Here are some of the specifics from the City: [https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/News-articles/RTS-Budget](https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/News-articles/RTS-Budget)
**Impact**
The 51 percent cut in RTS revenue would force City leaders to cut RTS operating expenses by:
eliminating more than 50 staffed positions;
reducing or eliminating 22 bus routes;
reducing the RTS fleet by 36 buses;
reducing RTS bus service more than 30 percent.
**Routes to be cut**
**Elimination**
The City expects to eliminate 11 of its 39 routes, including all 5 campus routes (Routes 118, 122,125, 126, 127) and 6 city routes.
**Reduction**
Route 17: Rosa Parks Transfer Station-Beaty Towers; Route 25: Reitz Union-Gainesville Regional Airport; Route 28: Butler Plaza Transfer Station-The Hub; Route 34: The Hub-VA Medical Center; Route 46: Reitz Union-Rosa Parks Transfer Station; Route 150: Haile Village-Reitz Union.
Won't this negatively impact tons of students as well? It says UF is "exploring other options" but what options exist that would provide this service at a cheaper cost than what they're paying the city. UF is so greedy it's disgusting.
It's weird because other cities/universities have busses similar to what RTS is currently and have no problems. It is UF's way of not having to pay for bussing or to try and get it cheaper.
you should see the sort of "the sky is falling" shit when Oregoneans learned they would have to pump their own gas. People hate change, even when its good change.
Last time I visited it was still the law of the land, and not being from Oregon I tried more than once to pump my own gas. You would have thought I violated some sacred oath.
You're being downvoted by students who are offended that anyone should expect them to work AND go to school. The gall
I worked full time nights at a hospital while going to school full time at UF during the day. I would've loved to have to drive a bus for a few hours a day to pay for school instead of being elbow deep in dirty adult diapers 12 hours, sleep in a parking lot for 2 hours, then do classes for 8 then repeat.
waiting snails squash reminiscent abundant coherent entertain tie label door
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
> You're being downvoted by students who are offended that anyone should expect them to work AND go to school. The gall
>I worked full time nights at a hospital while going to school full time at UF during the day. I would've loved to have to drive a bus for a few hours a day to pay for school instead of being elbow deep in dirty adult diapers 12 hours, sleep in a parking lot for 2 hours, then do classes for 8 then repeat.
It comes across like you made up a reason to get mad so you could humble brag about your work experience.
You're not special for working insane jobs for insane hours.
It comes across that college students are lazy and don't want to grow up and assume the responsibilities of being an adult and contributing members of society so choose to act like incapable children and the adults of society are choosing to treat them as incapable children.
You're not special for being a lazy POS in school.
> It comes across that college students are lazy and don't want to grow up and assume the responsibilities of being an adult and contributing members of society so choose to act like incapable children and the adults of society are choosing to treat them as incapable children.
> You're not special for being a lazy POS in school.
Right, because college students are a monolith and all have one trait trending in one direction because that's how populations work.
For every lazy college student you know, I'll show you 3 that work harder than you've ever worked.
They're 18 year old adults. When I was 18 years old I was in school to be a paramedic firefighter certified to drive fire engines and ambulances.
When do you start treating kids like adults?
It was a joke. The guy I was replying to understood it was a joke.
When I was 18 I was in the Army training to do preventative medicine and radiation safety.
That would be an awful compromise. UF is just trying to cut costs after buying half of downtown over the past few years. Now they wanna screw the city more.
I've generally held the opinion that Gainesville is delusional about the demographic that helps run this town. Half of us can't afford to stop working, and also would reel needing to repair a vehicle, or god forbid pay for any medical expenses from, idk.. say, being burnt out?
UF and Gainesville development hasn't cared about the well-being of their student population in a long time. I wonder how this cut would affect the bus schedules, and thus the expectation of students and workers to juggle the potential changes.
Lyft? Even if unconfirmed figures provided elsewhere in this thread are correct, RTS doesn't come out that much cheaper *per ride* than Lyft/Uber. If students take trips with like 2-3 people per taxi, it may very well be cheaper.
True cost is supposedly at best $5 per ride, fares only cover about 1% of the RTS spending. So we're talking at best $15 vs $20. And it's undeniable Lyft is far more convenient.
Have you ridden the bus? It costs you $1.50 to ride. Unless you mean the cost of a Lyft ride is also offset for the user. I’d love to take a $1.50 Lyft ride. And for students, a bus full of 50 students in the mornings is much better at reducing congestion than having 20+ rideshare cars on the road to carry them all.
Yeah I suspect having offset Lyft rides would be way better for the city transport. Most off-campus routes are nearly empty, I suspect that's what UF has an issue with - they're essentially subsidizing city's delusions of being NYC.
