Students have been experiencing extended bus delays on the campus bus service, which has caused them to arrive late to class, director of IU Campus Bus Service Brian R Noojin said.
Noojin said these delays could be happening due to the lack of education on how the bus system works.
This freshman class is the biggest in the history of the university, according to the official IU news website, so lack of experience using the buses could be one of the causes of lengthy bus delays, Noojin said.
Noojin also said the sophomore class likely never learned exactly how to use the bus system last year due to the limited number of in-person classes on campus at the time, so this could also be a contributing factor.
He said the buses are seeing traffic on campus like they have never seen before because of the freshman class size.
Noojin said buses are running 20 to 40 minutes late.
“This is because they are running trips back to back for two hours, and our drivers are not getting a break because they are stuck in traffic for so long,” Noojin said.
Maddie Slepski, a freshman living in Briscoe Quadrangle, has had a challenging time getting used to the delayed bus system.
Slepski said her freshman experience has gotten off to a rough start due to the extremely long bus rides to her classes.
“I normally sit on the bus for roughly 20 to 30 minutes before arriving at my stop,” Slepski said. “I am typically late to my classes even when I am getting on the bus an hour before my classes are scheduled to start.”
Noojin said traffic is usually bad during the first week of class but not to the extent that is happening this year.
“I think it could be a general lack of education on the student’s part about where you need to be in order to be picked up,” Noojin said. “You have to be at an official bus stop, so that it can safely pick people up and drop them off.”
Freshman at IU are having an especially difficult time getting used to the traffic on campus along with using the bus system.
These delays seem to have many factors that cause the rides to be much longer than advertised, Freshman Taylor Coonce said. Coonce believes the DoubleMap bus tracking app does not do a good job of explaining the schedule of each bus route.
Noojin thinks the delays will not be as severe the entire semester and will likely improve once students are used to the system.
