The best bus ever

The best bus ever
Jason Sievers' awesome Art in Transit bus

Monday, April 30, 2007

Transit tidbits

Boise's bus system has been in the news a few times in recent days. From a story Sunday in the Idaho Statesman:

Valley Regional Transit officials say they aren't sure yet what caused a propane-powered bus to burst into flames last month, but a City of Boise audit reports ongoing problems in the transit agency's maintenance department. ...

... During the review, an inspection of 15 vehicle maintenance files revealed a number of issues. Most preventative maintenance inspections were not completed on time. Lifetime vehicle mileage was entered incorrectly into the computer system, so preventative maintenance schedules were off.Quality checks of vehicle inspection reports weren't completed.

Most problems identified in the audit have since been corrected, according to the audit report.

The same story reported that local bus ridership is showing some modest increases. Valley Ride had 378,513 passengers from Oct. 1, 2005 to Feb. 28, 2006 and 392,553 for the same period in 2006-2007.

In other recent news, the Statesman reported that transit advocates plan to bring the local option tax plan back to the Idaho Legislature in 2008 and, if that doesn't work, try a citizen initiative in 2010. What's the saying about insanity being the practice of doing the same thing and expecting different results? But sources close to the debate tell me that a few area lawmakers who voted no on local option have received negative feedback from constituents, and that transit backers plan to do a better job countering the limited opposition to the bill.

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