Finally free
St. Michael's makes deal with CCTA

Katie Colleran | staff editor
kcolleran@smcvt.edu

For a college student on a budget, even paying $1.25 for a one-way bus ticket to Burlington may seem excessive.

The St. Michael's Student Association (S.A.) realized this. Since last spring it has been negotiating with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA) and has managed to work out a deal. By mid-October, students will be able to swipe their Knightcards and take the bus free of charge, says Mallory Wood, S.A. vice-president.

Students riding the bus will no longer have to pay. Larry Frisoli, photo

Keep your quarters at home

The deal St. Michael’s has set up is the same as the ones the University of Vermont and Champlain College have access to. Because CCTA has worked with colleges before, a free busing program was easy to set up, Wood says.

“They [CCTA] were all for it,” she says. “Their buses even have swipe card capacity, so there was no trouble there.”

Chris Cole, general manager at CCTA, says he was not surprised when St. Michael’s approached him with its request for a busing deal. St. Michael’s will be the fifth school in the area with a swipe card program.

“This is really a terrific program [having students swipe cards] that colleges all across the country are doing,” Cole says. “Students want the service; we want to provide the service.”

St. Michael’s will be receiving a discount of about 25 percent off the normal fare. Each month the school will be billed based on how many students took the bus, he says.    

The school will be paying the monthly bill and the new program will not cost students a cent, Wood says.

“It’s really going to be free busing,” she says.

Even though the program for free busing is set up with CCTA, students cannot use it yet because the S.A. is still working on getting extended hours for students on Saturdays until 1 or 2 a.m. when the bars close, Wood says.

"The students who most said they would want extended hours were 21 and older," Wood says. "They want to go down to the bars and not have to worry about driving back. It's a safety thing."

If St. Michael’s gets the extended hours, it would cost the school $4,000. The S.A. has contributed $1,500 and the school will pay the rest, but a proposal still has to be made to the CCTA board, Wood says.

“Chris seemed to believe if St. Mike’s would foot this portion, then he would have more leverage with the board,” she says. “We are still holding off access to the free busing because we didn’t want to start one program without the other.”

Though the school is waiting on word from the CCTA board, Wood says the free busing will still be provided even if the school is not granted extended hours.

“There are just huge benefits to this program," Wood says."Now it’s at the point where it’s going to become real.”

Overwhelming response

Senior Michelle Kayser first brought this program to the S.A.’s attention. Wood kept pushing for it after she was elected S.A. vice president, she says.

“It was something I knew I wanted to focus on,” Wood says. “Students recognized that UVM and Champlain have it as a perk, so why couldn’t we?”

To get more concrete student opinion, surveys were distributed and the results confirmed what Wood thought.

Students can go anywhere on the CCTA bus routes using the free busing program. Larry Frisoli, photo

“We really felt the results were clear and there was a high response,” she says. “Students were overwhelmingly in favor of free busing even if it meant a tuition increase, which won’t happen.”

However, just having the positive response of the students did not mean the program would work.

“When Michelle and I started working on it, it was just an idea,” Wood says. “No one knew if it would become reality considering the funding needed and if CCTA would even allow it.” 

CCTA did allow it. After a few meetings and some phone calls, all was in order for getting St. Michael’s students unlimited bus access, Cole says. CCTA is confident students will make use of the free bus service.

“Once students use it, they’ll find out how easy it is,” Cole says. “Especially for students who drive, there’s lots of time to do things on a bus that you couldn’t do in a car—read, listen to an iPod.”

Reflecting on her personal experiences, Wood says it should be easy to get students to take advantage of this program.

“I’ve started mentioning it on my tours and groups are like ‘Whoa’ especially when you tell them first-years can’t have cars on campus,” she says. “It’s something upperclassmen can use too, especially if we get the extended hours.”

Easy riding

Students take the bus downtown to the Cherry St. bus station. Larry Frisoli, photo

First-year Patrick Donahue takes the bus to get around, but thinks it's a hassle, especially when trying to find quarters for the fare, he says.

“It’s [the bus] a pain, but it’s the only way to get anywhere if you’re a freshman,” Donahue says.  “People just don’t want to spend money all the time.”

If busing were free, Donahue would use it a lot and not just to go downtown, he says.

Senior Shaleen Crowley is used to taking the bus downtown because she has a job there and works two or three days a week.

“I’m not complaining about having to pay, but it would be very convenient to have a free busing system,” she says. “I feel like people would take more advantage of Burlington.” 

Crowley says a lot of her friends would also use it because gas is so expensive. Cole also says that the free busing will be better for the environment.

"In a state like Vermont with environmental sensibility, the more people who raise consciousness about mobility, the better," he says.