Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

4. Funding is inadequate.
The fact that securing funding for transit improvements will be critical is confirmed by
INDOT’s 2008 Mass Transit Study. 165 The study states that “Local bus systems are
undersized in Indiana’s cities, and thus currently serve a primarily transit‐dependent
population.” 166 To attract additional riders, the study suggests that “service expansion
should focus on building fleet sizes and adding more frequent service in the existing service
areas, with limited expansion to new destinations that are focused on access to
employment (i.e. Express Bus). Low‐frequency service is currently a barrier to higher
utilization of the system, especially by choice riders.” 167
What is of special interest for this Report and the assessment of vulnerabilities is that the
INDOT Mass Transit Study also states that the current mix of transportation funding
available to improve transit systems does not generate sufficient revenue to accommodate
the recommended transit investments that are necessary to meet current unmet demands,
much less the likely increases in demand as a result of peak oil. The pattern outlined in the
INDOT study makes it clear that the national trend of driving less translates into reduced
federal fuel tax revenues, which means fewer federal tax dollars are available for transit
and highway programs in the State of Indiana.
Investing in our public transit infrastructure to make it easier for people to use the system
will result in greater ridership. Greater ridership will translate into greater funding to
make up for the shortfall lost to decreased revenue from the federal gasoline tax.
165 Indiana Department of Transportation, Executive Summary, Indiana Mass Transit Studies PL 203‐2007,
(December 2008), E‐6.
166 “Transit‐dependent” refers to people who cannot drive because they are poor, sick, too old to drive, or
disabled.
167 Ibid.
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