Big Chungus

Owen Downey, Olivia Mazzola, Drake Myny

WRA101:043
Professor Dowell
April 10, 2019
Word Count: 1801

Bus Transportation at Michigan State University

Before the Fall Semester of 2018, Michigan State University and the Capital Area

Transportation Authority (CATA) announced that on-campus bus lines 30-39 would be made

free for all Michigan State University students, faculty, and staff (Geurrant, 2018). This was a

big change from the $50 semester bus pass that students had to purchase in previous years

(CATA, 2018). The change came in good time for MSU’s largest freshman class in its history,

welcoming around 8,400 new students (Michigan State University, 2018). Students at a freshman

standing at MSU are not permitted a car on campus, as there is a limited amount of space for

parking. This makes the CATA busses much more appealing to this demographic.

Anything made free is instantly more popular, and the busses were no exception to this

rule. The CATA buses on MSU are much more popular since the implementation of the free

routes. According to CATA executive in charge of marketing and customer experience Lolo

Robinson, CATA buses, “...saw a 37-percent increase in ridership during the 2018 fall semester

compared to the previous year. Spring semester to date has seen an increase of 45-percent over

the same period last year.”

With busses becoming this popular for the freshman class, a large problem has arisen

around campus: CATA buses are heavily over-crowded. And over-crowded busses have led to a

snowball effect on students. CATA has strict rules in place to ensure customer safety, one of

which is a strict passenger limit. If a student can’t fit behind the yellow line behind the driver, the

student is not permitted to ride the bus. This is an issue because, as previously stated, students
 Bus Transportation at Michigan State University Big Chungus

rely on these buses. Students need the buses to get to class, to get to work, and to get anywhere

else on campus. However, the buses being overcrowded makes this an extra hurdle to jump

through for students. The buses need to be reliable in that students will be able to ride without

fear that they may not even get on the first bus that comes around.

Not only that, but Michigan weather is something else that needs to be addressed.

Michigan is known for having extremely harsh winter conditions, and students have to brave this

cold to wait for the buses. This is more than an inconvenience for students, it is also a health

issue. This winter alone, temperatures reached as low as -20 degrees forcing MSU to cancel

classes. This is not common for Michigan State University, this being only the seventh time it

closed its doors. The University sent out reminders to all students to, “carefully plan trips,

avoiding long periods of time outdoors,” (Michigan State University, 2018). However, if the

buses are too full and students are not able to get on, they are at a huge risk of getting hurt due to

dangerous conditions.

Steps have already begun being implemented by CATA to ensure the safety and

satisfaction of MSU students. For one, on especially busy days for the busses, CATA Executive

Lolo Robinson says, “[CATA has] made enhancements, such as reallocating fleet resources, to

increase vehicle capacity.” Just as much, CATA has also been adding new buses to its fleet to

make sure that they can transport the largest number of students around campus as efficiently as

possible. Robinson, again stating, “We have purchased 23 new Nova buses to replace vehicles

that have reached their useful life. This includes 19 40-foot buses and four 60-foot articulated

buses that will become part of our active fleet later this year.” These larger buses are very

beneficial to riders and allow CATA to cover more of MSU’s expansive campus that covers over

5,000 acres (Michigan State University, 2018).

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It is obvious that CATA recognizes the issue at hand. However, the steps that they are

taking are not enough. More can be done and for much cheaper. The bus routes need to be

looked at again and reworked to become more efficient. Lolo Robinson said, “At this point, there

are no plans for new routes on campus,” however, this is the most cost-effective solution. If bus

routes were to be made into smaller ones, the buses would become much more efficient. Wait

times would go down for students, as buses could get around campus much quicker. This would

mean that students are getting picked up and dropped off faster, meaning more room on the

buses.

Having a car at Michigan State can cause many problems for students. Finding parking

spots with the rush of classes can be difficult which leads students to rush and not be safe on the

roads. Students often cannot find parking spots for their car because there are not enough spots.

This can lead to students parking in illegal spots which can lead to violations such as ticketing

and towing. Tickets can start at $25 and if not paid on time, late fees are continually added. It is

an inconvenience for students to have a car on campus. One concern with not having a car would

be that getting places late at night can be difficult, however, CATA buses run until 2 a.m.,

making this a very convenient and safer way for students to get around (Michigan State

University, 2018). In the year 2017 MSU police wrote 99,941 tickets from August through April

last year (Wiedmayer, 2017). By encouraging student ridership on the buses, the number of

parking tickets issued would heavily decrease.

In the U.S., only about 1-2% of people rely on public transportation to get to and from

work. If MSU were to increase this number, students would not have a need to have a car on

campus. In fact, one of the largest reasons for public transportation congestion is that there are

too many one-rider cars on the roads every day (Steven, 2013). By making programs where

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students are not driving as much on campus, MSU and CATA will be able to make the buses

much more efficient in getting students where they need to be.

Over-crowded buses are not an issue unique to Michigan State University’s campus.

Cities around the world have had issues regarding public transportation. If MSU wants to make

their buses more efficient, taking notes from other cities that did it well is the best place to start.

Bogota, Columbia, has what many urban planners believe to be the best bus system in the world.

