Coming up on a year in existence, the extended hours of the 79x bus route of Lane Transit District have provided students living in the Autzen Stadium area a safe way to get home from campus in the late hours of the night.
With the Knight Library open 24 hours a day, five days a week and various other social activities happening nightly on campus, the late-night bus option has proven useful, running until 2 a.m.
University senior Tyler Lawrence lives in Chase Village Apartments and frequently takes advantage of the 79x extended hours.
“I mostly use it for when I go to the bars,” he said.
This winter, the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee begins negotiations on its contract with LTD, which will determine whether the 79x route’s late hours will stay.
Prior to the past year, the 79x stopped service at 10:30 p.m., and budget cuts last year threatened to stop service at 6:30 p.m.
LTD spokesperson Andy Vobora said that although the extended hours initially had a rough start because of rowdy riders, student conduct has improved.
“The history of it is last (school) year, troubles we had included rowdy behavior, lots of people getting sick or dragging friends on the bus at the end of the evening,” Vobora said. “We haven’t had any issues this year. Reports have all been pretty positive, which is very encouraging.”
ASUO President Emma Kallaway said the route is an important service to students, and she hopes to see the late-night schedule continue.
“We will continue to pay for (the 79x) as a special contract,” she said. “At least that is in my opinion, and I hope Senate agrees with that opinion.”
Vobora and Kallaway both say there are fewer people using the route this year because freshmen are no longer housed in Stadium Park Apartments, as they were last year when the University accepted more freshmen than it could house in on-campus dorms.
However, “I don’t think that its importance has diminished,” Kallaway said.
Projected problems with the ASUO contract negotiations with LTD are budgetary.
LTD is requiring a 5.6 percent increase in its budget, which puts the ACFC, the group that negotiates the contract with LTD, in a tricky situation after Senate recommended the committee not exceed zero percent growth.
The increase in price, Vobora said, occurs every year.
“All of our group passes adjust annually,” Vobora said, and it’s calculated based on “a formula based on the average increases in cost to provide service over a three-year period.” The issue is especially important because LTD is looking to make a 20 percent service reduction for next September.
A problem that LTD has had with the ASUO contract is that the budget is not based on actual enrollment; rather, it is based on projected enrollment, something that both sides want to address in the upcoming contract.
LTD has a total of 79 organizations that purchase group-rate bus passes, and LTD always requires these organizations to provide the exact number of people in the organization who would get passes.
“It’s a program that is consistent across 79 organizations that buy it — it’s not a negotiated price,” Vobora said. “If the University wants to change the system in some way, we can look at that. But right now it’s not consistent or fair to the other 78 organizations.”
Kallaway said the contract is top priority to the ASUO.
“We will explore all of our options going into negotiations,” Kallaway said. “One of the ideas is to start looking at how many students ride the bus,” though she said such a calculation would be nearly impossible.
Kallaway said she hopes to find that many students are taking advantage of the bus service they pay for through the incidental fee.
“I hope students are utilizing this service because it goes hand-in-hand with the library hours, and the more late-night functions we put on, the more important the route becomes,” she said.
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