Column: Putting Bloomington's new free downtown shuttle to the test

On the first Monday in June, Bloomington Transit (BT) started piloting free microtransit rides within the downtown Bloomington zone.

The downtown zone is a rectangle bounded on the north and south by 10th and 1st Streets, and on the east and west by Indiana Avenue and Rogers Street. This new service allows passengers to be picked up and dropped off at any location within the zone during its hours of operation: Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Rides can be booked up to 24 hours in advance or on demand through the BloomingtonLink website or app. Rides are also available to anyone who physically flags down the BLink vehicle as it travels a loop downtown, which covers much of Walnut Street and College Ave. The vehicle is a small shuttle bus, with eight seats and two wheelchair spots. The service is branded as BLink and pronounced "blink"—as in "Blink and you'll be there."

While it's intended to boost ridership on BT's existing microtransit service, the new service is also a response by BT to decreased business access on Kirkwood Avenue this summer. Some portions of the street are closed to motorized vehicles over the summer, which limits close parking options. BLink allows passengers to park anywhere downtown—a parking garage, for instance—and get a ride to their destination.

I tested the service on Tuesday (June 10). B Square editor Dave Askins and I planned to meet for dinner at Lennie's Brewpub on Kirkwood Ave. around 7:00 p.m. as part of the Monroe County Public Library's Dine Out for the Library fundraiser, which runs every Tuesday at Lennie's this month. Coming from my house, I parked at the 4th Street Garage. Dave was traveling from a Monroe County council meeting at the Monroe county courthouse. We both booked rides to Lennie's through the BLink app.

Dave and I both successfully made it to Lennie's, at separate times, before 7:00 p.m.

Ride Logistics

I booked my ride around 6:00 p.m. After entering my pickup and drop-off destinations, the app gave me the option to choose either a "depart by" or "arrive by" time; I chose 7:00 p.m. for arrival. It asked for the number of passengers, then it gave me three timing options:

Before that, Dave had already booked his ride, choosing the one that arrives before 7:14 p.m.

Hoping we'd be on the BLink shuttle bus at the same time, I booked the ride that indicated "Arrives before 7:13 p.m."

I received text and email confirmations. From this point forward, this booking was viewable, editable, and cancelable in the "My Journeys" section of the app.

At 6:30 p.m., I parked at the 4th Street parking garage, about six blocks from Lennie's (a 0.4-mile walk). Due to the low height limit of the garage, the BLink shuttle bus isn't able to enter. I took the stairs down to the ground floor (an elevator is also available) and waited for the shuttle bus on the sidewalk near the entrance to the garage.

The pickup window was 10 minutes, from 6:40 to 6:50 p.m. During the wait, when I became the next passenger for pickup, I was able to track the vehicle's live location. I received an automated "Your vehicle is on its way!" text message at 6:44 p.m. The shuttle bus arrived to pick me up at 6:48 p.m.

Dave was not on the shuttle bus when I boarded. He had been dropped off near Lennie's at 6:42 p.m., 6 minutes before I got picked up.

After a smooth and short ride, I arrived at the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Street at 6:53 p.m., which is the intersection closest to Lennie's without passing it. Combining an eight minute wait and the five minute ride, 13 minutes elapsed from the beginning of the pickup window to getting dropped off.

So, this mission was a success! Dave and I both made it to Lennie's, only about 10 minutes apart.

Here's the overall timeline:

• 6:30 p.m. Kelton parks at the 4th Street Garage
• Dave gets picked up before 6:39 p.m.
• Dave gets dropped off at 6:42 p.m.
• 6:44 p.m. "Your vehicle is on its way!" text is received by Kelton.
• 6:48 p.m. Kelton gets picked up.
• 6:53 p.m. Kelton gets dropped off near Lennie's

Why weren't our rides combined?

My biggest question about the experience was why the shuttle didn't pick me up first, then Dave, so we could both arrive at the same time. In a phone interview with Shelley Strimaitis, BT's planning and special projects manager, she told me that the system does group people together by pickup and drop-off locations, but the pickup window is prioritized. When Dave texted me saying he was on the shuttle bus, it was 6:39 p.m., one minute before my pickup window started at 6:40 p.m. This is likely why our trips were separated. According to the app, however, both of our pickup windows were 6:40-6:50 p.m. So in theory, the system could have let Dave wait a few extra minutes for me to get picked up first.

Strimaitis also said that the RideCo software system that BLink uses is "a black box to some extent"—its exact logic isn't visible to BT staff. She said, however, that rides will be pooled if the pickup windows align and the grouping is more efficient.

The shuttle bus drives on a circulating route when not accommodating passenger requests. Strimaitis said she is working on displaying the shuttle bus's live location in the bus tracking app, so that it's visible to those considering flagging down a ride, a feature that currently does not exist.

BLink downtown: Things to know

Rather than booking a return trip after dinner, I walked back to the garage. The main reason for that choice was the choice of "arrive by" times offered by the app, which indicated that a 30-minute ride was possible. Walking would be faster. Strimaitis told me this is because the system, despite the shorter 10-minute pickup window that it displays, is still relying on a 30-minute pickup window for its drop-off calculations, which is the window used for paratransit passengers. That results in a much later drop-off estimate than needed. In that sense, BLink consistently under-promises and over-delivers. Now that I know to more or less ignore the "arrive-by" time, I can add the pickup time to my own rough estimate of the trip's length.

Website:
BloomingtonLink website

BloomingtonLink app:
Google Play Store
Apple App Store

Ridership Data

In the first eight days of operation of the new service, most passengers have been walk-on, rather than booked through the app. To increase ridership, BLink drivers have been handing out flyers around hotels and restaurants downtown. Strimaitis said the service is being marketed primarily towards people visiting the downtown area.

Photos: BLink shuttle bus (June 10-12, 2025)