Campus bus service alternative to walking

It’s 8:45 a.m., and your first college class starts in 15 minutes. You still need to pack your bag and put your shoes on before you run out the door and embark on the 12-minute hike to class. You know you don’t have enough time, but can’t bear the thought of being late to your first class as a college freshman. As you’re leaving your room, you see a square, glass bus stop with a few people waiting near it. You contemplate joining them, but you’ve never taken the bus. What should you do? Where will it take you?

The bus isn’t a hijacker on wheels waiting to capture students into the unknown. It’s there to serve you and get you where you need to be on time. Knowing the basics about the bus routes may save you from entering into a situation like the above one.

PARTA Operations Manager Joseph Yensel said the company does close to one million trips for students each year. The best part is students ride for free with their student ID.

“It’s a quicker way to get around, especially in the cold and the rain,” he said. “I think we put together a pretty useful service (and) it’s a good thing that freshmen know how to use the bus service.”

Yensel said Campus Loop, Allerton and Summit East are the three core routes running on campus. Each of the buses runs approximately every six to 12 minutes from 6 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. depending on the route.

“If you get on it,” Yensel said, “it’s not going to take you somewhere you don’t expect. Within 20 minutes you’ll be back to where you started.”

There’s also the Downtowner that transports students around Kent Thursday and Friday nights from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The bus is useful for more than taking students from one point to another. PARTA also offers job opportunities. Yensel said PARTA employs 60 students from Kent State. To qualify, students must have had their driver’s license for two or more years and have no more than two points on it. Then, they will get paid to train for four to six weeks before starting the job soon after.

Contact news correspondent Rebekah Maple at [email protected].