Correction appended
Lane Transit District will keep late-night buses running between the University and Kinsrow-area apartments next year, LTD officials decided Monday.
After bus drivers raised objections to student behavior on the 79x route late Friday and Saturday nights, LTD officials said they would shut down the bus line unless students’ behavior improved. However, LTD spokesman Andy Vobora said riders on the late-night bus had grown more respectful since drivers complained.
LTD’s decision followed a meeting between Vobora and LTD Operations Manager Mark Johnson on Monday afternoon in which they discussed improvements in student behavior.
LTD responded to driver objections by stationing a security guard on the bus to monitor students and posting signs warning about the consequences of loud talking and disobeying drivers. The ASUO also organized a demonstration of respect to bus drivers over the weekend.
“Once information got out, clearer expectations were laid out for everybody,” Vobora said.
ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz applauded LTD’s decision. “This service is important for the safety of our students and LTD made the right decision by keeping it running,” he said.
The ASUO and University administration jointly funded the late-night route starting in January to ensure the safety of students who live in the Kinsrow area. It was created in response to the administration’s decision to house some incoming freshmen at Stadium Park Apartments because there was no space in residence halls. Dotters-Katz, who pushed for the creation of the service, called transportation policies the “defining issue” of his presidency.
Vobora said LTD would continue pushing students to improve their conduct on the bus by making presentations at student orientations and keeping the security guard on the bus next year.
Driver Brian Pasquali, the union executive who first raised objections to the late-night service, said some drivers still feel threatened by student behavior. However, the Amalgamated Transit Union executive said he met with Vobora before the decision was made and the district’s plans convinced him.
Keeping the security guard would require a $20,000 increase to the $888,103 the ASUO will pay LTD for student bus passes in the 2009-10 school year, Vobora said.
President-elect Emma Kallaway could not be reached for comment.
Pasquali said he would be dealing with Kallaway to ensure the union’s concerns were met. Kallaway said Thursday that she would “have a respectful relationship” with LTD. Pasquali said, “It sounded like more of something I’d like to deal with than what’s currently there.”
Pasquali has been critical of Dotters-Katz in connection with the late-night bus, while the ASUO president has accused Pasquali of opposing the route to gain votes in the ATU’s upcoming elections, calling his objections “overstated concerns made by a man who cares more about his political future than about student safety” on Monday.
The late-night route begins service at 10:30 p.m. and runs until 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday.
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Because of a reporter’s error, this article identified the wrong Lane Transit District officials as having decided to preserve the late-night bus to the Kinsrow area. Marketing and communications director Andy Vobora and operations director Mark Johnson made the decision. The Emerald regrets the error.