Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, February 6, 2015
(BLOOMINGTON) - Bloomington Transit has announced that ridership for 2014 finished at an all time high of 3.54 million riders.
Between 2004 and 2014, ridership has increased by 72 percent, from 2.06 million to the present 3.54 million.
Over the past decade Bloomington Transit has transformed operations while focusing on growing ridership and improving system wide operations. This progress culminated in the ribbon cutting at the new Downtown Transit Center, which was developed on a previously vacant Brownfields site and includes vastly improved customer amenities as well as the Monroe County Central Emergency Dispatch Center.
"We knew ridership would likely increase when our administration first came into office, but we didn't expect that it would be at this tremendous rate," Mayor Mark Kruzan said. "It's all the more reason we're so pleased to have invested in the new Downtown Transit Center."
Service improvements have focused on providing new transit services to previously underserved areas of the community. These include the Arlington Park area, North Kinser Pike/Prowl Road area, Clear Creek Shopping Center, North Basswood Drive and Henderson and South Walnut Streets. Other expanded services have focused on expanded services in the downtown by extending hours to 11:30 p.m. on weeknights and implementing the "A Night Owl" service near campus that operates on Friday and Saturday nights until 3:30 a.m.
Bloomington Transit has been successful in seeking outside funding sources and has received $8.1 million in Federal discretionary grants between 2005 and 2014. These grants provided funds for major capital investments and improvements, such as hybrid buses, clean diesel buses, the new Downtown Transit Center, bike lockers and mobility management programs. New advanced technologies have been introduced including eight hybrid buses; a bus tracker application which receives over 3 million annual views; new arrival time displays and monitors at the Downtown Transit Center, security cameras on buses and a new website design.
Bloomington Transit has also been the recipient of numerous awards during this time including the Downtown Bloomington Revitalization Award in 2006, the Kelley School of Business Green Award in 2006, the Bloomington Council for Community Accessibility Customer Service Award in 2008 and the American Public Transportation Association's Outstanding Public Transportation System Award in North America in 2010.
Bloomington Transit General Manager Lew May said, "It's been an incredible time of growth and improvement at Bloomington over the past 10 years. Public transportation has made great leaps in Bloomington and the community has warmly embraced the changes through their growing patronage of the system."
The new Downtown Transit Center is located at the corner of E. 3rd and N. Walnut streets. The center includes public art, bike racks, benches, and an outdoor wall sculpture. All bus routes are located at bloomingtontransit.com.
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.