Brummage witnesses firsthand the positive impact of Richland County Transit

People might not realize it, but they can catch a bus ride to the Richland County Fair on weekdays.

Enjoy your time before you go by riding Richland County Transit with your friendly West Fourth Street, Route 9 driver , who regularly drops folks off at the fairgrounds.

Meet your neighbor, Tim Brummage, who worked at RCT in the 1980s as a mechanic’s helper.

"Altogether, I’ve been with Richland County Transit for nearly 12 years,” he said, adding he will celebrate 10 years as a driver Sept. 2.

RCT navigates multiple routes around greater Mansfield.

“It seems like it’s a roundabout,” Brummage said. “Every route’s different because there’s different people riding for different reasons. It's really an amazing system.”

Brummage always has a friendly work or two for passengers

He sees his role as a counselor or bartender by helping riders reduce their stress.

“Talk to them,” Brummage said. “They have enough to worry about. Now they’ve got wheels under their feet to go here, there and get things done.”

Even though he knows only one or two riders by name, Brummage said he has yet to meet a stranger.

“They’re all regulars. I know a lot more faces than names,” he said. “I just know that it’s good to see them along the way and that they need a ride.”

The transit depot, known as the Stanton Center RCT Intermodal Passenger Terminal , operates a fleet of vehicles that. runs like clockwork, according to Brummage.

“You’ll see on the half-hour and the top of the hour this handful of buses leave the transit center. They follow each other for maybe 100 feet or so and then veer off in different branches," Brummage said.

The driver showed off RCT's map of its routes.

“It just envelopes the city in a large web,” Brummage said.

Daily or monthly passholders can get off one bus, walk to another street and take another bus to go a different direction.

RCT provides an affordable way to spend the day, Brummage said. Not only can riders save money on fuel, they can run a full day's worth of errands by just getting onboard.

A 1982 graduate of NBC TECHNOLOGIC in Lima, Brummage is inspired by the potential of greater Mansfield and the role RCT could play.

So many 'resources could feed those arteries'

“I like that there’s so much to offer,” he said. “A steel mill in our backyard, railway system, airport, and then (Interstate) 80 and (Interstate) 90 are just due north of us, let alone (Interstate) 71 and (U.S.) 30. There’s so many resources that could feed those arteries."

Regional growth, just like the scheduled stops of RCT, is critical.

“Everybody’s dependent on everybody to be on time, and this person down the road depends on me to be there," Brummage said.

Meet Your Neighbor is a weekly series profiling people in Richland County and surrounding areas. Correspondent Joe Di Lullo can be reached at muckrack.com/dilulloj or jp.dilullo0926@gmail.com .

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Brummage witnesses firsthand the positive impact of Richland County Transit