6 minute read
TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
‘Oh, the places you’ll go’
Students bus, bike, drive or walk on foot to get around campus for their daily activities and classes.
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Cameron Johnson — THE BATTALION
A&M provides multiple ways for students to travel around campus
By Michaela Rush
@Michaela4Batt
The total size of Texas A&M’s College Station campus is 5,200 acres, which seems vast and intimidating.
Thankfully, most students don’t have to cover this full area during their education in Aggieland, but it highlights the importance of having reliable transportation. From wherever you call home, to class, to nights on the town, here’s how to get around campus and Bryan-College Station:
On foot
Price: Free
Not only is walking around campus free and eco-friendly, but this option is also an easy way to maintain your physical health without having to make a trip to the Student Recreation Center.
According to the Mayo Clinic, walking can improve cardiovascular fitness, strengthen your bones and muscles and even increase energy levels.
While campus is designed for students to walk, students who come from off-campus housing can use a questionnaire at www. nhtsa.gov/pedestrian-safety/how-walkable-your-community to determine how walkable their neighborhood is and determine if it’s safe and efficient to get to campus in this manner.
Biking
Price: $10 for registration, or 50 cents per 30 minutes on VeoRide
Students who choose to bring a bike to campus must register it with the university through Transportation Services, with a onetime fee of $10.
Bringing a bike lock is recommended to ensure bikes stay secure, and various stations can be found around campus, free of charge, for students to fix minor problems with their bikes.
Students who choose to use VeoRide can download the free app, load money and then scan the QR code on any of the teal bicycles around campus, with a fee of 50 cents for every 30 minutes of use. Be sure to re-rack the bikes to avoid any fines.
Scootering
Price: Personal starting at $300; or $1 to unlock, then 25 cents per minute on VeoRide
Some students have found they need a faster and less sweaty way to get around town. Electrical engineering senior Dakota Mouton said he decided to invest in a personal electric scooter, which avoids the restrictions of campus scooters.
“The electric scooter was the best investment for me,” Mouton said. “Any student, especially the people who live on the outskirts of campus, can get around very easily. I think they’re super worth the investment. The VeoRide moped can add up very quickly, and there’s limitations on where you can use them.”
Mouton said the decision to buy the scooter came from his previous experience biking to campus and his desire to not feel exhausted upon arrival to class.
“When I’m biking to class, my route has a lot of ups and downs. The ups on the bike are exhausting, you’re sweating when you get to the top and by the time you get to class you’re drenched,” Mouton said. “It’s probably a 20- to 30-minute walk from my house to class. With the time I spent getting to and from class, it was worth it [to buy a scooter].”
Buses
Price: Free
The premiere service provided by A&M’s Transportation Services are the buses, which boast routes on and off campus, all of which are covered by students’ tuition and fees.
The Aggie Spirit buses offer live updates for buses, so all students can keep track of their route, which is available online or in the Texas A&M app.
Biomedical sciences sophomore Elizabeth Bono said the buses are the way she most frequently gets around campus, especially as a student who lives on campus.
“Most of my classes this semester are on main campus, on north campus,” Bono said. “There’s a bus that stops at White Creek [Apartments], and it takes me from White Creek to the [Memorial Student Center], and it goes one stop further to Beutel, which is as far into campus as it goes. It’s close enough to Northside that I just get off there and walk.”
Bono said her favorite part of the bus is saving money on daily parking and knowing she can still get to her commitments throughout the day.
“[The bus] makes it so I don’t have to pay for parking everyday. I’ve had pretty good experiences with the buses,” Bono said. “I’ve been able to find a bus that can take me anywhere I need to go, at least on campus. Sometimes, it’s a little difficult jumping between buses, but I make it work.”
For students wanting to use the bus services, Bono said she recommends that students know the routes near them and what trips may require more than one route.
“The White Creek stop only has one bus that goes down there, so I don’t have any difficulty going where I need to go because the bus takes me to main campus,” Bono said. “If I were to want to go over to Reed Arena, I don’t have a bus I can take. I would have to get onto main campus and then jump on another bus to take me off of main campus.”
Parking on/near campus
Price: From $1-$3 an hour, or up to $550 for a full-year permit
For students living on campus or traveling from housing further from campus, parking on campus is a great option to get you into and out of campus borders, and is available in multiple formats for students.
For hourly parking, students can park in public garages: Central Campus, University Center, Polo Road, Gene Stallings, West Campus or Northside garages. Parking ranges from $1-$3 hourly, with live updates on space availability on the parking website.
For more consistent parking, students can purchase a parking pass for a variety of garages and lots across campus. Parking pass registration typically occurs during the summer months, allowing all classifications to purchase passes.
Even for those who are unable to secure a pass, spots open throughout the year and passes can be bought at a prorated rate based on the number of weeks remaining in the pass’s validity.
Advice from current students
Bono said, for her, knowing available campus resources, like accessing campus transit through the Texas A&M app, has made the day-to-day much less stressful.
“There’s an app, and I don’t think a lot of people know about the app,” Bono said. “It tells you exactly where the buses are, so I use it a lot when I’m about to head out of my apartment, so I’m not just standing there for ten minutes with the bus nowhere near.”
Mouton said the best advice he would give for getting to class, regardless of where you live, is to plan ahead, and pay attention to trends on your route.
“When you’re figuring out where your classes are before the semester, I would recommend taking a walk around campus and see how long it takes you to walk everywhere, and you can do the same thing with biking,” Mouton said. “Compare [walking to] biking or VeoRide or taking a scooter, and then you can determine the optimal time and notice traffic to keep that in mind for the future.”
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