Tag: microtransit

Bloomington public bus notebook: Uber-Lyft late night continues, paratransit to get same-day service

Now set to continue, but with a few tweaks, is pilot program started last year by Bloomington Transit (BT), to replace late night service on some routes—with vouchers that can be used on Uber or Lyft.

The Uber-Lyft option is branded as BT Late Nite.

The approach of using transportation network companies (TNCs) as a replacement for running 40-foot buses on fixed routes is known in the public transportation industry as “microtransit.”

The geographic area served by BT Late Nite includes the parts of town served by routes that had their late evening service discontinued last year.

BT general manager John Connell briefed the board on program changes at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday.

For the pilot program, BT Late Nite passengers paid the same $1 fare that fixed route passengers do. For the continuation of BT Late Nite, Connell said, passengers will pay $2, because BT considers it a “premium” service. That’s because the Uber and Lyft service goes from a passenger’s departure point to their destination, not just from bus stop to bus stop. Continue reading “Bloomington public bus notebook: Uber-Lyft late night continues, paratransit to get same-day service” →

Bloomington Transit OKs 5-year deal, will get $3.8 million annually from city’s local income tax

Bloomington Transit will receive at least $3.8 million a year for the next five years from the city of Bloomington, under an interlocal agreement approved by BT’s five-member board at its final meeting of the year, on Dec. 20.

The agreement still needs to win approval from Bloomington’s city council.

The deal is expected to appear on a city council meeting agenda sometime in January, based on remarks from BT general manager John Connell at last week’s board meeting.

The money is coming from the increase to the local income tax that was approved by the city council in May of 2022.

The big initiative that the money is supposed to help fund is an east-west crosstown express route.

Some other specific initiatives that the money is supposed to pay for include: implementation of Sunday service in the first quarter of 2023; enhancement of the paratransit microtransit services; increasing frequency of weekday service; and development of a ridership subsidy program.

The new transit initiatives come as BT is clawing back ridership on its regular fixed route service, after a big drop when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. Continue reading “Bloomington Transit OKs 5-year deal, will get $3.8 million annually from city’s local income tax” →

Taking BT Late Nite for a spin: $1 trip by public bus for ice cream, same $1 for trip with Uber back home

Smartphone screenshot of DoubleMap, BT’s bus tracking system.
Vanilla cone dipped in chocolate.
Smartphone screenshot of Uber app.

Starting Monday, scheduled bus service on several Bloomington Transit fixed routes are ending a couple hours earlier.

By around 9:30 p.m. on Monday, the big 40-foot buses on Routes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 had ended their runs for the day.

But Bloomington residents could still take rides using the public transportation system—from 9 a.m. to midnight—through a program that Bloomington Transit is marketing as BT Late Nite.

For areas of the city within a quarter mile of those early-ending routes, BT Late Nite now offers passengers who have a smartphone the option of taking rides using Uber or Lyft—for just the regular $1 fare. BT Late Nite operates Monday through Friday.

The difference between the actual cost of the ride on Uber/Lyft and the $1 fare paid by the passenger is covered by BT. Both ride hailing companies are handling the BT portion of the fare through a voucher system.

After the BT Late Nite test ride taken by The B Square on Monday evening, the Uber fare of $8.90 was still shown on the digital receipt as a “pending” charge against the B Square’s credit card. Based on Uber documentation, that should eventually be adjusted down to $1, with the rest of the amount covered by the BT Late Nite voucher. Continue reading “Taking BT Late Nite for a spin: $1 trip by public bus for ice cream, same $1 for trip with Uber back home” →

Bloomington Transit set for Uber/Lyft pilot in May, to send city council memo on local income tax increase

On Tuesday night, the five-member Bloomington Transit (BT) board voted unanimously to go ahead with a pilot program starting in early May that will use Uber or Lyft—with a subsidy for the rides taken under BT’s banner—to replace late night service on some existing routes.

The board also discussed a proposal by Bloomington mayor John Hamilton to increase the local income tax paid by all Monroe County residents and to use some of Bloomington’s share of the additional revenue to fund new BT transportation initiatives.

The tax package includes around $5 million in public transportation projects, including a new east-west route with 15-minute frequency.

