Dunn County transit reports ridership gains, proposes campus route change for summer

At the March 12 Dunn County transit meeting, transit staff reported higher ridership in February and presented a proposed route adjustment to bring more runs directly to campus. Transit staff also described planned temporary moves of bus shelters during Heritage Hall construction and new in-bus advertising and rider information.

The presentation, given by a transit staff member identified in the record as Austin, said overall fixed-route ridership dipped slightly month-to-month but rose on a per-service-day basis, and that community-route and ‘‘stealth’’ route ridership saw large increases in February. Austin said the system recorded roughly 549 riders on the red-seater route in February versus about 567 in January, a 3% month-to-month decrease but a 35% increase when measured per service day because February had fewer service days. He reported community-route ridership rose from 1,394 to 2,097 in February, and said the stealth route rose from about 3,700 in January to roughly 16,000 in February. "So it's good to see," Austin said when summarizing February numbers.

The nut graf: staff framed the numbers as a function of weather and operational reliability — more buses in service and fewer breakdowns — and proposed a schedule and routing tweak intended to shorten the campus loop and reduce left turns and signal delays that staff said slow the route.

Operations supervisor John Entor, introduced during the meeting by Austin, was cited by staff as leading operations while Austin has been intermittently out of the office. "This is John Entor, our new operations supervisor since November," Entor said during the meeting.

Route proposal and testing: Austin presented a mock-up that would bypass the City Hall stop at 19 minutes after the hour, run straight down Ninth Street from Dick's Fresh Market, and re-time several stops so that the bus would reach the UW library/campus at roughly the half-hour rather than the clock tower at the top of the hour. Austin said the change would reduce the number of left turns and traffic-signal delays in the existing figure‑8 loop and move several stops two to five minutes earlier in the loop. "I think this will serve the students and general population a lot better," Austin said. Committee member Minh (first name only in the record) agreed to test the revised schedule with several drivers during off-hours or weekends and report back.

Shelters and temporary stops: staff noted that during Heritage Hall construction the County will temporarily move some bus shelters farther west in front of the library; final drawings show the shelters moved forward slightly so that buses pull ahead of the crosswalk near 10th Street. Austin said the change will improve sight lines on a steep hill and that new in-bus signage produced with FASTSIGNS in Eau Claire will include a QR code for tracking, a Monday–Friday schedule, and guidance about how the stealth PM route operates.

Budget and maintenance: Austin said the transit program is about 17.5% expended through two months of the year, roughly 1% under the budgeted pace. He reported early-year spending is front-loaded: a multiyear maintenance contract was paid in January (noted as about $2,300 in the record for contract-related items), and liability insurance had been paid about 85% for the year. He attributed much of the early spending to one-time contract and maintenance payments (belt pulleys, brake caliper work) and said the system remains near the expected burn rate through two months.

Nonprofit transport question: a committee member asked whether the transit agency can provide transportation for local nonprofits. Austin said he will bring back the specific state verbiage on what the system can and cannot do for nonprofit or privately organized events and that there may be regulatory differences depending on the organizer.

Procedural action: the committee unanimously approved a motion to accept the prior meeting minutes (the transcript identifies the item as "February 1225 meeting minutes"; the date in the minutes was not clearly stated in the record). Will Powell moved to approve the minutes; a second was recorded but not identified by name. The chair announced the motion passed.

The meeting adjourned with the next meeting scheduled for April 9 at the same time and place.

Ending: staff will pilot the proposed route changes and return with feedback at a future meeting; Austin said updated pamphlets and Google Transit entries will be prepared if the change is adopted.