College bus system opened up to entire community

From "Central Transit now has all of Ellensburg on the move," in the Kittitas Valley Daily Record in Washington State. (Also see "CWU "Central Transit" to Roll October 3.")

With additional funding now secured, CWU's local bus system is now open to all community members. In the past it had been open only to Central Washington University students. The service is free and runs from 2 p.m.-2 a.m. with stops around Ellensburg.

The new funding comes from Elmview and Central Washington Disability Resources, two local non-profit organizations. Elmview is a private social-service agency. The service is also seeing support from state agencies, including the Washington State Developmental Disabilities Council.

Central Transit, which began fall of 2005, was originally funded through student fees and money from CWU Public Safety and Police Services. And it appeared students took advantage of it. Last year, Central Transit had more than 24,000 riders.

But the one-time funding through a quarterly $3 student fee wasn't intended to carry the service into additional years, according to CWU police Capt. Kevin Higgins. “So, we've been working with a new community transportation committee to find other ways to support Central Transit,” Higgins said in a press release.

And that's when Elmview and CWDR stepped in to help. Bruce Tabb of Elmview said Central Transit's current funding will support community participation through the 2006-07 academic year at CWU.

“We have been working to see some type of public transportation in this community for years,” Tabb said Tuesday. “The opportunity to use a system that was already in place is incredible.” There is also discussion about expanding the number of stops on the Central Transit route in order to better serve riders from the off-campus community, Tabb said.

If you read The Diamondback, the college newspaper at University of Maryland College Park, there is a lot of, well, whining, about the disconnect between town and gown (note to students: mayhem after UMD wins basketball and/or football games isn't the best community outreach strategy), but gosh, they have a great bus system. Maybe they could open it up similarly...


Index Keywords: transit