Transportation
What is one aspect of the UVM transportation system that could be improved to get more riders? What is one aspect of the CTAA transportation system that could be improved to get more riders?
Briefly describe your experience tabling in your building. What type of responses did you get from other residences? Any top frequently asked questions?
posted by UVM Eco-Reps Program Coordinator @ 3:46 PM
20 Comments:
I think the major problems with the bus transportation services are people not understanding the bus schedule and the never knowing if the buses are running on time or not. These are two tricky things to deal with, but for the not understanding, the idea of a short session for freshmen about how to read the bus schedule packets is a very good idea. The other one is even tougher to solve. I believe one way is perhaps to have some sort of a tracker on the bus that you can check online to see where it is at a given time. That way, you know if the bus is coming soon or if you have a few minutes because it is running late.
I have not yet tabled but I am going to be on Friday...I will post about how it goes.
Bye!
I think the main problem with both systems is that they don't always run on time and therefore people don't feel like they can count on them. Living on Trinity, I rely on the campus buses a lot, especially when we have those freeeezing cold days. Buses leave early from Trinity all the time and we all find ourselves waiting in the lobby 5-10 minutes early just to make sure we don't miss it. Riding the CTAA busses, I've found that they are usually off schedule. In general, having to wait 15 minutes in the Vermont cold for a bus isn't going to convince people to do it again.
I also have not done tabling yet, but I will post again about how it went!
-Naomi
Your article is very informative and helped me further.
Thanks, David
Besides the major problem of people not understanding how the bus schedules work, the buses are not always reliable. They are not as consistant as they could be. One suggestion for the bus system, besides being more reliable, is to have bus shedules for on-campus in every lobby and bus stop. Furthermore, CCTA could also improve by making more frequent stops and improving their reliablity as well. As for tabling, Allie and I had some great suggestions on composting. We talked about doing composting in the dorms and empting out the buckets every week ourselves. We advertised the "coming soon to your dormitory compost buckets". Also, one guy commented to us about spreading the word: unplug all electricity to your computer, microwave, light, etc. He made the point that just shutting off the computers does not save as much energy as most of us think. You actually have to unplug these appliances from the outlets. I know most of us Eco-Reps know this but I think he was right, most students do not know this. ~Carrie
I honestly think that both the bus systems are great, they just need to advertise better.
As far as tabling, it was really slow in Mercy because we decided to do it during the Superbowl. We are going to do it again during a better time.
Claire
I feel like almost everyone is aware of the bus, it really just boils down to a matter of convenience. Campus only takes 15 minutes to walk across with the acception of trinity. If the bus isn't there, most students would just assume walk. If we could get the buses to come every 5 minutes, I'm sure people would use them more, as it wouldn't matter if the schedule was behind, just that you would only have to wait about 4 minutes. However, standing still for 14-20 minutes is much colder than moving this time of year. And if late night service went downtown latenight as early as wednesday, I'm sure that might get used too.
-James
I think that both buses need to be advertised for more. The schedules for both can be tricky to figure out but i dont really know how they could make them more clear. People just need to ask questions if they are confused... thats what i had to do. So, on the schedules there should definitely be a number to call if there are any questions. Im not sure if that already exists but it probably does.
Also, I did not get a chance to table yet, but i will soon.
Emily
UVM transportation is generally adequate, but lacks in a few areas. For one, and I realize this is partially due to construction, the routes change from time to time (including stops), making it difficult to maintain usage patterns. In addition, I feel that some of the stops are overkill...the trips could be much shorter if the bus stopped a little less.
as for CCTA, there is plenty that can be done. though the system could be a lot worse, it fails to provide service in a number of areas. i'll only give two:
1) sunday frequency. many people travel back into burlington sunday from weekends away, and i see students and residents taking cabs at the airport weekend after weekend because the bussess don't run frequently or late enough on sundays.
2) amtrak connection. almost pointless, really. the train comes in once a day from the south (night) and in from the north (morning). These are virtually the only times anyone could ever need to go to the amtrak station, and both the departure and arrival times (which, by the way, don't change) poorly match up with the bus schedule.
-dave
The main problem with CCTA is that the buses are virtually never on time. I've waited half an hour or more for a bus, only to be very cold and late to where I'm going. I think people would be much more likely to take the bus if they could count on it being there even close to the right time. The CATS system gets plently of traffic, in my opinion, but it would be nice if there were more buses running at peak times, in bad weather and especially for the off campus route on the weekends. The problem with that system is not so much getting more riders as accomidating the ones that they have.
Tabling went well, a lot of people complaining about the things I mentioned above for CCTA and CATS, and a lot of people interested in bike routes.
-Hannah
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MESSAGE
Personally, I enjoy riding the CCTA buses, although I have had to wait an extra 10/15 minutes on occasion I generally don't have alot to complain about them. As far as the buses being on time, of course it would be nice but nothing is perfect. As far as reading the schedual, it may be difficult at first but I think once you try it a few times you get use to it. I think teaching incoming students how to read the schedual would be a very helpful idea. I think that even if we improve the public bus system...people will still choose their cars over it, if that is their option. Unfortunatly, that is the kind of culture which we live in. Maybe decreasing the amount of cars on campus, or making it harder to aquire a car on campus (ie: provide valid reasons why you need one) could help. But even if we do decrease the number of cars, something would need to be done to the already existing parking lots. Hopefully, in the future no more lots will be constructed and people will learn to like riding the buses.
sorry that was me at 3:49 pm I forgot to leave my name
Colleen
I noticed that downtown there is a kind of monitor (which isn't always perfectly correct but cool nonetheless) that has an up to date schedule of where the buses are, if they're on time, if they're boarding, etc. and this is awesome. I hope that we can get some more of these around the major bus stops, especially around school. Posters, also, and more accessible bus schedules (maybe little boxes on res. hall doors?) would help kids ride the public transportation more.
-allie
My take on the bus system is that there is nothing wrong with it. People are just lazy or ignorant, and do not see the simplicity or the efficiency of it.
For students who do not know buses run all around burlington, I think that ccta can get there name out more. The buses goes to a lot of places students want to go, sometimes they just dont know it. So when food or shopping places are advertised, maybe something about free transportation can be added on flyers, tv, or pamphlets.
Tabling went alright, but not as well as I hoped. Too many kids were in a rush and didnt want to have anything to do with us. But there were some kids who stopped and heard what we had to say.
-Phil
I think that one thing public transportation could improve on to get more riders would reliability. I know that i have waited for busses a lot longer than i should've while the entire time i was debating on whether or not to walk. Sometimes they are late, sometimes they are early and i'm bot really sure what causes this.
Also, i think that a lot of people don't use public transportation because they don't know anything about it, including how to read the maps. Educating about the maps may lead to more usage.
Tabling went well, some people were interested and some werent. I'm sure you'll always have that though. We got a lot of information out there and that's always great.
-Sawyer
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