UNM student Alisha Sanchez called getting on the shuttle bus at South Lot survival of the fittest.
She said that's because people swarm to the shuttle doors just to try and get a seat on the shuttle. She said many people are trying to get on, and there are not enough seats.
Melissa Pedroza said about 30 to 50 people are usually waiting for the shuttle when she gets to South Lot at 10 a.m.
"They all try and scrunch in," she said.
Pedroza said two to three buses go by before she gets a seat on the shuttle.
Sanchez, a junior, had a South Lot permit last year. This year, she wasn't able to buy a South Lot permit. She ended up with a SP1, or research lot permit, but she said it worked out better for her, because the shuttle comes to her first.
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From the University, shuttles stop first at the SP1 lot, then the SP3 lot and then the South Lot.
Sanchez said she always gets a seat on the bus, and there are never more than five people waiting to get on.
Park-and-ride permits for South Lot, G Lot and T Lot were the first parking permits available for students to purchase at the beginning of the semester.
Once those permits sell out, permits for other reserve parking lots are available for purchase, beginning with the SP3 lot west of University Stadium followed by the SP1 research lot.
Erin Blanton, spokeswoman for the Department of Parking and Transportation Services, said the other lots are considered lots of last resort. Reserve lots are only used if all the spaces in South Lot are exhausted.
The shuttle route, however, picks up students from the reserve lots before picking up students at South Lot.
Blanton said if the shuttles were to pick up South Lot students first, shuttles would have to pick up and drop off students on the opposite side of the street, and the route would be longer.
"It is safer and more efficient to run the south shuttle route in its current pattern," she said.
Sanchez said it's not fair for students who park in South Lot. She said she wanted a South Lot permit this year, but will continue to try to get SP1 permits from now on.
There are seven shuttle buses on the South Lot route. Bus driver David Luna said each shuttle bus holds 48 students and about 15 standing.
He always tells students to arrive 10 minutes early. Everyone getting to the lot at the same time causes crowding, he said.
Peak hours are from 8 to 9:30 a.m., noon, and 3:15 to 3:30 p.m.
If a shuttle bus is full, drivers will stop and tell the students waiting that it is full and will then radio the bus following them, he said.
Blanton said the Parking and Transportation Services Department provided 1.7 million rides last fiscal year.
Luna said a driver might shuttle anywhere from 300 to 1,000 students in an eight-hour shift, depending on the time of day.
He said adding more buses for the rush hours wouldn't help, because there would be overkill on buses when it gets slow.
In a perfect world, he said, UNM wouldn't have to shuttle students.
