I hopped on the Link bus at Forest and Hill today, something that’s not justifiable for going to class from my house (unless it’s a cold rain), but since I was going past State Street, I thought it was worth it. After my stop, the bus picks up people at Oxford and Hill, and then Oxford and South U, home of Oxford Housing. The bus was bursting at the seems after the Oxford-Hill stop, having been filled with class-going denizens of Fiji, Alpha Phi, and Sammy. An equally large crowd awaited at the top of the hill outside Oxford Housing, and less than a quarter of them made it on the 10am bus. The others had to make the 10-15 minute walk to the Diag and be late for class. I almost shed a tear as I remembered my Oxford days and the rare times I got turned away.
More and more people are being turned away from the Link at its peak times (9-11am and around 4pm). The Daily reported on this today, but I believe a few points were missed. First, the ”Greek” stop at Oxford and Hill is new, and it is costing the Oxford Residents for whom the Link was basically created. Now, I’m ambivalent about this. I harbor no ill-will towards the Greeks and their right to efficient mass transit (how often do you hear those words in the same sentence?), but the university pays AATA for this transit path, because the university ended their “Oxford Shuttle” in 2005. While 90 percent of the people on the bus are indeed students, it’s the dorm residents who the university is really paying for. I can see the Oxford-Hill stop being controversial and I’m wondering why it wasn’t brought up in the Daily’s story.
Also, there is a fundamental misunderstanding by one of the story’s sources. David Miller, the executive director of parking and transportation for U-M, said that another bus or more frequent service is not needed. He said that he would wait and see, for “if people were being left behind, that would justify it.” I guess David doesn’t ride the bus too often; in my limited experience, people are being left behind at key times, and this is not a new thing (although much more of a problem now than two years ago). Perhaps he missed the fact that a stop was added. Adding the Hill-Oxford stop automatically created more demand, by making the route directly available to a new neighborhood.
So, for at least a couple hours every day, demand far exceeds supply. Therefore, by Miller’s standards, capacity must be increased. AATA runs these buses from Oxford to Ann-Ashley and Kerrytown for no fee to its riders. The City, as identified in the story today, is lacking funds to buy another Link bus, and they shouldn’t be expected to. The University needs to put one of its many underutilized shuttle buses to work on the Link’s route during the high volume morning and afternoon rushes. This situation can be easily resolved with a little bit of clear thinking, rather than denial, on the part of University officials.
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Oh… Your blog used to be nice, but now it’s spoiled. Stop posting trash like that or stop posting at all.
I think that you really can judge people by the way they comment different stuff. Some people, even expressing negative thoughts, are still polite and they respect and understand other people. Some people are not even trying to be nice, they just don’t care. I think self-confident person will always act nice, no matter what other people do
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