Intercampus Communication

To:              Dr. Vincent Boudreau                                         C:        C. Kamga

From:          Tohidul Islam, Sophomore                                              P. Eickemeyer

Subject:      Shuttle bus services at City College                                V. Ponnuraj

Date:          February 19, 2019

 

The purpose of this memo is to address the various issues with the current shuttle bus system at the City College of New York. Several solutions to the existing problems will be suggested which all offer reasonable ways to go about correcting the issue.

 

Summary

Currently, the shuttle bus system at City College makes use of two types of buses: the full-sized bus and the half-sized bus. While both buses are capable of meeting student transportation needs for most of the day, the use of the half-sized bus at peak hours is an inconvenience for many who wait up to twenty minutes for the bus, only to have it fill up before they can get on. This is especially a problem when there are disabled students who wait for the bus but are cut off by others rushing ahead. Furthermore, the shuttle system at City College fails to accommodate those who require the stations that have 1-trains. This can be easily remedied by restricting the use of the half-sized bus to certain times and by having a third bus route to the nearest 1-train station. I would appreciate a meeting to discuss the issue and its solutions in further detail.

 

Discussion

The shuttle bus system at City College currently operates 24/7 on all days except on holidays where they only run from 10:30 pm to 7:00 am. The system utilizes two types of buses: a full-sized school bus and a shorter bus roughly half the size of the larger one; these two buses loop around on a figure 8 pattern between 145^th street and 125^th street to transport students to and from campus.

 

The use of both types of buses generally poses no problems for students using the shuttle system; however, this is not the case early in the morning. From 7:30 to 9:30 there is a large influx of students that are on their way to morning classes; this usually leads to a build up of students waiting for the shuttle bus during those times. Considering that once a bus departs from a stop at either 145^th or 125^th street it takes up to 20 minutes or more for the next bus to arrive, there is almost always a large crowd of students waiting for the bus by the time the next one arrives. During times of inclement weather, the number of students opting to take the bus instead of walking dramatically increases. Despite this, the City College shuttle system continues to use the minibus in some mornings with no intentions of changing to accommodate the larger crowd.

 

The problem with this is that the number of students waiting for the bus is greater than the maximum capacity of the minibus; a significant portion of the group waiting for the bus would not be able to board, requiring them to either walk or wait some more for the bus at the other end of the route to loop around. This becomes a more significant problem when you consider that the students of City College, that have disabilities often choose to use the shuttle system due to difficulty with walking. These students will now have to deal with a large group of people pushing ahead of them to get onto the bus.

 

There is also an issue with the route that the shuttle buses take, currently there are no buses that run to a station that has access to the 1-train. This requires anyone that needs to use the 1-train to walk a distance that is arguably further than 145^th street is from the campus. This can be a dilemma for the disabled or elderly students, especially on days with bad weather due to both the distance and the downwards slope that one must walk down to get to the station.

 

Recommendation

The solution to solving the bus capacity issue would simply be to have set times for when the minibus can be used based on the number of students using or waiting for the bus. To accommodate the students who require stations other than the ones at 145^th or 125^th streets, there can be another bus added to loop that stop and the campus. I wish to set up a meeting as soon as possible to further discuss the problem with the shuttle system and the possible solutions that I have proposed.