Editor,
This morning, in "G" Lot around 8:40 a.m., a huge group of us students who pay money to park and ride approached the shuttle and we were greeted by a new rule. "No one can be standing in the aisle on the bus, please get on and look for a seat, if there are none, you'll have to get off, and wait for the next bus."
This "good morning" if you will, was met by a huge mumble of disbelief. Some of us were not going to make it to class on time.
Luckily, I got a seat the first time around. As I was riding to campus, I was thinking about this new rule that was obviously put into place during Spring Break, without any notice to students. Personally, it won't have much of an effect on me since I get to campus early enough that there isn't usually a line to get on the shuttle anyway.
But, there are days when I am feeling a bit lazy and hit the snooze button an extra couple times, and I am pushing my luck to get to class on time. My first thought was that I wonder who got hurt and is suing the University for injuries sustained by standing in the moving bus? I started getting irritated.
Then I thought, by not letting people stand and with the current number of buses running, to get to class on time, people will need to add at least 10 minutes to their travel time if they are coming at the busy times of day.
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I already leave one hour before classes, and I don't live nearly as far as some. That made me even more irritated.
The transportation department should have given us some notice to such a huge change, which will no doubt affect a few schedules. Personally, I think it's bogus. After three years of riding the shuttle with the option to stand in the aisle, why all of a sudden are we not able to?
I would need to count, but I think that reduces the number of people per bus by at least one-third! What's next, seatbelts? One person per chair? Will we need to line up holding hands like first graders before we get on the bus?
To make it worse, with the current number of buses running in the morning, there is no way they can handle all of us coming at once. I know many times students get to the shuttle stop with plenty of time but still end up late to class due to lack of buses during the busy times of day. That has happened to me many times.
I shouldn't be late to class if I am at the shuttle stop 30 minutes before class time! Hey transportation people, what's going on?
Peter Yurista
UNM undergraduate
