All aboard the Bloomington Transit

Allowing students to prepay to ride Bloomington Transit earned the agency recognition as one of the 10 fastest growing transit services in North America in the September/October 2001 issue of Metro Magazine, a national bus and rail transit industry publication. \nIncreased ridership accounted for the recognition, said Lew May, Bloomington Transit's general manager. \n"The biggest reason for the ridership increase that we've enjoyed is the U-Pass program with Indiana University," May said. \nThe U-Pass program allows students unlimited trips on BT buses after paying a transportation fee of $27.66 per semester. \nRidership increased 34 percent to 1.37 million riders in 2000, and May said he expects it reach 1.75 million this year.\nSenior Shawn Burns said he uses BT's park-and-ride program from Bryant Park at least four days a week. He said he appreciates being able to use the service even if the time the bus leaves Bryant Park is a little inconsistent.\n"I know how bad parking sucks (on campus), so, if they can keep more cars off campus, it's better for everybody," Burns said.\nReducing the need for parking is one of the advantages of using the bus, May said. Other benefits include reduced traffic, less pollution and noise from cars and saving money because riding the bus is cheaper than owning a car, he said.\n"When you have 37,000 students enrolled in the University, everyone needs a way to get to campus," May said. "We just don't have the ability to handle thousands and thousands of cars. The transit helps reduce a lot of those cars and the accompanying problems they bring." \nA number of other changes included in the agreement between the University and BT are weeknight service from the Main Library until 12:30 a.m., Sunday service on Route 6, which serves east and northwest side apartment complexes and reducing the wait time from one hour to 30 minutes on Route 1, which serves apartment complexes on south Walnut Street. \nThe U-Pass program is one part of a bigger program that will eventually include free rides on the campus buses in the transportation fee, May said. He said he does not anticipate losing riders on BT buses because BT serves students who live off campus and the campus buses serve students who live on campus.\nFall 2000 was the first academic year that students could prepay to ride BT buses. In Fall 2001, the program expanded to include two IU bus services. According to the BT Web site, the stadium express and the shuttle to the SRSC are now also included in the program. Also, IU contracts with the Bloomington Shuttle Service to provide prepaid service between campus and downtown from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. \nWhile Burns highlighted the advantages of public transportation, some environmentalists said they are concerned with bus exhaust.\nMike Englert, a volunteer with the Center for Sustainable Living, a Bloomington environmental advocacy group, said that while he was happy more people are using the buses, he hopes that cleaner fuel or electric buses will be used in the future to reduce the environmental impact.\n"The buses they are using are always belching out this black smoke, and it's not anything you want to be anywhere near," Englert said.