Student Government peddled free Scantrons and blue books while riding the new bus system Tuesday.Members of SG held Straight Talk with Student Government — which usually consists of a table in Free Speech Alley every three weeks where students can stop to ask questions or pick up a free Scantron — on the purple and gold bus routes.”Since we have had the new bus system, we have been getting less complaints, but we know there is room for improvement,” said SG President Stuart Watkins. “We are riding the buses Tuesday to get feedback on the new system.
SG members were accompanied by officials from First Transit.”[The buses] are too bloody slow,” said Seane Jones, pre-nursing junior.Catherine Utt, general manager for First Transit, said there have been some complaints about the buses driving slowly.”In a congested area such as this with students walking everywhere, we stress that buses go a safe speed,” Utt said. “On the other hand, we don’t want them to go too slow … There is a fine line between safety and them driving too slow.”Sen. Aaron Caffarel, University Center for Freshman Year, said most of the feedback he received was positive.Caffarel and other SG members relay the feedback from students to Utt.”The new buses are way more consistent than CATS,” said Zach Caram, biology junior. “I would have to wait 30 minutes for the CATS bus, but it seems like the new ones come more often.”Utt said the new system has much more efficient routes than CATS did.”Its very crowded sometimes,” said Brittany Pritchard, international studies sophomore. “They really need at least one extra bus.”Utt said the number of buses isn’t changing, but the new small buses arriving this semester and the new large buses arriving next semester both have improved capacity compared to their predecessors.SG officials also announced filing will begin Oct. 12 for the November elections. The filing period will run through Oct. 14, according to an SG news release.——Contact Xerxes Wilson at [email protected]