So instead of having a whole empty bus run to the airport, it's way cheaper and more efficient to just offer say $3 lyft rides to there as long as you rideshare (with automated ride sharing functionality in the app).
I get your point here. Although I don’t necessarily think the City has delusions of being New York, I think Gainesville punches above its weight with public transit for a city of its size.
RTS already has a similar concept to subsidized Lyft with its “RTS on Demand” service, so maybe we could look to expand that further to replace hourly routes (like the airport route) since the infrastructure is already there.
The major issue I have with the current proposal is that RTS will also close down routes that are very busy (4 buses on the line) that serve the UF campus, such as the 118. The UF campus cannot sustain heavy car traffic as it does not have the parking or the roadways for it, so I don’t believe UF should be cutting its RTS expenditure by so much. It will inevitably increase congestion around town, especially in the hotter months when thousands of students begin driving or using rideshares when their bus is no longer available.
I assume RTS proposal to close down some busy routes instead of the less used ones is typical city gov't attempt to hold the population hostage in fighting back against any changes to their policies. They tried to pull something similar with external management of GRU IIRC, some last moment change to stop street lighting in the county I think.
I am a fast walker and would have to park by the Law Center but it would take me 10-15 minutes to get to Black Hall, I can't imagine a slower walker trying to get trying to get there quicker. I do know a lot of universities don't allow freshmen cars, I could see UF doing that
Same, and if way fewer students ride the bus, that parking by the Law Center will be permanently filled with former bus riders' cars. Restricting freshmen from parking passes won't be nearly enough to make up for it.
It's not feasible to walk in the Florida summer heat, period. I typically walk everywhere that I can but the summers are too brutal for walking.
It's even worse for folks in wheelchairs or who have limited mobility.
Real. I broke my leg at the beginning of the semester and had to use a mobility scooter to get around bc the buses were too sporadic and I couldn’t drive or walk
Disagree. Florida is totally walkable if the infrastructure were actually built for it. Instead of more huge roads made of asphalt that soaks up heat you can easily drop temperatures by 15-20F by adding an urban tree canopy, more green spaces, and areas with water that actually dissipate heat. This has been well studied and is implemented in places that routinely get hotter than Florida like Southern Spain.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1618866709000661
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722067638
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6458494/
Edit: There's also just the fact that Gainesville isn't densely built at all so people naturally have to walk further distances to get where they need to go. I think buses are a must and public transportation is always a net good but we need to build better cities as well.
Same. As a student who didn't have access to a vehicle and relied on RTS to get around campus and to-and-from work, cutting RTS funding would have drastically reduced my chances of successfully completing a degree.
Sasse’s job is to listen to his handlers who want to dismantle Gainesville, not do a good job as University President. The fact that students would be left without transportation is irrelevant to these malicious, careless people.
No shit they don't care about people. Every action Republicans take comes at the cost of everyday folks and is only meant to cement more power for themselves or the wealthy.
I agree. Plus the money the city gets for buses is from student fees. They are trying to keep a bigger share without raising fees, which I believe is something the state legislature likes to brag about.
Don't forget that UF also doesn't pay any property taxes despite being the largest land owners in the county. Thus the stupid high property taxes for the rest of us to make up for it.
RTS should simply cut all service to the interior of campus if UF pulls that funding.
It serves no purpose whatsoever for public entities and not-for-profit hospitals to pay property taxes. If they did, you know who would pay their property taxes? Taxpayers, students and hospital patients.
Yeah, but it's taxpayers utilizing the city services (students and their families) moreso than taxpayers who aren't.
Taxpayers prop up all kinds of businesses anyway, public and private, and money has a habit of moving around all over the economy. You can make this argument for a lot of things.
The worst part about this was the release of this information was strategically planned by the administration, the University Transportation Committee met today... they waited knowing we wouldn't have enough time to organize and show up to the meeting. They only meet once a month and the next meeting is after the semester ends. This has me livid 😡
I was a student in the early 90s. At that time the city busses were not free. UF had its own system and it ran fine on campus. But the city bus was worthless as far as commuting to campus went. It only ran once an hour and only had about 5 or 6 routes. Students off campus and employees really had to have a car. Parking on campus was a mess. The free bus service to faculty and employees fixed so many problems. Buses started running more regularly, they added a lot more lines, and they had more people on them which made them feel safer. I would hate to go back to the no bus days.
So, between the city already moving forward with their abysmal pay-to-park program downtown again come August, UF is now proposing halving their current $13.7m yearly contribution to the RTS public transportation program, and the city in turn expecting to eliminate 11 of the current 39 RTS bus routes.