Board members expressed concern that the funding for the kind of transportation proposals described in the tax package would require some kind of long-term commitment by the city of Bloomington to BT. A memo with that message is supposed to be forwarded to the city council before Wednesday night’s city council meeting.

On Wednesday (April 20), the city council could take a final vote on the 0.855-point tax increase, which would raise the overall local income tax to a total of 2.2 percent.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, BT announced that masks to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus would no longer be required on BT buses. That was the same approach that most transit providers seem to have taken after a federal judge struck down US President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring mask wearing. [text of US District Court Middle District of Florida ruling] Continue reading “Bloomington Transit set for Uber/Lyft pilot in May, to send city council memo on local income tax increase” →

Bloomington Transit wants public input: Route changes, late-hours swap of regular bus for Uber/Lyft

Bloomington Transit general manager John Connell.
Bloomington Transit planning and special projects manager Zac Huneck.

A series of changes to optimize bus routes that were planned for 2020 implementation, but were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are now back under consideration by Bloomington Transit.

Highlights include: the consolidation of Routes 1 South and 7 Express into a single route to be called Route 7; and the merging of Route 3 East, Route 8 Local, Route 9 Campus, and Route 10 Hospital into a single route to be called Route 90.

The Route 90 would operate on a bidirectional loop, with 20-minute frequency each way. The loop would encompass downtown, the Indiana University campus, and some of the east side down to the College Mall area.

Subject to final board approval, those route changes would be implemented in August of this year.

A pilot project that could be rolled out earlier is the replacement of the late-night service on some routes with “microtransit.” That means passengers could take an Uber/Lyft style ride for the standard $1 fare, with the remaining cost, up to $15, to be covered by Bloomington Transit.

The pilot for the micro-transit would be rolled out in May, after the IU semester ends.
Continue reading “Bloomington Transit wants public input: Route changes, late-hours swap of regular bus for Uber/Lyft” →

Bloomington Transit OKs side letter with drivers union: Pay bump, $1,000 essential-worker bonus

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R Output Monthly BT ridership for COVID reportAugust 17 2020 OUTPUT
Twitter Screen Shot 2021-08-19 at 9.01.28 AM

At its Tuesday meeting, the five-member Bloomington Transit board voted to approve a side letter agreement with AFSCME Local 613, which is the drivers union.

The agreement is hoped to aid recruitment of new drivers—BT is currently short by about a dozen. The agreement is also hoped to reduce a recent spate of cancelled bus runs, chronicled on BT’s Twitter account, due to lack of drivers on the overtime list.

The side letter increases starting pay for drivers by $2 an hour—from $16.32 to $18.32—and gives those with more experience a $1,000 essential-worker bonus.

The context of the phrase “essential worker” connects to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drivers were still expected to keep the buses running, even though the number of service hours was reduced.

To cover the cost of the essential-worker bonus, BT will use money it received through the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act.

The side letter approved by the board also requires at least 12 drivers to sign up for the overtime list. The letter also clarifies the wording of the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) about how overtime can be mandated and the right to refuse a withdrawal from the overtime list.

The side letter is still contingent on a vote of the union membership. Continue reading “Bloomington Transit OKs side letter with drivers union: Pay bump, $1,000 essential-worker bonus” →

Bloomington public bus drivers needed, Route 8 could see “microtransit” pilot

Monthly ridership stats.
Monthly ridership stats.
Screen shot of Zoom connection during the June 15, 2021 Bloomington Transit board meeting.
Screen shot of Zoom connection during the June 15, 2021 Bloomington Transit board meeting.
Bloomington Transit board member Marilyn Hartman.
Bloomington Transit board member Marilyn Hartman.
Bloomington Transit general manager Lew May.
Bloomington Transit general manager Lew May.
Bloomington Transit board member Doug Horn.
Bloomington Transit board member Doug Horn.
Conference room wide shot for Bloomington Transit board meeting on June 15, 2021.
Conference room wide shot for Bloomington Transit board meeting on June 15, 2021.
Bloomington Transit board member Kent McDaniel.
Bloomington Transit board member Kent McDaniel.
Sign advertising job openings at the Grimes Lane headquarters of Bloomington Transit.
Sign advertising job openings at the Grimes Lane headquarters of Bloomington Transit.
Zac Hunec, planning and special projects manager for Bloomington Transit.
Zac Hunec, planning and special projects manager for Bloomington Transit.

