#PeopleofNEI: Maurice, investing in public transit

Northeast Indiana is evolving. These are the people shaping its future. #PeopleofNEI

This week’s feature:

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Maurice is the General Manager at Citilink and has been working in public transit for the last 17 years before accepting a position with Citilink earlier this year. He lives in downtown Fort Wayne and rides the bus to work each day, and on his lunch break. “Riding Citilink to work each day is important to me. It’s important to ride the service you help provide. It helps you to understand better what the community’s experience is like with riding public transportation. People see that I am with Citilink and like to strike up a conversation about who I am and what I do. Most riders are glad to see the general manager on the bus and I like getting to know regular riders when I am riding. Honestly, I save so much money on fuel for my vehicle. Sometimes, I can go an entire month before having to fill up my tank again. I rarely use my own vehicle during the week. When smaller communities invest, public transportation can really thrive. Right now we have very low employment and we get requests frequently for public transportation to businesses. Increasing service and coverage areas is so helpful to a community. It’s expensive but helps availability for people to get to jobs. Increasing our frequency for riders is important especially seeing how the Fort Wayne economy is booming, and population is increasing. Aside from that, safety is one of our main focuses not just for me but the entire staff including drivers. It is most important for a transit system to provide a product to the public that is as safe as possible. We are also always looking for ways to improve like the new WiFi that is now available on the buses. I’ve been a Hoosier most my life and lived in different communities in Indiana. While interviewing for this position, Fort Wayne looked like a great place and community. There are so many people here invested in the city that want to see it thrive. I love seeing that, and public transportation is part of that equation.” #PeopleofNEI

A post shared by Input Fort Wayne (@inputfortwayne) on Jul 12, 2019 at 2:48pm PDT

#PeopleofNEI: Maurice, investing in public transit

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