Free shuttles option for students without cars

By Robby Lewis

Published Feb. 5, 2008

Students who have troubles with parking and transportation on campus could find a solution off campus.

MU Parking and Transportation Director Jim Joy said students might outnumber the amount of spots available right outside of their Residence Hall, but there are several other options.

"In the residence halls, there are roughly 5,000 students," Joy said. "There are only 600 spots that would be considered actual residence hall spots. The rest of the students park in the various garages and lots that they are assigned."

Joy said seniority is what the system uses to determine which students get the closest spots.

"The priority we use for these spots is determined by the number of semesters that a student has lived in the dorms," Joy said. "Accommodations may be made for students with disabilities or if departments make requests for workers, but for the most part, this is the system we use."

Joy said the commuter lot passes that are given to those students who live off-campus work for all three of the commuter lots, which includes Reactor Field, the Hearnes Center and the Trowbridge Livestock Center.

"You don't get a pass for a particular lot," Joy said. "You are given a commuter pass and this allows you to park in any of these lots. We have a campus shuttle that goes to these lots that is provided by city buses, but we pay for this service."

Joy said if students don't want to buy a commuter-lot pass, there is plenty of metered parking as well.

"There are 2,000 metered parking spots on campus," Joy said. "Each of our lots have a sign that says who is allowed to park in it. If there is a red bar across the top of the sign, the lot is restricted 24/7."

"We have parents who, when we tell them that we have a bus, they are in shock," Joy said. "There is a day system that runs from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and a night system that runs from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. Monday through Friday."

Columbia Public Works Department spokeswoman Jill Stedem said the bus system also offers plenty of options.

"We have the Columbia Transit, which operates the fixed route and we have a shuttle service, which we run all over campus," Stedem said.

Stedem said students who live in the various apartment buildings across Old Highway 63 have shuttles coming to get them continuously.

It is called the gold route, and runs Monday through Friday. The shuttle runs through several apartment complexes (The Reserve, Campus Lodge and Campus View) and comes roughly every 15 minutes.

"It doesn't run during the weekend and it doesn't run during the summer sessions," Stedem said. "It runs very similar to our regular routes."

Stedem said the system also offers routes that make it unessential for students living on campus to have vehicles.

"We try and encourage students to use the brown route," Stedem said. "The brown route runs on campus and will take them to the mall, Wal-Mart or various other places in Columbia. You can live on campus pretty easily without having a car."

Columbia Parking supervisor William Lewis said the city also offers parking to its students and faculty members, including 2,135 metered spaces.

"If they are on the city streets then they are city of Columbia meters," Lewis said. "We have about 278 spaces in the garages for customer/hourly parking."

Lewis said passes are available for some garages.

"It depends on which garage," Lewis said. "We have a specific number of spaces. We sell them to all people if we have a space for them."

Joy said it is inevitable that people will try to park where they are not assigned, but they work hard to avoid this.

"Enforcement is a major issue," Joy said. "Individuals do get tickets and they do get towed. I feel we do a good job."