Raincoat-clad University students huddle along the soaked, leaf-smothered streets of the Westmoreland neighborhood early one morning as they await the route 76 bus, the vehicle that has taken some of them to class every morning of the term.
Next year, though, they’ll have to find a new way to get to school.
Route 76 is scheduled to be canceled, along with 12 other routes. Many are crucial to students who commute to campus throughout the day.
ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz has drafted a proposal that creates alternative routes and keeps students commuting to and from campus via public transport. If approved, the proposal will create a new student fee, which Dotters-Katz estimates will be between $25 and $45.
The fee is meant to soften the impact of the cuts by generating new transportation services.
The ASUO Senate was expected to vote on the proposal Wednesday night, but a resolution was not presented in time. It is now unclear when the Senate will vote on the proposal.
Dotters-Katz’s proposal aims to expand the schedule of the existing 79x route and create a new University-run shuttle that would serve the University and Autzen Stadium areas. This shuttle is modeled after Oregon State University’s Beaver Bus. The student fee will finance the roughly $989,000 needed to cover the expansion of the 79x route and the new shuttle.
The ASUO plan also expands the bike-loan program and calls for the Access Shuttle program, which currently transports disabled students, to serve non-disabled students.
Dotters-Katz is excited about the plan, and said “students are
going to go crazy for this.”
The proposal attempts to compensate for the loss of several heavily used student routes. It would not, however, provide service to the hilly Westmoreland neighborhood, about three miles southeast of campus, which is problematic for some students.
Graduate student Wu Hong said losing bus service will force her to move closer to campus.
“I’m pretty sure that this might influence most of our lives [in Westmoreland],” Wu said.
No other route goes directly from the Westmoreland area to campus, so students there would be obliged to take a less-direct route that could add as much as 30 minutes to their commute.
Dotters-Katz suggested that students in Westmoreland would have to rely on the Designated Driver Shuttle, Assault Prevention Shuttle and Access Shuttle to get to and from campus.
The economic realities dictate there is no other choice, Dotters-Katz said.
The transportation fund will be administered not by the ASUO but by a new committee composed largely of faculty and administrators who will deal with LTD. The response to the ASUO proposal has been largely positive, even among students who will not retain bus service.
“We can afford that,” Wu said, although she also asked if it was possible to add service to Westmoreland back into the plan.
After the Senate vote, the proposal will still have to be approved by the administration and LTD; it looks probable that they will approve the proposal.
“Those are exciting opportunities for us,” LTD spokesperson Andy Vobora said of the ASUO proposals.
Robin Holmes, vice president for student affairs, said she is also trying to help Dotters-Katz solve the campus transportation problem.
“I just want to support him as much as possible with regard to that goal,” Holmes said.
The service cuts are largely the result of recent nationwide economic problems. The rising unemployment rate has impacted the local payroll tax, which is the major source of funding for LTD.
Higher fuel costs have also increased LTD’s operating costs, but – ironically – increased ridership as well.
“People need the bus right now,” said Brian Pasquali, a representative of the Amalgamated Transit Union 757, the bus drivers’ union. “Students need it. People in Eugene, Springfield and surrounding areas need it more than ever.”
In the meantime, however, the route cuts will deprive many students of prompt transportation to campus.
“The reality is, it’s not going to be as good as it was,” Vobora said.
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