Wisconsin Urban and Rural Transit Association

Wisconsin Urban and Rural Transit Association

The Wisconsin Urban and Rural Transit Association represents 28 urban and rural bus systems, 43 shared-ride taxi systems and 24 associate and affiliate members in the state of Wisconsin, and employs more than 2,900 transit workers statewide, including drivers, mechanics, dispatchers and administrative staff.

Public transportation benefits its riders, who use the system for many purposes. It is funded with a combination of passenger fares and government investment. Millions of people use the services provided by Wisconsin transit systems each year.

Benefits

Transit provides many benefits for its users including:

Mobility for communities by helping those who do not have access to automobiles
Adds capacity to the transportation system
Helps the environment (better land use, improve air quality)
Brings in money (for the community, and to pay for itself)
Stimulates economic activity (mobility allows access to shopping, medical services, schools, and work)

For more information, see WURTA's Executive Reports and Transit Times.

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Purposes

People use public transportation for many purposes, including work, education, medical care, and shopping, tourism or recreation.

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Funding

In 2004, $251.6 million were invested in transit. Of that, passengers paid $68.3 million with local governments adding an additional $4.2 million.

Transit Funding Partners	2004 Investment	2003 Investment

State	$98.7 million	$98.7 million
Passengers	$68.3 million	$63.2 million
Local	$44.2 million	$46.6 million
Federal	$40.4 million	$25.7 million

Total	$251.6 million	$244.2 million

State federal guidelines call for state and federal aid to be a combined percentage of the transit operating budgets. The larger a system is, the smaller the combined percentage as shown by the chart below.

Bus and shared ride taxi systems serving populations less than 50,000:	Bus and shared ride taxi systems serving populations 50,000 to 200,000:	Wisconsin's largest bus systems - Madison and Milwaukee:

Areas served: 46	Areas served: 21	Areas served: 2

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Ridership

In 2005, over 73 million people used Wisconsin's urban and rural transit systems. (Full report in Word format)

Type	Ridership Count

Commuter Bus	806,111
Rural Bus	95,034
Shared-Ride Taxi	1,610,212
Small Urban Bus	796,970
Urbanized Bus	70,089,456
Urbanized Taxi	93,455

Total	73,491,238

754 Williamson St - Madison, WI 53703 - Phone 608-255-1166 - Fax 608-255-3301