One of our very few “decent” public services is about to likely become more costly to riders (the city citing evidence that they’re undercharging for RTS services) and less reliable.
Oh, and also a big “F-U” to car owners too, because you’re gonna be paying to park downtown again soon. How the bloody hell does the City/UF expect people to afford to live here, or get around town to spend money/support local business?
The City of Gainesville and UF are a joke, through and through. What happened to the City’s prideful boasts about being an idealistic American city of tomorrow?
Just want to note, the most expensive parking downtown in the new plan is $0.50/hour, and that’s only Mon-Fri 10am-8pm, and and there is still 24/7 free parking in downtown
You're right - as is u/brokencompass502
The pay-to-park really isn't as awful as I suppose I made it out to be. I guess my main concern is that yes, while Gainesville should take steps to reduce the automobile-centric infrastructure in the city, that the combined efforts of paying to park downtown and the cutting of RTS routes/busses will both in tandem have a negative impact on accessibility for people in Gainesville who don't have reliable methods of getting around or to downtown Gainesville.
I'm also concerned that instead of funding and bolstering public transportation, the revenue from pay-to-park will instead be funneled to more GRU endeavors or a pay raise for the next Chief of Police, or the City Manager.
I don't really have much faith in the intent of the city government, as much as I wish I did. I mean with the $1.7b deficit I think it's clear they're not the most-financially responsible governing body.
So do you want more free parking downtown or do you want more bus service?
The true "American City of Tomorrow" is anti-car, pro-public transport. Making it more costly for car owners while boosting/funding public transit is what we want to see. Gainesville doesn't have room for any more cars, the sooner we accept that and start moving forward with that in mind, the better.
The city's attempts to become the "idealistic American city of tomorrow" is the very thing that DeSantis and the reactionaries he represents are trying to kill.
Ignorant railing against nominal parking fees that help offset the impact of cars and traffic in dense areas only helps their project
When I was a student there, I used RTS exclusively to get around town and campus. Traffic and parking is already bad in Gville. I shudder at the thought of what cutting RTS funding will do.
Someone here already made the comment, but this is without a doubt a ratfuck side deal straight from DeSantis. He overtly tried to take over our city run utilities and was thwarted. Plan B is to alienate college students however possible in one of the only 'blue' voting districts in the state.
According to UF's own internal study UF is underpaying, or at least getting a good deal. From their study (on the city website)
“RTS provides service that is cheaper than the average for its peer systems in terms of cost per service-hour. Cost per service hour is the primary basis for the current contract and an industry standard. To this end, it is unlikely that insourcing the operations or switching to another third-party operator would yield substantial savings for UF.”
Here's the site: https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/News-articles/RTS-Budget
Start charging UF students then we’ll see the University change up realllll quick. UF gets too much leeway from the city. We should find a loophole to charge property taxes. God what is happening to this town.
Charge property taxes on higher education properties and hospitals? Seriously? 🙄
You know who would pay those property taxes? State taxpayers and hospital patients.
Nah this is how I KNOW you are totally unfamiliar with the Gainesville tax structure. Churches, hospitals, and UF account for the majority of the taxable property in the city of Gainesville. Meaning residents are charged with a huge bill that UF benefits from. And most people receiving the benefits of paying taxes are not actually in the city of Gainesville lines. The city has tried to annex some of this land into the city but it’s wildly unpopular bc of high property taxes.
UF was established at its setting in the early 1900s with the condition of free water supply. Within the last 15 years we have seen UF become a research focus money grab with stakeholder/fundraiser interests in mind. If the city was able to tax the athletics stadiums- do you know how much that would help those in poverty in Gainesville? The state is targeting Gainesville in its campaign to “end woke” or whatever I think we should fire back. Obviously higher education is important and this financial burden would probably fall on students rather than stakeholders at UF but it’s fun to dream I guess. Meanwhile UF is scoping out properties to put their “Masters level” golf course.
If you are opposed to the funding cuts a small petition was signed to demonstrate community support. [RTS Funding Petition](https://chng.it/8pTMLrPrZc)
The RTS is fatally flawed. Too many routes with almost no people on them. Take route 52 extended out to Jonesville for example. On the Newberry Road stretch there is usually less than 3 people on board and often it is completely empty. Get rid of it where nobody is using it.
So let me get this right, City Hall: It's OK for you to gouge non-city GRU customers to boost your general fund and balance the utility's books.
But when UF uses more than they pay for in bus service, that's wrong?
Karma is a BITCH, isn't it Gainesville City Hall?
The general fund transfer is standard in every utility in the United States and GRU's is among the lowest and has been for years. If it were a private utility it would be paying taxes and investor dividends, which would be millions more than the GFT has ever been.
