The University at Buffalo has revised its bus schedule for the upcoming fall semester. WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley says it could curtail the so called "drunk bus" situation in the city's University district.
"What we're discontinuing are the late busing on the weekends that was going specifically from the residence halls from the north campus to the south campus,” said Laura Hubbard, vice president for Finance and Administration.
Hubbard explained each year UB analyzes the shuttle bus schedules based on feedback from students and the community. Once again last season, as in past years, residents living in the University District near the south campus complained of drunk students roaming through the neighborhood.
UB did cutback the number of buses last year from six to three. But this year's changes could affect the large groups of students that arrive Friday and Saturday night from the north campus to the south campus on Main Street.
"We will see how that plays out. I imagine that will make a difference as you recall last year there was additional enforcement in that area which helped out a lot, so some of that activity will probably never go away, but again, we wanted to make sure our transportation services were focused on University activities and not other things that student wanted to do,” remarked Hubbard.
UB will continue to provide 24-hour busing between the north and south campuses for students, however, the times will be cut to every half-hour. UB did add routes from living areas to the student union on north campus.
“We also added a loop going from the north campus, around the Flint loop area, to the south campus later at night. We have our library – it’s really a 24/7 operation,” noted Hubbard.
Routes were added last year to shopping venues to Cheektowaga and Amherst and those will continue. The new UB semester begins August 28th.
