Students cram into buses, leave no room to spare
Free bus system has twice as many riders; causes delays, changes in routes
By Sachiko Miyakawa (Contact)
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Clay Westerlund arrived late for class last week because he rode a KU bus that didn’t make it to campus on time.
Westerlund, Lawrence junior, takes the 2nd and Michigan streets bus route to commute to campus. He said he noticed a massive increase in passengers this semester, which slowed down the bus.
“It’s been 10 to 15 minutes late almost every time,” Westerlund said.
Photo by Alex Bonham-Carter
Students crowd into a KU bus, filling the seats and aisles within a couple of stops. The bus system is currently free for all students with a valid KUID, which could account for the boost in ridership.
KU on Wheels and Park & Ride have doubled their ridership this semester. The increase has created inconveniences for passengers of some routes and forced KU on Wheels and Park & Ride to modify their services.
Derek Meier, Independence, Kans., sophomore and transportation coordinator senator, said KU on Wheels and Park & Ride had more than 12,000 riders per day last week. He said that last year, an average of 6,000 people rode the bus each day.
Meier said the new free system and the lower price of the Park & Ride parking permit contributed to the increase in riders this semester.
Video by Alex Bonham-Carter
Time lapse video of students packing on to a KU Park and Ride during the bus rounds on Wednesday morning. Because of the new free ridership program, buses have been getting packed to capacity, and sometimes students are not able to get a spot and are left behind.
Donna Hultine, director of Parking and Transit, said the office sold 500 more Park & Ride parking permits this year than last year. The office recently added another bus to Park & Ride during the morning to help handle the overflow of passengers.
KU on Wheels also modified the 2nd and Michigan streets route last week to avoid delays. Meier said the bus no longer went to GSP-Corbin Hall. Beginning Monday, bus service will start at 7 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m.
“We didn’t really have a problem with this route last year,” Meier said. “But we didn’t take it to GSP and Corbin.”
Meier said the changes of the 2nd and Michigan streets route were in response to frequent complaints. He said that changes in the bus routes were rare because the causes of complaints often varied.
Megan Starrett, Lester, Iowa, graduate student, stopped using the bus this semester and walked to campus instead. She used to ride the Bob Billings and Kasold bus to campus.
Starrett said although the bus had been on time this year, she gave up riding it because it was too crowded. She said people sometimes couldn’t get on the bus.
“Last year I rode it four or five times a day,” Starrett said. “It was very convenient and all seats were open.”
Meier said he encouraged passengers to speak to KU on Wheels if they had any concerns about buses, and that would help improve the service.
— Edited by Jennifer Torline
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
Wow making the buses free makes them too crowded...didn't see this coming last year. This points to how shortsighted our parking and transit department really is. Not once did they give a straight answer as to if they had enough buses to meet demand on a fare free system. It's fairly obvious they don't. My guess is that we need atleast 10-20 more buses on route to handle demand, not the 4 more we are going to get this year. Look for parking and transit to come back this year for more money from students because we need MOAR BUSES and we just don't have enough to pay for them. I say we put our foot down, and demand a plan from them. No more increases in student fees to keep operations at their current level, etc. Make the parking department work harder to make this bus system smarter.
Increased ridership is great, but it's really sad hearing that people can't/won't ride the bus that they paid for because it's too crowded. Something needs to be done about this problem, but the solution won't be easy to come about.
This is exactly what the leadership of Students of Liberty told you. Thank you to the author for bringing this to light. OK people listen up. When you socialize anything, it gets over used and abused. That is a fact. As we exposed early on before the referendum went through, it was stated that yes it may cost $20 (to ride "free") plus $40-$50 (transportation fee) to support this system now but down the road they will incrementally add further fees and adding further buses. Instead of living within our means we begin to defeat the purpose of the bus system all together. Recall the socialized bus system now before this private corporation starts asking every student at KU to foot the bill for a required annual bus pass.
Again, MV Transportation is not in charge of funding the buses, designing the routes, etc. KU on Wheels and the Parking and Transit department is. MV Transportation provides maintenance and drivers to run the buses. A fare free system is a good idea- it provides more convenient and efficient transportation (when the buses aren't full to the step well) than personal vehicles. There is no more space on campus to build additional parking garages or parking spaces, so providing students a ride to campus from their apartment complex is not such a bad idea. Where we went wrong was not developing a plan to purchase more buses before we went fare free, that would not raise our student fees. The merger between KU on Wheels and Lawrence Transit could alleviate some of these problems, with the possibility of more federal and state funding coming in. It's too bad that the City and KU have such a stand-offish relationship with eachother...we could build a very efficient system if both were willing to work with eachother to run some routes.
I'm furious. I was more than willing to pay for a bus pass to ensure I could get to campus in a timely manner like last year. And I'm still willing to pay. In the winter, I'll probably never be able to get on because all the Oliver kids will crowd it rather than walk when I live 40 minutes from campus on foot.
Share your 2¢
Requires free registration.