“Our work is now more important than ever.” Keep reading to find out why, or click here to watch a short film about the Winona Riders!
As part of their response to COVID-19, the City of Winona suspended transit fares for April through December of 2020. This was, of course, very welcome and exciting news for those of us working toward fare-free transit in Winona. Unfortunately, 2020 was not a good time to promote increased transit use, as we were all encouraged to reduce community spread of the virus by avoiding public spaces whenever possible. So the work of the Winona Riders Coalition–advocating for fare-free busing, calling for expanded and more frequent service, and promoting ridership–became temporarily irrelevant.But our work is now more important than ever. With a return to normalcy, many people will begin developing new habits and returning to in-person jobs. Building greater awareness of our transit system now may encourage some to make transit use a regular part of their new routine. Additionally, the city resumed collecting fares at the start of 2021. Now that they’ve had experience as a fare-free system, though, perhaps they’ll be warmer to the idea of eliminating fares for the long term. Also, the four regular routes have buses running less frequently than they had been pre-COVID due to sanitizing breaks. When these cleaning protocols are no longer required, and the schedules will need to be adjusted anyway, it could be a perfect time for the city to increase service to include more frequent buses and Sunday and evening route service.
Early last year, a talented WSU Mass Communications student, Perry Greenwood, had been working on a film about the Winona Riders Coalition for his Senior Capstone Project. I assumed he had abandoned it during the lockdown, when access to the University’s filmmaking equipment became much more limited. But I just discovered that he completed the video, and that he did an amazing job. Many of the details are now out of date (specifics about schedules and fares, for example) as so much has changed since early 2020, but the arguments made in favor of free transit and expanded service remain relevant and compelling. I’m excited to share the video, and I’m hopeful that it will help persuade Winona citizens and city officials to make our transit system a major priority and a point of pride for our city.