Two covered bus stops will be added to campus by the end of the summer, according to Student Government Vice President Dani Borel.
One of the bus stops will be on the corner of South Stadium Road and Tower Drive across from the Frey Computing Services Center, and the other will be by Lockett Hall. They will be in the same style as the bus stop in front of the Journalism Building.
Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, worked with SG to determine budgets and future development plans. He said in an e-mail that the office will fund the bus stops and that “bus amenities and infrastructure” are funded by the student transportation fee.
Borel said more bus stops will be built by an outside company. These bus stops will be smaller, but they will still be covered.
She said an outside company will build smaller, covered bus stops for free under the stipulation that they can advertise on them. Those bus stops are in the design and contract phase, Borel said, but there may be a bidding process to determine which company will build them.
“What we mostly did was make the administration aware of how important it was to us,” Borel said.
Borel said she and SG President J Hudson have been asking for the bus stops since the beginning of their administration. They initially met with Jason Tolliver, University Auxiliary Services director, and discussed plans for building with him, but budget cuts took first priority, Borel said.
They then wrote a memo and attached a legislative resolution in support of the bus stops and sent it to K.C. White, dean of students, and Kurt Keppler, vice chancellor for Student Life and Enrollment Services, Borel said.
Borel said they then looked at cost methods and found outside companies were willing to build the bus stops for free because of the advertising incentive.
Borel and Hudson said they also want a bus stop at the corner of South Stadium Drive and CEBA Lane, and Graham said he is working on a “bus hub” in this area, which will require a building to be taken down.
Graham said eventually there may be up to 10 bus stops on campus with red tiles.
“The weather here at LSU makes the covered shelters a necessity on days of inclement weather or days when it is very hot,” Graham said.
Though the bus stops will be unfinished by the time they leave office, Borel and Hudson haven’t decided if they will label bus stops as “completed” or “in progress.”
“It shows the dedication of our staff,” Hudson said of the initiative.
 
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]