connect Transit certainly LOOKS fleece/scam. At first I thought it was out -sized ego and easy federal money that led to this bloated waste. Ignorance.
But alas , as directors have come and gone , HQ’s built and soon to be abandoned , wrong sized busses and ill suited propulsion methods chosen , friends -n- relatives hired etc etc ,I eventually noticed a pattern.:
The members of the Connect Transit Board.
No, they are NOT too stupid to realize what is going on , rather … they are in on it.
Wheels of Karma and Justice may be slow – but eventually this obviously corrupt transit scam will implode on itself.
I guess this is the tragedy of public administration. Any corporate management would have tasked their employees to find the least cost, most efficient, highest quality and most effective form of transportation available. The most innovative employees would be rewarded and the corporation would reap the benefits of the hard work of their employees.
In this case the employees just look for the option that causes them the least bother. Who cares about the cost because they have an open check book and nobody is going to question their decision. They will see to that.
You don’t live here. You know nothing about when the busses are empty and when they aren’t. You are also crippled by this idea that public transportation must be revenue-neutral when the goal of public transportation is to help people go where they need to.
So, they cut service to areas who need it to help people?
Well I do live here in town. And I drive for Uber and I see almost completely empty busses all day long. And my daughter is going to Heartland college this fall. If she wanted to take the bus to school, she would have to walk over a 1/2 mile just to get to the bus stop.. And then she would have to take a bus to uptown and then catch a bus out to Heartland. So tell me how is that really serving the public and helping them get to where they need to go?