Students ride Metro free

The University of Cincinnati has entered into a partnership with Metro to provide students free transportation on Metro buses for the next three years.

Metro and UC have been working to develop a pass program for university students, faculty and staff.

"We have the green light on the project, we're now just working on the particulars of how to make it happen," Metro director of transit development, Tim Reynolds, said. "We're meeting with the vice-president of facilities and various other individuals in terms of, will it be using the current UC pass that you have in your pocket or will there be a separate pass, and then how would that be distributed."

The program is set to begin May 1, Student Government president Jerry Tsai said, emphasizing that the day is only a target date.

Even though the program is scheduled to begin May 1, several weeks would likely pass before participation begins to grow.

"We're dealing with mid-semester, and people have already figured out their parking," Reynolds said.

Student Government also realizes it may take some time for the program to take off.

"It will take a little bit for people to become familiar with the idea and know how to utilize a different system," Tsai said.

In fall 2006, a proposal was brought to the Bearcat Transportation System committee to look at partnering with Metro. Negotiations between UC and Metro lasted throughout the following quarter, with a deal being approved Tuesday, March 20, Tsai said.

At this time no agreement has been signed.

"We've drafted one up and sent it to UC and they are reviewing it right now," Reynolds said. "Our board meeting happens tomorrow [Tuesday], and we have an action item and we are asking the board to give our general manager approval to enter into an agreement with the university."

Metro and UC also ran a pilot program in fall 2005. Metro saw participation triple from 4,000 in the first week to 12,000 in the final week. They estimate 60,000 free rides were given to members of the UC community during this time.

The university is scheduled to pay $150,000 for the first and second year, and then $187,500 in the third year.

"The third year will be subject to negotiation, based upon rider-ship data," Reynolds said.

Students and the administration would split the cost, with the student's half coming out of the transportation fee that goes toward the BTS, Rick Wiggins, director of Facilities Management said.

The committee has redesigned BTS routes, resulting in one less shuttle-bus. Money that would have paid for the shuttle-bus, more than $75,000, is now going toward the cost of the pass program, Tsai said.

"The beauty of it all is that this new service is at no extra cost," Tsai said. "We're saving money."

The program costs would be renegotiated after three years. The new agreement would depend on how successful or unsuccessful the program has been.

"I'll bet you it will be pretty successful," Tsai said.

Cincinnati's central business district may benefit from the added customers the program will bring to the area.

"There are a lot of benefits to having this partnership, one of which is, I think downtown will seem that much easier to get down to, whether to a Reds game or to the business district down there for students who co-op downtown," Tsai said.

Metro is planning to boost rider-ship with the program, attracting new customers who, hopefully, continue to ride Metro after graduating from the university.

"As we have seen in other cities, working with universities and encouraging universities to work with us on getting a pass program underway has a lot of benefits," Reynolds said.

According to Reynolds, this type of partnership would relieve pressure on parking and give students and faculty another transportation option. Reynolds said he hopes the partnership increases awareness of public transportation in Cincinnati as well.

Metro also is looking into installing solar powered lights near campus. The lights would save energy and are an important safety feature.

"They provide a bigger, better bus stop sign, with potentially more information," Reynolds said.

In addition to the new lighting system, Metro is preparing to revamp shelter stations, such as the one in front of McMicken Commons.

Programs similar to the UC and Metro partnership have been implemented across the United States.

"This exists at Ohio State in Columbus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee, and dozens upon dozens of other universities across the country," Reynolds said.