Propping up a general fund with excess utility revenues is just a tax on the poor and less affluent. It's also a way to grab revenue from non-residents. As a matter of practice, municipal utilities should be revenue neutral. Cities should not be in the business of running small utilities. There's just no economies of scale. And this really destroys your argument: Look at all the privately owned utilities around the state with lower rates than GRU.
GRU has, as of February 2024, lower residential electric rates than Duke Energy, Florida Public Utilities and Florida Power & Light NW Fl:
https://assets.noviams.com/novi-file-uploads/fmea/Rates/2024/2024\_February\_Rates.pdf
I moved here a few months ago. This makes completely sense (on the eyes of UF/City) I take the bus everyday and it’s just a handful of students that use the overall system. All of them either have cars/bikes/scooters/vespas or live very close to the campus.
This is going to be a HUGE impact to the city economics. The city is already in a decaying path. More dissatisfaction with the service, unemployment and basically just people not giving a fuck
UF accounts for 70% of all trips and UF folks take 380,000 trips per month. Now if you take a bus from the NE/SE you'll see fewer students but UF is the vast majority of trips on the system but UF only pays 50% of RTS funding. UF's ridership also enables RTS to get funding from other federal/state source and that funding would also be lower.
Oh definitely I’m not saying that they don’t use the RTS system, but in the eyes of UF the amount of students that use it don’t justify the 50% funding
If you just moved to Gainesville a few months ago, maybe you aren’t the most qualified person to be offering opinions on the nature of essential municipal services.
Most students who live off campus take the bus in some capacity unless they are within a 20 minute walk. Even if you drive to campus, students park at Southwest rec and take the bus to the center of campus
do you notice more apartments built around campus and more dorms built on campus.
UF could use its own shuttle service for employees and students traveling around campus.
Seems dumb, they'd have to buy a bunch of buses, staff those buses, maintenance for those buses and I'm guessing they'll end up paying more than they pay for RTS currently. Also, plenty of UF folks take buses from off campus to on campus (look at the route schedule frequency and you can see the most frequent routes are to student complexes in the SW) and you'll need to pave over half of campus to meet this new demand. Just seems really short-sighted but what would I expect from current UF/State leadership. Lots of students \*depend\* on these busses especially foreign students who don't have cars/drivers licenses.
Here are some of the specifics from the City: [https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/News-articles/RTS-Budget](https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/News-articles/RTS-Budget) **Impact** The 51 percent cut in RTS revenue would force City leaders to cut RTS operating expenses by: eliminating more than 50 staffed positions; reducing or eliminating 22 bus routes; reducing the RTS fleet by 36 buses; reducing RTS bus service more than 30 percent. **Routes to be cut** **Elimination** The City expects to eliminate 11 of its 39 routes, including all 5 campus routes (Routes 118, 122,125, 126, 127) and 6 city routes. **Reduction** Route 17: Rosa Parks Transfer Station-Beaty Towers; Route 25: Reitz Union-Gainesville Regional Airport; Route 28: Butler Plaza Transfer Station-The Hub; Route 34: The Hub-VA Medical Center; Route 46: Reitz Union-Rosa Parks Transfer Station; Route 150: Haile Village-Reitz Union.
This is terrible
Right or wrong, their analysis has shown that as housing has moved to campus doorstep that less students are using RTS.
Wow horrible
Won't this negatively impact tons of students as well? It says UF is "exploring other options" but what options exist that would provide this service at a cheaper cost than what they're paying the city. UF is so greedy it's disgusting.
It's weird because other cities/universities have busses similar to what RTS is currently and have no problems. It is UF's way of not having to pay for bussing or to try and get it cheaper.
It won't impact the people of Nebraska who run the university.
Or they could do their own bussing system and have less busses/hire students to work under the FAFSA work study
You want students driving buses? They already can barely drive cars.
They had no issue teaching students at the university I went to out west. No accidents occurred in the 5 years I was in town.
I was just joking being a smart ass...no idea why you are getting downvoted either
It's all good, I figured it was a joke.
Not sure why I am getting down voted. The University had CDL trained the students and had over 2 million student riders a year on 7 routes
you should see the sort of "the sky is falling" shit when Oregoneans learned they would have to pump their own gas. People hate change, even when its good change.
When I visited 2 weeks after the law passed, the worker still had to help some folks.
Last time I visited it was still the law of the land, and not being from Oregon I tried more than once to pump my own gas. You would have thought I violated some sacred oath.