The bus system is called “TransMilenio.” There are two major reasons for the effectiveness of

TransMilenio. The first of which is dedicated bus lanes on all major roads. The second solution

is much easier: smaller, “feeder” bus routes. These bus routes are extremely efficient in getting

passengers to a central hub where riders can then change lines to get on the larger ones. This

solution requires little more than replanning a few bus routes and relocating some busses for

them. There is no large infrastructure change that needs to be done, meaning it would be

extremely cheap to achieve (Kuang, 2012).

If CATA were to implement this system, students would be able to get into these smaller

lines that could take them to classes in a much timelier manner, keeping them off of the more

popular main routes. These routes would go from all of the different neighborhoods to the CATA

station. From there, the student could transfer buses to get to their classes. The benefit of this is

that students would spend less time on the buses getting back to their neighborhood. Therefore,

the buses going to classes would be less condensed and have more room for students and safety.

Bogota, Columbia is also extremely effective in getting people on and off the buses

because their model relies completely on making wait times as short as possible for riders

(Kuang 2012). Alongside breaking up the bus routes, keeping riders up-to-date on the status of

their arrival time is a great way to keep congestion down. If riders are aware of the time that they

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can leave and arrive accurately, they will be able to make more informed decisions when

choosing their time of departure. This is important, “for users and decision makers to understand

system performance from many aspects of service quality, including passenger waiting time,

stop-skipping frequency, bus bunching level, bus travel time, on-time performance, and bus

fullness,” (Xidong, 2018). CATA currently has an app that attempts to achieve this. It is called

“Transit,” but it is relatively new, and has many bugs. If CATA were to update this app, the issue

would be much more easily solvable. ITxPT is a project that is currently in effect in Europe and,

“has paved the way to cost-effective deployment of intelligent systems for public transport

including on board public transport vehicles and back office applications, securing open

environment and constant competition,” (ITxPT). By using the advancements made by this

project, CATA would easily be able to update their app to be as efficient as possible.

An improved version of the Transit app would be one where it shows the current bus

capacity, as well as an accurate location of where the bus currently is on the roads. This is

something that is currently a part of the app, however, the tracking of the buses is far from

accurate. The current method is to use the suspected rider’s location from their mobile device. If

the buses were to have GPS on them, showing their rider location and capacity status, students

would be much more well informed of what time they should be departing. On average, an app

costs $270,000 to create (Neagu, 2018). However, CATA already has an app, so this cost is

mostly taken care of. The app would just need to be reconfigured to reach the standard of the

riders.

Looking at all of the information above, it is easy to see that something needs to be done

about this issue. CATA is making improvements, but there is always more to do. By looking at

other cities and other forms of infrastructure, we can learn what the best ways to improve are.

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Rider satisfaction is important to CATA, and these solutions are the best way to achieve that. As

Ms. Robinson put it, “...we value customer feedback. CATA regularly monitors student input as

it often influences our service evaluations. We recognize a level of frustration, particularly

during inclement weather, among students when buses have been at capacity due to the free

fares. And when feasible, we have made enhancements, such as reallocating fleet resources, to

increase vehicle capacity.” Whether it be introducing feeder lines, or updating the current app,

there are ways to make the buses less crowded and CATA needs to recognize that. These

solutions are the best way to make customers happy, while also being cost effective and efficient

in the long run.

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Works Cited

Guerrant, Emily. “Free on campus bus service for all students starts fall semester”, MSU Today,

July 18 2018, https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2018/free-on-campus-bus-service-for-

students-starts-fall-semester/

“Home | Capital Area Transportation Authority.” CATA, https://www.cata.org/Routes-

Schedules/Where-can-I-Ride/MSU-Campus

“ITxPT.” UITP, 31 Oct. 2017, www.uitp.org/itxpt.

Kuang, Cliff. “Bogota: Home of the World's Most Advanced Bus System?” Fast Company, Fast

Company, 30 July 2012, https://www.fastcompany.com/1270926/bogota-home-worlds-

most-advanced-bus-system

Michigan State University. “Getting around” Office of Admissions, Life at MSU, July 17 2018,

https://admissions.msu.edu/life-at-msu/getting-around.aspx

Michigan State University. “MSU to Welcome Largest, Most Diverse Freshman Class.”

MSUToday, May 9 2018, https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2018/msu-to-welcome-largest-

most-diverse-freshman-class

Neagu, Adriana. “Figuring the Costs of Mobile App Development.” Formotus, 7 Sept. 2018,

http://www.formotus.com/blog/figuring-the-costs-of-custom-mobile-business-app-

development

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Pi, Xidong, et al. 2018. Understanding Transit System Performance Using AVL-APC Data: An

Analytics Platform with Case Studies for the Pittsburgh Region. Journal of Public

Transportation, July 27 2018, Volume 21 issue 2

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jpt/vol21/iss2/2/

Robinson, Lolo. Personal Interview. 26 March 2019

Steven L., Jr. Jones et al, Urban Public Transportation Systems 2013 : Proceedings of the Third

International Conference on Urban Public Transportation Systems, American Society of

Civil Engineers, November 11 2013, https://ebookcentral-proquest-

com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/lib/michstate-ebooks/reader.action?docID=3115657

Weidmayer, Marie, MSUPD collected nearly $2 million in parking tickets this school year, The

State News, April 27 2018, https://statenews.com/article/2018/04/parking-tickets-from-

2017-18-school-year