Wausau MetroRide buses. Image courtesy: WAOW TV.
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Each fall, when we turn the clocks back, something fascinating happens in Wausau. Since it gets dark earlier, city busses operate with their inside lights on. And you can see inside them. Notice that the buses are usually… empty. If you happen to pass a bus take a quick head count. The number of riders is usually 1 or 2… or zero.
I bring this up because last week, MetroRide, the people who operate the busses, unveiled 7 new city busses. They are high-tech, and they are almost zero-emission vehicles. And to be even greener, the use LED-lighting.
Now these two selling points, for busses that usually run empty, are ridiculous. There are 117,000 registered vehicles in Marathon County. So… the impact of 7 “green” busses is… zero.
Of course, no one tells you how much a new city bus costs. It’s around a quarter-million dollars. Don’t worry – we’re told – because federal transportation grants are paying for it. Well, it’s still taxpayer dollars.
So I ask this question, with budgets and taxes being what they are, how long will Wausau operate busses that no one rides? How much money would we save if we switched to rideshare credits for the poor instead of being a small city with an under-used transit system? And, for environmentalists who are excited about green busses, how much greener could we be if empty busses were shut down altogether?
I’m Chris Conley
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