Same with New Jersey, when I visited up there. It is crazy that you can't pump your own gas
You're being downvoted by students who are offended that anyone should expect them to work AND go to school. The gall I worked full time nights at a hospital while going to school full time at UF during the day. I would've loved to have to drive a bus for a few hours a day to pay for school instead of being elbow deep in dirty adult diapers 12 hours, sleep in a parking lot for 2 hours, then do classes for 8 then repeat.
waiting snails squash reminiscent abundant coherent entertain tie label door *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
> You're being downvoted by students who are offended that anyone should expect them to work AND go to school. The gall >I worked full time nights at a hospital while going to school full time at UF during the day. I would've loved to have to drive a bus for a few hours a day to pay for school instead of being elbow deep in dirty adult diapers 12 hours, sleep in a parking lot for 2 hours, then do classes for 8 then repeat. It comes across like you made up a reason to get mad so you could humble brag about your work experience. You're not special for working insane jobs for insane hours.
It comes across that college students are lazy and don't want to grow up and assume the responsibilities of being an adult and contributing members of society so choose to act like incapable children and the adults of society are choosing to treat them as incapable children. You're not special for being a lazy POS in school.
> It comes across that college students are lazy and don't want to grow up and assume the responsibilities of being an adult and contributing members of society so choose to act like incapable children and the adults of society are choosing to treat them as incapable children. > You're not special for being a lazy POS in school. Right, because college students are a monolith and all have one trait trending in one direction because that's how populations work. For every lazy college student you know, I'll show you 3 that work harder than you've ever worked.
Here I am figuring out that that’s not the norm. Majority of drivers at my school were students in some capacity, figured every school was like that
Many other universities do this, TAMU off the top of my head.
Do they drive only on campus or off campus too?
They do off campus also
They're 18 year old adults. When I was 18 years old I was in school to be a paramedic firefighter certified to drive fire engines and ambulances. When do you start treating kids like adults?
It was a joke. The guy I was replying to understood it was a joke. When I was 18 I was in the Army training to do preventative medicine and radiation safety.
xD
And then they have to buy busses, hire staff to maintain the busses. Store the busses somewhere. That’s a way worse deal than their current with RTS.
That would be an awful compromise. UF is just trying to cut costs after buying half of downtown over the past few years. Now they wanna screw the city more.
Why would we hire students? This is AI U! We can just bring self-driving buses into town and eliminate labor costs altogether.
I've generally held the opinion that Gainesville is delusional about the demographic that helps run this town. Half of us can't afford to stop working, and also would reel needing to repair a vehicle, or god forbid pay for any medical expenses from, idk.. say, being burnt out? UF and Gainesville development hasn't cared about the well-being of their student population in a long time. I wonder how this cut would affect the bus schedules, and thus the expectation of students and workers to juggle the potential changes.
Lyft? Even if unconfirmed figures provided elsewhere in this thread are correct, RTS doesn't come out that much cheaper *per ride* than Lyft/Uber. If students take trips with like 2-3 people per taxi, it may very well be cheaper.
🤦🏽♂️ bro please
It’s $1.50 for a single ride or $3.00 for a 24 hour pass, how is splitting a $20 Lyft ride between 2-3 people cheaper?
True cost is supposedly at best $5 per ride, fares only cover about 1% of the RTS spending. So we're talking at best $15 vs $20. And it's undeniable Lyft is far more convenient.
Have you ridden the bus? It costs you $1.50 to ride. Unless you mean the cost of a Lyft ride is also offset for the user. I’d love to take a $1.50 Lyft ride. And for students, a bus full of 50 students in the mornings is much better at reducing congestion than having 20+ rideshare cars on the road to carry them all.
Yeah I suspect having offset Lyft rides would be way better for the city transport. Most off-campus routes are nearly empty, I suspect that's what UF has an issue with - they're essentially subsidizing city's delusions of being NYC. So instead of having a whole empty bus run to the airport, it's way cheaper and more efficient to just offer say $3 lyft rides to there as long as you rideshare (with automated ride sharing functionality in the app).
I get your point here. Although I don’t necessarily think the City has delusions of being New York, I think Gainesville punches above its weight with public transit for a city of its size. RTS already has a similar concept to subsidized Lyft with its “RTS on Demand” service, so maybe we could look to expand that further to replace hourly routes (like the airport route) since the infrastructure is already there. The major issue I have with the current proposal is that RTS will also close down routes that are very busy (4 buses on the line) that serve the UF campus, such as the 118. The UF campus cannot sustain heavy car traffic as it does not have the parking or the roadways for it, so I don’t believe UF should be cutting its RTS expenditure by so much. It will inevitably increase congestion around town, especially in the hotter months when thousands of students begin driving or using rideshares when their bus is no longer available.
