Bloomington Transit’s five-member board has approved in concept the idea that the Go Bloomington program will tap into BT’s existing arrangements with Uber and Lyft, to give program participants a guaranteed ride home.
Through October, Bloomington Transit fixed route ridership continues to show gains over last year, but still well under pre-pandemic numbers.
The idea behind a “guaranteed ride home” feature is that someone might be more inclined to take the public bus, bicycle, or walk to work—if they know that they have a backstop for any unexpected transportation need.
If someone’s day unfolds in an unexpected way, they’ll be able to use a voucher with Uber or Lyft to handle whatever scenario has come up.
Go Bloomington recommended bicycle route from downtown to Best Buy on 3rd Street.
Google Maps recommended bicycle route from downtown to Best Buy on 3rd Street.
Google Maps recommended bicycle route from downtown to Best Buy on 3rd Street.
Go Bloomington recommended bicycle route from downtown to Best Buy on 3rd Street.
Bloomington’s transportation demand management (TDM) director, Jeff Jackson, at the Aug. 17, 2022 meeting of the city council.
The formal launch of Go Bloomington is set for Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. That’s the branding that has been chosen for the city’s effort to promote transportation options that are different from driving alone.
It’s meant to help the city achieve a number of goals, including: reducing carbon emissions; optimizing use of parking capacity; and decreasing traffic congestion.
Some options that will be promoted by Go Bloomington as preferable to driving alone in a car will be: walking, bicycling, riding the public bus, riding shared electric scooters, carpooling, vanpooling and telecommuting.
On Monday night, action by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) ensured that a contract is in place, with Evens Time, Inc., to provide parking control equipment for the two new parking garages currently under construction.
The view of the 4th Street garage, now under construction and scheduled for completion in August of 2021. The view is to the northwest, across Walnut Street, from the 3rd Street end of the block. Oct. 5, 2020 (Askins/Square Beacon)
One of the garages is a replacement facility for the 4th Street deck, which was determined to have structural issues and was demolished last year. The new garage is due to come online in August of 2021.
The other garage is being built in the Trades District to the west of city hall. It’s closer to completion and is expected to open in March of 2021.
The equipment covered in the roughly $335,000 contract includes barrier arms, magnetic coils, credit card exit terminals, barcode imaging kits and the like—the hardware necessary to admit and release parking patrons into the garages.
Before the RDC voted to approve the contract, RDC member Eric Sandweiss asked how the dollar amount for the contract stacks up against the budgeted amount for the equipment. City controller Jeff Underwood said $200,000 was budgeted for equipment for each garage, which put the contract with Evens Time, Inc. “well underneath” the budgeted figure. Continue reading “Bloomington RDC greenlights parking control equipment for two new parking garages”→
Bloomington city council: In the last two weeks, eight of nine Bloomington city councilmembers have voted against at least one important request made by mayor John Hamilton. One of those votes—a straw poll on the 2021 salary ordinance covering most of the city’s employees—had no legal significance.
The administration’s rough patch continued on Wednesday when the council gave the 2021 budget legislation a first reading and subjected it to its traditional preliminary straw polls. The package of budget legislation consists of six different ordinances.
On the salary ordinance that covers most of the city’s roughly 750 employees, the straw poll tally was just 3–6 in favor.
Sticking points include the departmental placement of a new transportation demand management position and the the creation of a new, independent engineering department.
Also making for a big bump in the budgeting road is the swapping out of five sworn police officer positions for two additional social workers, two neighborhood resource specialists, and a data analyst. That would reduce the number of authorized sworn officers from 105 to 100. Only 95 of those positions are currently filled.
Those points of concern were already evident in mid-August during the council’s departmental budget hearings and in the written questions submitted by councilmembers to the administration.
On Wednesday night, what might have caused some councilmembers to be more frank about their dissatisfaction with various aspects of the budget proposal was a surprise revelation during the meeting. The administration intends to delete the word “transportation” from the name of the planning and transportation department.
The set of councilmembers voting against the local income tax increase or against the straw poll on the salary ordinance includes eight of the nine local legislators. Dave Rollo was the only councilmember who didn’t vote against at least one of the two.
Rollo is in his 18th year of service on the council, which makes him the longest serving of current councilmembers.
Wednesday’s votes were made in the council’s guise as the committee of the whole, so they were just recommendations, or “straw polls” as councilmembers call them. The vote on final budget adoption is not scheduled until Oct. 14.
Susan Sandberg, the Bloomington city council’s appointee to the city plan commission, explains why she supports the project.
Rendering of a design for the 4th Street parking garage. View looking northwest from the intersection of Walnut and 3rd Streets.
City councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith addresses the plan commission at its March 9, 2020, meeting from the public podium.
Rendering of the integrated art project for the 4th Street parking garage that has been designed by Project ONE Studio. The quilted grids are to be fabricated out of painted aluminum.
By August 2021, motorists in downtown Bloomington could have 537 more parking spaces to choose from.
