This fall, students living in the Cullen Oaks and Cambridge Oaks apartment complexes may not be able to catch a ride on a campus bus from right outside their apartments anymore.
Student Government Chief of Staff Cedric Bandoh and College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Senator Lucia Ayala Guerra are working on a proposal that would limit the bus routes to the parking lots and skip over the apartment complexes entirely.
“I know that option is not going to be popular with the student body because they’re going to have to walk across the street to get on the shuttle bus,” Bandoh said. “But given the financial situation that we’re in, that’s the best conclusion that we could come up with instead of getting rid of some of the routes.”
The proposal would do away with one bus route, the Campus Loop.
“We looked at the riding numbers, and students aren’t really riding (the Campus Loop),” he said. “It’s kind of pointless to be paying money to keep that route, so we got rid of it.”
The proposal should keep parking pass rates down; under the current system, the cost of passes could rise by as much as 20 percent a year.
“This was a tough decision, but we think it was the decision that was the best to keep at least most of the important routes online,” he said. “It may not be the solution that will make us all happy, but it’s the best one.”
Cutting the Campus Loop is a horrible idea. There are several students with disabilities who rely on that route to help them navigate a large campus. Plus, I have visited many college campuses and there isn't a single one who doesn't have a campus circulator. If we are going to be a Tier One campus, we should have a Tier One transportation plan.
That is a stupid idea. So SGA expects Cullen Oaks and Cambridge Oaks students to walk to class? What if their class is on the other side of campus? With all the construction going, walking across Wheeler is a safety hazard. Instead of cutting service, SGA should inform students that there is a shuttle service. Also, most of the card readers on the buses don't work, so how does SGA knows who rides the buses. With a campus as large as UH and the number of students that attend, you need a shuttle bus system.
since the bus goes right by the Cullen Oaks apts to get to Lot 9, why not stop?
Who is our customer, anyway? Look at the model of other "tier one" universities. They have dedicated routes to apartment areas just to pick up their students.
It may be helpful if the buses on the routes were more evenly spaced. if one is supposed to come every 10 mins it is simply frustrating that, instead, you will have two come back-to-back every 20 mins.
and it is also a safety concern that the bus drivers (all of them i have experienced) are on their cell phone while driving. using a bluetooth would be more acceptable than their hands off the wheel to hold their phone.
I think a focus on shuttle trans to the parking lots over the apartments is a good call. At the sacrifice of the Loop, I'm not so thrilled about though.
I am biased in this debate as I am a commuter student / staff, but I have an hour drive from home to school followed by a ten minute walk from the nearest available parking space just to get to a shuttle stop. All of the apartments, as far as I can see, are within 100 feet of a parking lot with shuttle service.
The quality of drivers is a major issue I've seen in respect, specifically, to the campus loop. While most are doing their best to accommodate every student, some just don't care. I've talked with a couple of drivers who have pointed fingers at two or three others who take breaks at the worst time of their shift with no notice to the other drivers. At most jobs, you would expect the troublesome employee to be reprimanded or some other disciplinary action but being a bus driver is an under-paid and overworked job, who else, that is licensed, is going to do it. With the current use GPS on all buses, we are now able to track, in real-time, all shuttle locations. I think during the times of heavy traffic, we should have one shuttle on the campus loop, when we used to have two or three and during off hours we can all just walk.
If only shuttles were reliable…
I ride the ERP sometimes and I have waited more than 20 minutes sometimes even when the schedule says it passes every 15 minutes. And they have an extra bus that is not accounted for on the schedule.
If the times were reliable maybe more people would ride them.
I am a commuter student and sometimes have classes that go late in the day. Due to safety concerns, I hop on the campus loop when it starts getting dark. I park in the East garage and walking back and forth from Fleming to the garage is a bit of a trip but I'd rather just get on the Loop to avoid having to walk back to my car alone. If they are gonna do away with the loop, then it would be nice to use some of the funds saved towards more security or better lighting on campus.
This is incredibly stupid, it is a safety issue to make students walk from the UC to Bayou or to Cullen Oaks. This is not a safe school to be on and it is important to the people to have this safe way of transportation. Not to mention a way to save time of the students. It is unfair to take away this safe way of transportation to the students. Also Bayou Oaks as been recently acquired by the University of Houston and it is now the Universities responsibility to service the outlying campus housing like Bayou Oaks and Cullen Oaks.
Couldn't they just reduce the frequency? Some people do need that bus.