Fewer GPE summer busses create more inconveniences

Ariana Khosravani / Contributing Writer

Having now come to the end of the Summer A Semester and having been subjected to  riding the bus back and forth between Modesto Maidique Campus and Biscayne Bay Campus multiple times a week, I can say most assuredly that the bus system sucks.

I am not a stranger to the coming and going of FIU’s bus. Having ridden it all of the  previous Spring semester as well, it is a cycle I have gotten used to.

Pack my bag, leave the dorm, ensure that there is at least five dollars on my FIU One card, wait until we are allowed onto the  bus some five minutes before departure, the drive, arrive and repeat. While it is never a pleasant experience, for the handing over of even more of my money to FIU is painful, it is a necessary thing that I have accepted well enough.

However, the summer bus system has shown a whole different face of the bus ride.

While I could rage on endlessly about my issues with the bus I will focus on my main problem, the hours the buses run are ridiculous and inconvenient. While during the regular fall and spring semesters there are 26 options for coming and going between the two campuses, there are only twelve during summer.

Along with that, the twelve allotted times seemed to have been chosen at random for they are at the least helpful times possible. For example, my earliest class at BBC is at 9 a.m.

The options given me by the bus schedule are to leave MMC and arrive at  BBC by 6:45 a.m. or by 8:15 a.m. If I were to take the earlier of the two, I would arrive at BBC at least an hour before my class were even to start.If I were to take the later of the two, given Miami traffic, I would arrive late for class.

Can it please be explained to my why it is that a bus cannot leave the school around 7:30 a.m.? On a few occasions I have driven myself to BBC at this time and have arrived with some 20 minutes to spare. Furthermore, another class I have at BBC ends at 9:30 p.m. Now luckily this teacher is quick and sensible and finishes class around 8:30 p.m.

Sadly, that still means that I have to wait an hour and take the 9:30p.m. bus. But say the class was to end on time, I would then miss the bus since the end time is exactly when the bus leaves. Meaning I would have to wait until 10:45 p.m. for the next bus. Whatever the outcome, I am left sitting in the dark for roughly an hour. As a woman of less than average height and small build I do not feel remotely safe about that situation.

I can imagine there are fewer students on campus during the summer. I can also imagine there are fewer classes offered too. Still, I fail to see why the bus schedule could not have been put together in a more logical and helpful way.

If I am paying to live in the universities housing, paying to take the classes and paying to take the bus, how come more attention could not have been paid to putting together the bus schedule in a more effective way?

The buses could run more in sync with the start and end of classes. And fine maybe the current system is as close as possible. I still firmly stand by the fact that bus pick-up hours should at least be closer together as night comes and the campus gets darker. This is an issue that the school and the bus company  need to look into if not now, then certainly by next year.

opinion@fiusm.com