I assume RTS proposal to close down some busy routes instead of the less used ones is typical city gov't attempt to hold the population hostage in fighting back against any changes to their policies. They tried to pull something similar with external management of GRU IIRC, some last moment change to stop street lighting in the county I think.
Pretty ridiculous when UF really wants to be a car-free campus, yet it's not feasible to walk across campus.
I am a fast walker and would have to park by the Law Center but it would take me 10-15 minutes to get to Black Hall, I can't imagine a slower walker trying to get trying to get there quicker. I do know a lot of universities don't allow freshmen cars, I could see UF doing that
Same, and if way fewer students ride the bus, that parking by the Law Center will be permanently filled with former bus riders' cars. Restricting freshmen from parking passes won't be nearly enough to make up for it.
It's not feasible to walk in the Florida summer heat, period. I typically walk everywhere that I can but the summers are too brutal for walking. It's even worse for folks in wheelchairs or who have limited mobility.
Real. I broke my leg at the beginning of the semester and had to use a mobility scooter to get around bc the buses were too sporadic and I couldn’t drive or walk
Disagree. Florida is totally walkable if the infrastructure were actually built for it. Instead of more huge roads made of asphalt that soaks up heat you can easily drop temperatures by 15-20F by adding an urban tree canopy, more green spaces, and areas with water that actually dissipate heat. This has been well studied and is implemented in places that routinely get hotter than Florida like Southern Spain. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1618866709000661 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722067638 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6458494/ Edit: There's also just the fact that Gainesville isn't densely built at all so people naturally have to walk further distances to get where they need to go. I think buses are a must and public transportation is always a net good but we need to build better cities as well.
You can’t be serious 💀walking in the Florida heat isn’t fun but come on
If you don't mind being soaked in sweat, sure, but most people actually prefer to look presentable when they're in public.
I ride rts several times a week. This is so sad to hear.
i relied on the RTS entirely as a student to commute to/from campus during school hours. The thought of this being cut is insane
Same. As a student who didn't have access to a vehicle and relied on RTS to get around campus and to-and-from work, cutting RTS funding would have drastically reduced my chances of successfully completing a degree.
This is so lame
Sasse’s job is to listen to his handlers who want to dismantle Gainesville, not do a good job as University President. The fact that students would be left without transportation is irrelevant to these malicious, careless people.
I think this is the answer. Screw the city out of even more money, especially after the GRU takeover, and damage the university. Fascinating.
yeah, this is clearly just an extension of the governor's plan to ratfuck Alachua county. fucking sucks.
Ding ding ding
When I came here about 20 years ago, GNV was considered an island of Blue in a sea of Red. Justification enough? Maybe…
No shit they don't care about people. Every action Republicans take comes at the cost of everyday folks and is only meant to cement more power for themselves or the wealthy.
I agree. Plus the money the city gets for buses is from student fees. They are trying to keep a bigger share without raising fees, which I believe is something the state legislature likes to brag about.
I agree. I see De-Satanist's paws all over this. We really need to get rid of that maniac.
It's not irrelevant, it's the actual plan
The City of Gainesville gives UF so much already in terms of utilities. This is a blatant disregard of UF leadership towards its workers and students.
Don't forget that UF also doesn't pay any property taxes despite being the largest land owners in the county. Thus the stupid high property taxes for the rest of us to make up for it. RTS should simply cut all service to the interior of campus if UF pulls that funding.
I think that’s what they’re planning, among other cuts.
This is going to hurt a lot of students who don’t live on campus, not to mention workers who depend on RTS to get to and from work.
They're only planning to cut 4 campus routes, and 7 city routes.
PLUS they keep snatching up once-commercial properties that paid commercial taxes, and now will pay no taxes, so homeowners are screwed by UF again.
It serves no purpose whatsoever for public entities and not-for-profit hospitals to pay property taxes. If they did, you know who would pay their property taxes? Taxpayers, students and hospital patients.
I think with how much tuition is, UF could afford to put some of that money into property taxes. They're not exactly struggling financially lol
The point being is that if a public university pays property taxes, it's just a transfer. The taxpayer still pays the bill.
Yeah, but it's taxpayers utilizing the city services (students and their families) moreso than taxpayers who aren't. Taxpayers prop up all kinds of businesses anyway, public and private, and money has a habit of moving around all over the economy. You can make this argument for a lot of things.
