Comments on: Pilot Program Lets City Residents Ride Free Shuttle-UM http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2008/646/ Helping imagine a great college town for a great university Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:10:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Zoey http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2008/646/comment-page-1/#comment-16961 Zoey Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:15:37 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/?p=646#comment-16961 Thanks for writing this. Thanks for writing this.

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]]> By: Robert Catlin http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2008/646/comment-page-1/#comment-8856 Robert Catlin Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:28:16 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/?p=646#comment-8856 The legislation passed in Annapolis calls for a two year trial basis for the City residents to use the shuttle. The legislation is limited to City residents for now. The legislation the City requested is not the legislation that became law, which is not unusual for Annapolis. Demand for the service by City residents (non-student) is limited now. In five years there could be a four or five thousand people living in apartments along shuttle routes in College Park. (Wyngate & Camden, to the north near Ikea; JPI East and West at Cherokee Street; and the Mosaic and the Domain, south of the University; and market rate housing at East Campus. WMATA has at least three problems. Routes generally feed Metro Stations and may not be helpful for short hauls around the City, especially north/south. Bus are not very frequent at non rush hour times. Metro routes can fall far behind schedule because of breakdowns or traffic issues which may not be in College Park. The legislation passed in Annapolis calls for a two year trial basis for the City residents to use the shuttle. The legislation is limited to City residents for now. The legislation the City requested is not the legislation that became law, which is not unusual for Annapolis.

Demand for the service by City residents (non-student) is limited now. In five years there could be a four or five thousand people living in apartments along shuttle routes in College Park. (Wyngate & Camden, to the north near Ikea; JPI East and West at Cherokee Street; and the Mosaic and the Domain, south of the University; and market rate housing at East Campus.

WMATA has at least three problems. Routes generally feed Metro Stations and may not be helpful for short hauls around the City, especially north/south. Bus are not very frequent at non rush hour times. Metro routes can fall far behind schedule because of breakdowns or traffic issues which may not be in College Park.

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]]> By: Brady Dorman http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2008/646/comment-page-1/#comment-5969 Brady Dorman Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:28:53 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/?p=646#comment-5969 Interesting. The University of Iowa's campus shuttle system CAMBUS is free and open to the public. Since the campus is adjacent with downtown Iowa City many non-students use the system in additional to city-operated Iowa City Transit and nearby Coralville Transit. Alternatively CYRIDE, serving the City of Ames, IA and Iowa State University, is jointly funded by the city and ISU student body. The general public pays a fare but students ride unlimited for free on all routes throughout town, not just around campus. Any idea why College Park and DOTS is trying this? Just looking for more ridership or is there a real demand in the city for local transit service that is not being provided sufficiently by WMATA? Interesting. The University of Iowa’s campus shuttle system CAMBUS is free and open to the public. Since the campus is adjacent with downtown Iowa City many non-students use the system in additional to city-operated Iowa City Transit and nearby Coralville Transit. Alternatively CYRIDE, serving the City of Ames, IA and Iowa State University, is jointly funded by the city and ISU student body. The general public pays a fare but students ride unlimited for free on all routes throughout town, not just around campus.

Any idea why College Park and DOTS is trying this? Just looking for more ridership or is there a real demand in the city for local transit service that is not being provided sufficiently by WMATA?

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]]> By: SnowMiser http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/2008/646/comment-page-1/#comment-5264 SnowMiser Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:27:09 +0000 http://rethinkcollegepark.net/blog/?p=646#comment-5264 Has there been a push to involve other towns? The Shuttles go through various other towns but Hyattsville, RP, UP, BH and Greenbelt come to mind and would broaden the utility of the program , with little change in infrastructure. Has there been a push to involve other towns? The Shuttles go through various other towns but Hyattsville, RP, UP, BH and Greenbelt come to mind and would broaden the utility of the program , with little change in infrastructure.

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