Countless UT students rely on the bus system to get around campus and the city. For those who live in Riverside or North Campus and don’t have cars or other modes of transportation, buses are the most affordable option to get to and from class every day.
CapMetro — Austin’s regional transportation provider — implemented a pretty big change to their bus system this past June. CapMetro says that their initiative, called “CapRemap,” is supposed to have made their buses “more frequent, more reliable and better connected,” but many UT students have claimed it has done the exact opposite. As a result of some routes being eliminated in favor of high-frequency routes, overcrowding especially has been a common complaint among students.
Danielle Redhead, a social work senior who lives in Riverside, describes how the new system has many flaws, including significant delays that lead to overcrowding. She argues that this new system disproportionately affects those students who live off campus and have no other choice but to take the bus to school. In addition, she says that UT should be doing more to work with CapMetro in addressing these problems.
However, Courtney Broderick, a Government Ph.D. student and an East Riverside resident, says that her initial skepticism about the Remap was replaced with appreciation when she realized the new routes actually saved time during her daily commutes to and from school, and that the new stops are located more conveniently than they were previously.
Ryan Young, a recent UT graduate, describes how he used the new bus routes to explore areas of Austin that had previously been hard to access with public transit during his last few weeks here. He says that while CapMetro’s Remap is far from perfect, it has its redeeming qualities, and people should do their best to learn the new system. He says this initiative has opened up new opportunities and experiences for not just UT students, but other Austin residents, and should be given a fair chance to prove itself.
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Bolf is an English sophomore from Fort Worth. Liu is a Rhetoric & Writing, Philosophy and Plan II junior from Plano.