Bloomington Transit (BT) has a critical need for more drivers in the fall, when Indiana University’s normal fall semester starts.

And fixed-route service on Route 8 could see a one-year experimental replacement in September—with a combination of service provided through BT by Uber and Lyft.

Those were two takeaways from the Bloomington Transit board’s Tuesday night meeting.

The topics mean some significant work for the board and staff in the coming months, in addition to items already on their plates.

The board will need to make a decision on replacing 20-year veteran general manager Lew May, whose retirement is anticipated for August of this year. And the current collective bargaining agreement with the bus drivers union goes just through the end of the year, so it needs to be re-negotiated.

The BT board’s in-person Tuesday meeting was held in a way that offered access via the Zoom video conferencing platform.

All five board members attended in person. From a tech perspective, the hybrid setup appeared to work glitch-free. Continue reading “Bloomington public bus drivers needed, Route 8 could see “microtransit” pilot” →

Bus ridership up 1.75% over last year as transit board mulls tweaks to proposed new routes, how to court Bloomington city council on key policy changes

Ridership was a smidgen higher in 2019 compared to 2018, the first time ridership has been up since 2014.
BT general manager Lew May explains BT staff recommendations for adjustments to the optimization-study recommended new routes. (Dave Askins/Square Beacon)
cropped 2020-01-21 bt board meeting IMG_6208
At their Tuesday night meeting, the Bloomington Transit board gets a walk-through from general manager Lew May (blue shirt) of staff-recommended adjustments to a system of route re-configurations that came out of a consultant’s study. (Dave Askins/Square Beacon)

Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting of the Bloomington Transit (BT) board delivered a bright spot of news. The 3.16 million rides taken on fixed route buses in 2019 reflect a 1.75-percent increase over the total from 2018.

As BT general manager Lew May noted, it’s the first year-to-year increase since 2014, after four straight years of decreases. Continue reading “Bus ridership up 1.75% over last year as transit board mulls tweaks to proposed new routes, how to court Bloomington city council on key policy changes” →

City council mulls future local funding for Bloomington Transit investments, as 2020 budget relies on feds for electric buses, shared-ride microtransit

Chart of Bloomington Transit budget breakdown for the last eight years, and next year’s proposed 20202 budget.
Lew May, Bloomington Transit’s general manager. On Aug. 20, May presented his 21st budget to Bloomington’s city council. “It’s been a great ride at Bloomington Transit.” (Dave Askins/Beaon)

Possible federal grants are a key part of the Bloomington Transit 2020 budget presented to the city council on Tuesday by the public transit agency’s general manager, Lew May. Councilmembers appeared receptive to the planned $4 million in capital expenditures to acquire four more alternative-fuel buses.

BT is also applying for a federal grant to fund a shared-ride microtransit pilot program to take up the slack on certain routes after fixed-route service ends for the day.

Council president Dave Rollo suggested looking beyond traditional federal funding sources. Among the local funding sources he suggested were tax increment finance funds and local income taxes.

A budget increase of $87,000 to cover an outside contract to add a security officer at BT’s downtown transit station drew scrutiny from councilmembers.

As it did on Monday, which was the first day of a week’s worth of departmental budget hearings, climate change drove a lot of the council’s commentary. Councilmembers wanted BT to consider adding solar panels to a new roof for the BT facility on Grimes Lane, which is currently budgeted for $363,250.

Before the unanimous straw vote was taken by councilmembers in support of the proposed budget, Dave Rollo said, “We are running out of time. And we need to direct capital to Bloomington Transit, if we’re going to be serious about climate—it’s got to be part of the strategy.”

The council’s vote to adopt the budget is scheduled for Oct. 10 after getting a first reading on Sept. 25.

Continue reading “City council mulls future local funding for Bloomington Transit investments, as 2020 budget relies on feds for electric buses, shared-ride microtransit” →