With Ball State University reluctant to pay for half the cost of an east-of-campus shuttle bus route, the Mayor's Commission for Ball State Student Relations is still seeking to initiate a trial route.
The trial route would begin in January and be sponsored by the Muncie Indiana Transit System.
MITS wants to receive 50 percent financial participation from Ball State for the route, which would cost about $53,117 for the 2006 Spring and Fall semesters. The Student Government Association is also willing to provide a couple thousand dollars next year for the new route, with the expectation that the route will eventually pay for itself through government funding.
SGA President Steve Geraci said he would discuss with MITS General Manager Larry King about doing a trial route that would go at least through Spring Break. MITS needs at least 40 students per hour to make the route financially justifiable, he said.
"We pretty much know where both sides are on this issue right now, so I wonder if we don't say to Larry King and the guys from MITS, let's try it for the winter," Geraci said during Friday's commission meeting.
One of the two proposed routes is a 10-minute loop of 2.5 miles that would include Reserve, University, Virginia, Neely and McKinley avenues, as well as Linden and Rex streets. The second route - which would take 12 minutes and cover three miles - resembles the first but extends farther up and down McKinley Avenue.
Studebaker East and West Residence Hall complexes would be a good target area during the winter, with about 2,400 students living there, Mayor Dan Canan said.
"I think it's going to be hugely successful when the weather is cold," Canan said.
SGA Vice President Chris Kurtz said he lives on Wheeling Avenue near Bethel Avenue and knows students on Rex Street who either park as far down Marsh Street near campus as possible, find a ride or simply don't go to class.
"That happens a lot," Kurtz said. "If they can't get a ride to class, they won't go to class. I think that would be a good implementation during the trial period."
Tom Morrison, associate vice president of human resources and state relations, said turning over the university's shuttle system to MITS might save the university money now but could cost it more in the long run if students do not use the new system.
"Then we would have been faced with starting the shuttle system over again from scratch and faced with imposing on students an amount far greater than the $50,000 we would have saved," Morrison said.
According to a university survey conducted in the spring of 2004, more than 90 percent of students have cars on campus. Only 2 percent of respondents said they rode the MITS bus regularly, Morrison said.
"Our data shows us that even if we were to institute it, it wouldn't be cost-effective because the numbers don't bear that up," Morrison said. "We have to spend your money wisely and the taxpayers' money wisely."
Morrison emphasized that Ball State's shuttle system is a parking system that serves commuter students who have to park on the outskirts of campus, not a transportation shuttle system such as MITS. The university shuttle system, which began in 1992, was initially intended for freshmen who were required to park at the stadium, said Sue Weller, director of Facilities Business Services and Transportation.
"That's really why we started the shuttle, and that's been the main purpose from the beginning," Weller said.
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