Sioux Falls City Council will finally approve FREE youth bus rides all year long

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UPDATE: Public Transit advocates have told me they were aware of the changes, BUT were never given a timeline when they would go in effect so it comes as a pleasant surprise to them.

If I am reading this correctly it looks like the mayor wants to give free rides to youth on public transit all year long (item #35);

I’m glad to see they will be attempting to make this change. Rapid City has done it for several years. This will also alleviate some strain on the School District’s bussing system. While the mayor is the sponsor, I don’t think there will be any no votes on this.

It is a little disappointing that the council did not bring this forward considering they are 1) the policy body and 2) been urged by advocates for several years to make this change. Apparently the mayor got the message while the council is still hanging out in the cornfields looking for ways to getting out of forming policy on things like the bunker ramp and tornado sirens.

Posted in: Paratransit, SF City Council, Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls Transit, Transportation

4 Thoughts on “Sioux Falls City Council will finally approve FREE youth bus rides all year long”

  1. Fear & Loathing in Sioux Falls on July 16, 2022 at 12:37 am said:

    On-demand free busing for kids, won’t that just facilitate runaways? Not to mention that it’s also socialism. What happened to walking two miles to school each day? But if Rapid is doing it, then it must be okay, right? Because no socialists live there, only real Americans.

  2. The Guy From Guernsey on July 16, 2022 at 2:08 pm said:

    “But, if you give a kid free bus fare on SAM, have you really given him/her/them anything?”
    Especially in consideration of the most recent retraction of hours and services.

  3. Mike Lee Zitterich on July 16, 2022 at 4:48 pm said:

    I am torn on this, have often thought ‘we’ could work in conjunction with the School District, who like cities, can obtain federal and state grants to fund public education and other services within their district.

    I do not know if providing “children” free bus rides year round is such a good idea, but I would like to see the city work with the school district to provide “FREE” bus rides to and from ‘school’ during the school year, with perhaps the School District paying the bus fares to the “City” itself at a discounted rate.

  4. Further Fear & Loathing on July 17, 2022 at 11:17 am said:

    Mike has become a socialist. I’ve seen it all now. Why can’t a child just walk two miles across someone else’s “patented lands” to get to school? That’s how our fore fathers did it and wanted it to be done.

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