RYDE Racine is a public transportation agency, operated by the city, serving the city of Racine and villages of Mount Pleasant, Caledonia, and Yorkville in southeastern Wisconsin. The city-owned transit system, which is also a member of the Southeast Wisconsin Transit System, maintains a fleet of buses operating on nine bus routes. The city also provides paratransit services, branded as Dial A Ride Transportation (DART).[1]
In 1962, Susquehanna sold its bus services in Racine and Kenosha to an official of the Madison Bus Company, who left Madison to take over management, and the Racine service was renamed "Lakeshore Transit-Racine".[4] Lakeshore Transit ran into significant debts during its five years running the service. In February 1968, the company eliminated all evening, Sunday, and holiday service. The company then applied in March for permission from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to discontinue bus service in Racine entirely. The city of Racine sought a replacement that could take over the service when Lakeshore Transit exited.[5]
The Flash Cab Company started operations with its own buses. Flash City Transit began service on June 10, 1968.[6] However, Flash's service also quickly became unprofitable, and starting in 1972, the company relied on subsidy payments from the city to keep it out of debt. In 1974, it was suggested that the city of Racine should take over the service, so that Racine would qualify for an Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) federal grant providing new vehicles to publicly-owned transit systems.[7] This plan was approved in a referendum on September 10, 1974, with 81 percent of voters supporting the public acquisition of the service.[8]
The city assumed ownership of the bus system on July 1, 1975, with no changes to its services being made immediately.[9] The service was given the new name "Belle Urban System", referring to Racine's nickname "the Belle City on the Lake" and with its acronym being "BUS". The UMTA grant provided the BUS with 25 new vehicles, each seating 41 passengers.[10] These buses were put into service on May 22, 1976, coinciding with a redesign of local routes and the official introduction of the Belle Urban System name.[11]
In November 2010, First Transit replaced Professional Transit Management of Racine as the company to manage the city's bus system.[12] It had managed Belle Urban System from 1996 until 2003 when the Racine City Council awarded the management contract to Professional Transit Management of Racine. Bus drivers and managers of the Racine system become city employees after this contract expired in 2022.
In 2017, the City of Racine changed the transit system's name from Belle Urban System to Ryde Racine, and added commuter bus service to Chicago and the North Shore suburbs through Coach USA.[13]
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