East Residential route of Ohio State CABS buses overcrowded

Liz Dickey
Tue, 11 Feb 2014 03:12:13 +0000
Campus

An East Residential CABS bus on 17th Avenue. Some students have noticed buses have been overcrowded lately.
Credit: Logan Hickman / Lantern photographer

The cold air has left some students scrambling for seats on Campus Area Bus Service buses heading down the East Residential route.

Lindsay Komlanc, spokeswoman for OSU Administration and Planning, though, said multiple buses consistently run the route.

“We run four buses during the peak period of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and one bus during the rest of the service hours, providing a total of (53) service hours per day for the East Residential route,” Komlanc said in an email.

Buses run the ER route 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday during days of normal university operations.

Monthly CABS ridership typically increases by 15 percent in the peak months of January and February, Komlanc said.

The average temperature for January was 22.8 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Because of the cold weather, Komlanc said it is likely CABS ridership was higher in January this year.

The extreme temperatures have impacted students at OSU in other ways as well, with classes canceled at OSU’s main and branch campuses Jan. 6, 7 and 28 because of cold weather. Temperatures fell to minus 14 degrees Jan. 28 and as low as minus 7 Jan. 6 and 7.

Matt Dannemiller, a fourth-year in social work who typically uses the stop near Clinton and Summit streets when off-campus, said he has relied on the CABS ER bus service as his primary form of transportation to Central Campus for 2 1/2 years. Dannemiller said he has had to change bus stops this semester in order to find a place on the bus when leaving campus at about 4 p.m., the end of his school day.

“I have had to start getting on at Arps Hall because by the time it gets (to the next stop), it’s totally packed and you can only get on the stairs or not at all. The last time I got on at Arps, it was packed out and we had to pass people that were standing outside, not even able to get on,” Dannemiller said. “It seems like it is getting worse.

“I am glad that we have the bus service … But I think that there should be at least one bus added.”

CABS buses collectively serve more than four million riders each year, Komlanc said, and for fiscal year 2013, the ER route’s ridership was about 605,000.

Amy Kneepkens, a second-year in film studies, has been riding CABS buses for two years. She said the buses have felt more crowded recently.

“I never get to sit down,” Kneepkens said. “I’m always running into people.”

Dannemiller said the problem just seems to be escalating.

“I hear more and more people complaining about how packed it is,” he said.