I love the idea of free transportation but almost every bus I see is 95% empty.

Maybe just bad timing.

Are the schedules/routes just not great? Could smaller busses/vans be used in some cases to save money?

You can read the report here

Big problem is scheduling. Unfortunately RTAs across MA have been underfunded by the state for years

Please spend this money on new bin tops for the recycling containers

The buses on the routes that run more than once an hour are packed. But if your bus is unreliable and won't show up for more than an hour if you miss it, you stop relying on it and riding on it.

Free buses are great and the hop on hop off nature is fantastic but I walk an extra half a mile to main street because the buses on main Street will show up in 15 mins or so. My bus down the street will maybe show up and if I miss it, the next one is in an hour and a half.

They need to make the buses more reliable/predictable or more frequent.

I'd love free busing for all but understand that's a financial challenge. My ride behavior: Buses running once an hour I will almost never use. Buses running every ~20 minutes I will use heavily.

Just want to point out the line in the article about how "important it is and how big it is for not just our residents but our businesses."

Worcester has become so car-dependent and I see these cool businesses pop up from time to time and then fail and need to close down, usually because they have no dedicated and plentiful parking, only on-street parking or expensive parking garages/lots nearby. And everyone I talk to these days just complains about the traffic and there is NOWHERE to park or parking has become so expensive, so people don't want to make the effort to venture out and give their money to the businesses here.

I would love to see in addition to the continued free fare is frequent buses on all routes, better sidewalks to be able to safely walk to and from the stops, benches at every dedicated bus stop, and an effort to destigmatize public transit so that it's not seen as something just for people of a certain income level but something that literally everyone and every business can benefit from.

TLDR; literally the entire Worcester economy would improve if the overall infrastructure for public transit was higher quality and used by way more people. /endofsoapboxrant