Daytons Dying Public Transit

..... article in the Dayton Daily News:

RTA Director: Budget Cuts Needed

"Executive Director Mark Donaghy outlined preliminary numbers and said trustees will need to carve nearly $2.4 million out of the $58.9 million budget unless they want to use reserves.

"Beginning last year trustees set a policy of balancing the budget without using reserves. Those reserves have dwindled from $51 million in 1999 to $31 million this year.

There's more at the link, including mention of flat sales tax receipts (a sign of a weak economy, or that retail expansion is now occuring outside of Montgomery County?)

RTA is not a particularly pleasant experience to ride, as the vast majority of customers are either quite poor...too poor to run a car.... or have some sort of mental or physical disability. Service cuts to save $$ make RTA less and less convenient and less and less viable.

I suspect that it's recognized that RTA isn't a viable form of public transit, as that explains the emphasis on putting in parking garages that are connected or associated with new office development, both withe Caresource, Workflow One, and in Citywides planning document that I mentioned elsewhere in this blog. The idea is that people will prefer to drive to work downtown rather than take the bus.