Crowded Bloomington city buses survey options

During the first month of school, Bloomington Transit buses carried more students in one month than they ever have before, said Lew May, Bloomington Transit general manager.\n“September was the very first time in (Bloomington Transit) history to break the 300,000 person mark for a month,” May said. Bloomington Transit’s numbers for 2007 have gone up eight and a half percent since 2006. Since 2005, ridership increased 10 percent, May said.\nThese are all-time record highs for the bus system, but right now, May said, there are no plans to add more buses or routes.\nBut there are other plans.\nNext year, the bus service is looking to extend its hours of operation for all of its downtown buses. The routes affected would include routes 1 to 5, which have pick ups in the downtown area, May said. Currently, these buses stop running at 8 and 9 p.m. The extended hours would keep the buses running till 10:30 p.m., May said. \nNine different buses run on the five routes that run through the downtown area. The two campus buses, the C Route and the 6 Campus Shuttle, will not change their schedule and will continue to run till midnight, May said. \nBloomington Transit currently offers 13 routes, 10 of which make stops on campus. Not surprisingly, the two designated campus routes, the C Route and the number 6 Campus Shuttle, have the highest student ridership of all the Bloomington Transit buses, May said.\nStudents like senior Tommy Scott think more buses are necessary. Scott, a C Route rider, said a lot of people ride the bus and put their bags on seats, taking those seats away from other passengers. \n“There are people that never have their (student) ID ready when getting on (and) people that don’t ‘move it back’ when the driver asks them to,” Scott said. \nFor IU students and faculty, the Bloomington bus is free with a school ID or a faculty picture ID. For non-IU students, the cost of riding is a 75 cents.\nMay said more people are turning to alternative forms of transportation due to a multitude of reasons, such as the fact that more students are living off campus, the increase in gas prices and local traffic congestion. \nSophomore Alicia Aronson said she’s waited for the number 6 Campus Shuttle only to find it full once this semester. She said she thinks it will only get worse during the winter. \nBoth Scott and Aronson said having more buses scheduled to run the most popular routes during the busiest times of day would help with the overflow of people. \nBloomington Transit buses haven’t removed any seats like the campus buses have in an effort to fit more people on the bus. However, May said if ridership continues to increase, they may consider different seat configurations.\nFor more information on bus routes and times visit www.bloomingtontransit.com.\nCity & State editor Elizabeth Dilts contributed to this report.