All buses free to students next week

Hitching a free ride around town will be pretty easy next week. \nBloomington Transit, in conjunction with IU Bus Service will hold annual "Free Week" beginning this Monday, Sept. 2. During "Free Week" all Bloomington Transit, BT Access, Rural Transit and IU Campus Buses are completely free of charge to anyone in the community.\n"('Free Week') is something that we hold each year trying to encourage everyone in the community, including IU students, to use public transportation," said Bloomington Transit's general manager Lewis May. "Traffic congestion will be high, especially in the campus area, and if everyone would consider using the bus, then we could do a good job reducing traffic congestion and air pollution." \nMay said BT will also be changing some aspects of their service beginning this Sunday.\nThose changes include the creation of a new Route 5 Sare Road which will provide service from High Street, Rogers Road, S. Sare Road and Jackson Middle School to the IU campus and downtown. May said the new route will give community members and especially students living in apartments south of town easier access to the downtown and campus areas. \n"We've got some really good options for students who are trying to get to campus," he said. "Students can always ride Bloomington Transit free -- all year long -- by just showing their I.D. card."\nOther changes include increasing the frequency of Route 3 West to every 30 minutes during morning and daytime hours, and the Route 6 Campus Shuttle to every 15 minutes on the east side of town. \nFor more scheduling and route information log on to www.bloomingtontransit.com.