UMD TRANSPORTATION

 

Problem

            At the University of Maryland, a single walk across campus could take up to 25 minutes to complete. Students who live off campus might have to walk this distance in addition to their walk from their off campus housing to campus. This becomes extremely inconvenient, especially for those students with earlier class times and short breaks in between their busy schedule of classes.

 

Background

            The University of Maryland campus is rather large, consisting of 1,250 acres, or roughly 2 square miles (University of Maryland—College Park par 1). There are roughly 30,000+ students attending this university and a majority of them live off campus. A lot of students living off campus find the walk to campus and their classes to be too long, especially when the weather is cold. Students have to also carry their books and laptops to campus, making their journey that much more difficult.

            Some students living off campus have parking passes to park in lots located on campus, but these lots tend to sell out rather quick. There are only so many lots and a handful of spots distributed to a student at a hefty cost of $300+ a semester. Students who can not afford an on campus parking lot permit or do not have their car on campus are forced to walk to class each day. There are, however, two off campus facilities who have a bus deliver them to and from campus every day. These facilities include The Varsity and The View, located on Route One. A bus picks up students from these apartment buildings and delivers them to the heart of campus, the “M,” which is conveniently located right next to Stamp Student Union. These apartments house a majority of freshmen connection students. Students living off campus in other areas do not get this luxury and are most likely upperclassmen. These students need a lift to campus just as badly as those students living in The Varsity and The View.

 

Remedy

            To fix this problem and make it fair to all students living off campus, multiple bus stops should be installed. DOTS should be contacted to get this idea off the ground and running. They could add bus stops to their daytime bus routes to ensure that all students living off campus have an opportunity to get a ride to campus. The Varsity and View bus already have a route that passes by most of the off campus living areas, so it should be easy for them to have an extra stop on the same route they use everyday.