[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: U of M Transit

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
U of M Transit
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1221970170.shtml


   After a one hour test outing yesterday, I felt I was sufficiently
   healed from my bike accident to resume my weekend walking. Today's
   neighhorhood was Prospect Park in Minneapolis, along East River Road.
   I went north on Oak Street about 10:15 am, and soon saw a long line of
   maroon and gold buses waiting to transport people to the Metrodome for
   the Gopher football game at 11 am.
   There were eight of them - count them! - eight buses, six regular 40
   footers and two articulated ("slinky") 60 footers. They all said
   "Campus Shuttle" on the side, the ones that normally link the West
   Bank, East Bank, and St. Paul campuses. It seems incredible to me that
   the U has this many, and these were just the ones parked there, not
   the ones at or enroute to the Dome.
   I wasn't done. When I reached Washington Avenue, I saw a nice "Campus
   Shuttle Supervisor" car, and a man exiting another car labeled
   "Metrodome Shuttle Supervisor." When walking the "transitway" toward
   the St. Paul campus, I saw a smaller bus labeled "Campus Circulator,"
   also in the spiffy maroon and gold motif. These run short loops around
   the campuses according to the U's web site. No doubt there are garages
   and offices, too. Just how many buses and vehicles does the U own, let
   alone need?
   When I went to the U 40 years ago, we usually walked to the West Bank
   via the pedestrian deck over the Washington Avenue bridge. There were
   a couple of old Twin City Lines relics that linked the two banks, but
   nothing like this. There were a couple more relics that linked the
   main east bank campus to St. Paul, good old Route 13.
   Today, U of M students get shiny new buses, running every 5 minutes on
   class days. That's reasonable to the West Bank I suppose, but
   seemingly absurd to St. Paul. I never had one class at "Moo U" in my
   four years, though some of us did watch a movie or two at the student
   center there. And in my day, we had Memorial Stadium on campus.
   This is a small example of why I say there is significant fat in our U
   of M / MnSCU higher education system, mostly in the form of needless
   duplication of services. In the case of transit, we have gone from a
   nominal out-sourced system to a large in-sourced solution, not to
   mention the Dome shuttle operation, complete with its own supervisor
   and car. (How much per Big Ten victory?)
   More tomorrow on this ...