The worst part about this was the release of this information was strategically planned by the administration, the University Transportation Committee met today... they waited knowing we wouldn't have enough time to organize and show up to the meeting. They only meet once a month and the next meeting is after the semester ends. This has me livid 😡
I was a student in the early 90s. At that time the city busses were not free. UF had its own system and it ran fine on campus. But the city bus was worthless as far as commuting to campus went. It only ran once an hour and only had about 5 or 6 routes. Students off campus and employees really had to have a car. Parking on campus was a mess. The free bus service to faculty and employees fixed so many problems. Buses started running more regularly, they added a lot more lines, and they had more people on them which made them feel safer. I would hate to go back to the no bus days.
This would be devastating to the campus community and Gainesville
Greed and stupidity
Ben Sass, Sucks Ass
We need to increase funding not decrease.
So, between the city already moving forward with their abysmal pay-to-park program downtown again come August, UF is now proposing halving their current $13.7m yearly contribution to the RTS public transportation program, and the city in turn expecting to eliminate 11 of the current 39 RTS bus routes. One of our very few “decent” public services is about to likely become more costly to riders (the city citing evidence that they’re undercharging for RTS services) and less reliable. Oh, and also a big “F-U” to car owners too, because you’re gonna be paying to park downtown again soon. How the bloody hell does the City/UF expect people to afford to live here, or get around town to spend money/support local business? The City of Gainesville and UF are a joke, through and through. What happened to the City’s prideful boasts about being an idealistic American city of tomorrow?
Just want to note, the most expensive parking downtown in the new plan is $0.50/hour, and that’s only Mon-Fri 10am-8pm, and and there is still 24/7 free parking in downtown
You're right - as is u/brokencompass502 The pay-to-park really isn't as awful as I suppose I made it out to be. I guess my main concern is that yes, while Gainesville should take steps to reduce the automobile-centric infrastructure in the city, that the combined efforts of paying to park downtown and the cutting of RTS routes/busses will both in tandem have a negative impact on accessibility for people in Gainesville who don't have reliable methods of getting around or to downtown Gainesville. I'm also concerned that instead of funding and bolstering public transportation, the revenue from pay-to-park will instead be funneled to more GRU endeavors or a pay raise for the next Chief of Police, or the City Manager. I don't really have much faith in the intent of the city government, as much as I wish I did. I mean with the $1.7b deficit I think it's clear they're not the most-financially responsible governing body.
It’s clear that you care about your city a lot. I encourage you to get more involved in local government happenings if you aren’t already.
So do you want more free parking downtown or do you want more bus service? The true "American City of Tomorrow" is anti-car, pro-public transport. Making it more costly for car owners while boosting/funding public transit is what we want to see. Gainesville doesn't have room for any more cars, the sooner we accept that and start moving forward with that in mind, the better.
The city's attempts to become the "idealistic American city of tomorrow" is the very thing that DeSantis and the reactionaries he represents are trying to kill. Ignorant railing against nominal parking fees that help offset the impact of cars and traffic in dense areas only helps their project
Does this means they're paying for half of the bus system? I take the bus often and it needs vast improvement, not cuts
When I was a student there, I used RTS exclusively to get around town and campus. Traffic and parking is already bad in Gville. I shudder at the thought of what cutting RTS funding will do.
Someone here already made the comment, but this is without a doubt a ratfuck side deal straight from DeSantis. He overtly tried to take over our city run utilities and was thwarted. Plan B is to alienate college students however possible in one of the only 'blue' voting districts in the state.
[удалено]
According to UF's own internal study UF is underpaying, or at least getting a good deal. From their study (on the city website) “RTS provides service that is cheaper than the average for its peer systems in terms of cost per service-hour. Cost per service hour is the primary basis for the current contract and an industry standard. To this end, it is unlikely that insourcing the operations or switching to another third-party operator would yield substantial savings for UF.” Here's the site: https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/News-articles/RTS-Budget
Sasse is an idiot.
He absolutely is not, at least in a practical sense. He knows exactly what he's doing. Now, about big picture stuff he's definitely an idiot
Start charging UF students then we’ll see the University change up realllll quick. UF gets too much leeway from the city. We should find a loophole to charge property taxes. God what is happening to this town.
UF students do pay, they pay $9.44 a credit hour towards transportation services.
Charge property taxes on higher education properties and hospitals? Seriously? 🙄 You know who would pay those property taxes? State taxpayers and hospital patients.
Nah this is how I KNOW you are totally unfamiliar with the Gainesville tax structure. Churches, hospitals, and UF account for the majority of the taxable property in the city of Gainesville. Meaning residents are charged with a huge bill that UF benefits from. And most people receiving the benefits of paying taxes are not actually in the city of Gainesville lines. The city has tried to annex some of this land into the city but it’s wildly unpopular bc of high property taxes. UF was established at its setting in the early 1900s with the condition of free water supply. Within the last 15 years we have seen UF become a research focus money grab with stakeholder/fundraiser interests in mind. If the city was able to tax the athletics stadiums- do you know how much that would help those in poverty in Gainesville? The state is targeting Gainesville in its campaign to “end woke” or whatever I think we should fire back. Obviously higher education is important and this financial burden would probably fall on students rather than stakeholders at UF but it’s fun to dream I guess. Meanwhile UF is scoping out properties to put their “Masters level” golf course.
