Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Utsler)

The rain pummeled cars as people struggled for shelter outside of Lawrence’s downtown Public Transit office—a block away from the 9th and New Hampshire bus stop.

On a rainy Tuesday in early October no one sat at the front desk of the Lawrence Transit Office. Suddenly, a figure with straight slicked-down black hair approached—Cliff Galante, the Lawrence Public Transit Administrator.

Lately, the city of Lawrence and the University of Kansas have been in talks about better coordination between the two bus systems. “Merger” has been on the lips of citizens and the media alike.

However, speaking on behalf of the city, Galante said, “A merger is at one end of the spectrum, keeping the status quo is at the other end. We don’t know [what we’re going to do] at this point.”

Galante stressed the importance of coordination between the two systems, though he said most people don’t know that the two systems already coordinate (to some extent). For instance, “the University is now using the same contractor we’ve been using the past five years,” and “the park and ride buses were purchased by the city.”

Another example of coordination is that city routes put KU on Wheels routes on their buses. In addition, KU students can ride any city bus for a reduced fare of 35 cents with a KU On Wheels bus pass. “People are wrong about lack of coordination,” Galante said.

However, coordination can be difficult as the city bus system and KU bus system have different priorities.

“The main goal of KU is to get students to and from class. Our mission is more broad-based. We take them [people] to school, work, and social events. We’re always trying to learn more about university needs,” Galante said.

May Davis, transport coordinator for the University of Kansas, disagreed with Galante that the two systems are coordinated.

“Everything’s separate right now. Everything that could be shared isn’t,” Davis said. She also said bus shelters and bus routes were two areas of concern.

As for a merger, Davis echoed Galante, “Nobody wants to jump in and say ‘let’s merge.’ The first step is changing routes.” Davis said a route like KU on Wheel’s 31st & Iowa route should be combined with the one the city runs, which she said is “nearly identical.”

Also, because of their different missions, problems within the city and University systems could be what is putting the brakes on better coordination between the two systems.

One problem the city is dealing with is in attracting “choice riders.” Galante defined such people as those who can make it to a destination by other means, but could ride the bus instead. He said attracting new riders is all about convenience. Although, until the city can make its routes more convenient the city can “try to offer financial incentives to keep it [the bus system] an affordable option.” Though the city system raised its fares to 75 cents a ride on July 1st because of rising costs, Galante said riding the bus is still cheaper than driving or especially taking a cab.

KU is dealing with more basic problems—like keeping riders happy with buses running, and those that are running, on time.

Olathe transfer sophomore Garry Stieham said the buses on campus are often late and “sometimes they don’t show up at all.”

The problems are especially frustrating to Stieham because he relies on the KU bus system to get him to and from campus Monday thru Friday. Stieham bought a bus pass because he didn’t want to have to pay for an on-campus parking pass to save money. However, Stieham said he doesn’t think his input matters in improving the system at all. “The University of Kansas isn’t going to listen to one guy,” he said.

Lenexa fifth-year senior Tyler Lamb has had similar problems to Stieham’s. “I’ve been late to a number of classes because buses haven’t been showing up on time, or just passing me up.” Lamb said the problems were habitual. In fact, he said he’s lost track of how many times each happened. “I’ve had to wait 40 minutes to an hour on a number of occasions.”

According to Davis, buses breaking down have been the cause for the delays. She said this year they’ve experienced far more breakdowns than usual because the fleet is now using bio-diesel fuel. She said the bio-diesel increases the rate of breakdowns for the buses for the first couple of months. She said the fuel filters on the buses still contain debris and particles from the diesel fuel, which cause the buses to breakdown. However, she said eventually the new fuel would flush out these particles. She said there was nothing the Transit Department could do but wait for the buses to adjust.

As for other University transit issues Davis said it’s difficult to know what they are because of a “lack of student interest in transport.” She said, “I just do what students say.” In fact, she said, “We’ve changed a route based on one student’s input.”

Davis said a lot of students aren’t interested because they have cars or friends with cars. Also, she said it’s difficult to change someone’s lifestyle when so many people “grew up driving their cars to high school.

However, possible major changes go up for a vote—like last year’s plan to give all students unlimited free KU on Wheels rides (by simply showing a student I.D. upon boarding) for a $15-$20 student fee increase.

The referendum passed, but enough students didn’t vote so the change could not be instituted. Davis said that only about 1200 people voted—about 40 percent of what the Student Senate requires to pass a referendum (about 10% of the student body she said).

As both the city of Lawrence and the University of Kansas are still unsure what the next road to take will be, administrators on both sides have invited the public to participate in the process.
The University will look toward students and the KU community to decide the next course of action for the transit system on 1:30 p.m, October 23rd, in the English Room in the Kansas Union.

Via e-mail, the KU Parking & Transit office said of it, “The purpose of the meeting is to hear your comments on the Parking & Transit departmental policies, rules, or fees. Individuals may speak at the meeting or send comments in written form to Margretta de Vries, Parking Commission secretary, at mdevries@ku.edu. General issues included in these comments will be summarized and shared at the hearing. You may also e-mail comments to kupark@ku.edu.”

As for the city of Lawrence’s system, it will next meet at 4:10 p.m., December 11th, at 933 New Hampshire. The city website said, “This committee advises on all matters regarding the city public transit system, such as proposed routes, service changes, ridership policies, fare structures, funding and budgets.” The city meets the second Tuesday of each month every other month at the above time and location.