Last week, UW Transportation Services announced a 10 percent cut in transportation services on the UW campus due to a budget deficit.
Luckily for UW students, Transportation Services said student input on this issue will be a significant factor when deciding upon whatever changes will implemented. This move shows transparency, and I applaud Transportation Services for deciding to invite a conversation centered on the budget deficit.
Transportation Services will have a meeting tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Memorial Union that will allow people to participate in this decision making process.
Another public meeting will be held May 9 at 6:00 p.m. at the Madison Municipal Building, a meeting that will focus on Metro Transit services.
Transportation Services is facing a structural deficit of over $1 million, and the service hopes to combat this deficit by changing the bus route services on the UW campus. It is important to note these changes will not affect the hours in which the buses are in service or the actual destinations of the routes.
What many people might not know is campus bus services are funded through UW housing, ASM, through segregated fees and obviously by Transportation Services. While ASM and Transportation evenly split most of the costs, UW housing funds roughly six percent of the service.
According to a report released by Transportation Services, three options, two of which would be effective on Sept. 1 of this year, are currently being discussed. These include increasing the number of arrival times of Route 81 at night, increasing the number of arrival times of Route 85 on Monday through Friday and an option of adjusting Route 80 and 85 simultaneously. The last option would increase the wait times of Route 85 but keep the wait times of Route 80 mostly the same.
Non-UW students may be unfamiliar with the fact that UW students make up 81 percent of campus bus ridership, according to a 2008 Metro Transit Survey. In fact, it is almost impossible to not walk past the bus servicing the route at any time of the time day and not see the bus extremely crowded. Hence, I believe it would be a terrible idea to consider making cuts and time changes to this route.
I should probably level with you: I have never ridden on a bus around on campus, and I have only taken a bus a few times to reach a destination several miles from the campus. I believe this is because I live in one of the most central locations and the fact that all of my classes are reachable within a ten minute walk.
However, while I know there are some lazy students who decide to take a service bus when they could easily walk, many students live far off campus or have classes that are not necessarily within walking distance. Since many students are in either of these two situations, they will be easily affected by a decision. And there are thousands of these students, too.
Nonetheless, everyone should applaud Transportation Services for deciding to open the door to students and other members of the UW community when deciding to make this decision. Tens of thousands students attend this excellent university, and I believe that the actions that Transportation Services is taking to combat this problem and deficit are commendable.
Ethan is a freshman with an undeclared major. Do youu ride the buses around Madion? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