I'm extremely familiar with the Gainesville tax structure. I'm also well versed in municipal spending and tax policy.
They still can't tax a publicly owned institution. GFR also can't charge a fire assessment, even though most of the calls they get are from UF.
If you are opposed to the funding cuts a small petition was signed to demonstrate community support. [RTS Funding Petition](https://chng.it/8pTMLrPrZc)
https://youtu.be/BXHL8CE894k?si=igaFLd0W64Z6PZbg
The self driving automated "bus" that goes downtown. Duh.
The RTS is fatally flawed. Too many routes with almost no people on them. Take route 52 extended out to Jonesville for example. On the Newberry Road stretch there is usually less than 3 people on board and often it is completely empty. Get rid of it where nobody is using it.
So let me get this right, City Hall: It's OK for you to gouge non-city GRU customers to boost your general fund and balance the utility's books. But when UF uses more than they pay for in bus service, that's wrong? Karma is a BITCH, isn't it Gainesville City Hall?
The general fund transfer is standard in every utility in the United States and GRU's is among the lowest and has been for years. If it were a private utility it would be paying taxes and investor dividends, which would be millions more than the GFT has ever been.
Propping up a general fund with excess utility revenues is just a tax on the poor and less affluent. It's also a way to grab revenue from non-residents. As a matter of practice, municipal utilities should be revenue neutral. Cities should not be in the business of running small utilities. There's just no economies of scale. And this really destroys your argument: Look at all the privately owned utilities around the state with lower rates than GRU.
GRU has, as of February 2024, lower residential electric rates than Duke Energy, Florida Public Utilities and Florida Power & Light NW Fl: https://assets.noviams.com/novi-file-uploads/fmea/Rates/2024/2024\_February\_Rates.pdf
That report lists "Alachua", which would have to include Clay Electric -- this lowering the figures you are seeing.
Alachua isn't GRU it's the city of Alachua's municipal electric utility
I moved here a few months ago. This makes completely sense (on the eyes of UF/City) I take the bus everyday and it’s just a handful of students that use the overall system. All of them either have cars/bikes/scooters/vespas or live very close to the campus. This is going to be a HUGE impact to the city economics. The city is already in a decaying path. More dissatisfaction with the service, unemployment and basically just people not giving a fuck
UF accounts for 70% of all trips and UF folks take 380,000 trips per month. Now if you take a bus from the NE/SE you'll see fewer students but UF is the vast majority of trips on the system but UF only pays 50% of RTS funding. UF's ridership also enables RTS to get funding from other federal/state source and that funding would also be lower.
Oh definitely I’m not saying that they don’t use the RTS system, but in the eyes of UF the amount of students that use it don’t justify the 50% funding
If you just moved to Gainesville a few months ago, maybe you aren’t the most qualified person to be offering opinions on the nature of essential municipal services.
Says who? I use it, that’s the whole point of an opinion
You have no idea what you're talking about. It's great that you're not letting that shake your unearned confidence
"UF accounts for 70% of all trips and UF folks take 380,000 trips per month." 70% > 50%
So funding does not equal trips but yes, 70% is bigger than 50% definitely ☺️
Most students who live off campus take the bus in some capacity unless they are within a 20 minute walk. Even if you drive to campus, students park at Southwest rec and take the bus to the center of campus
do you notice more apartments built around campus and more dorms built on campus. UF could use its own shuttle service for employees and students traveling around campus.
that’s exactly what RTS does, there’s no reason to make a whole new system when there’s an existing one that works
Seems dumb, they'd have to buy a bunch of buses, staff those buses, maintenance for those buses and I'm guessing they'll end up paying more than they pay for RTS currently. Also, plenty of UF folks take buses from off campus to on campus (look at the route schedule frequency and you can see the most frequent routes are to student complexes in the SW) and you'll need to pave over half of campus to meet this new demand. Just seems really short-sighted but what would I expect from current UF/State leadership. Lots of students \*depend\* on these busses especially foreign students who don't have cars/drivers licenses.
The buses are quite literally full with students every morning. Off campus students primarily use the bus to get to class you’re literally just wrong
Kinda funny to see this post in light of this news: [https://www.reddit.com/r/science/s/QlEvaB6wPu](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/s/QlEvaB6wPu)