Public transit use dropped by 62 percent in the third quarter of last year. That’s according to a report from the American Public Transportation Association.
Bloomington Transit General Manager Lew May said students make up about two-thirds of local bus riders. When IU went to online classes, weekday ridership dropped to about 20 percent of what it was a year earlier.
“Social distancing and mass transit aren’t very compatible terms," he said. "Mass transit is trying to move large numbers of people together and that doesn’t work very well in the midst of a pandemic.”
May says all types of public and mass transit ridership have been hit hard during the pandemic.
He doesn’t expect to see ridership increase until a sense of normalcy is reached in society.
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