Options abound for campus travel

By Erin Kaplan
Western Herald

Whether you are a new student or a returning one, it is always a good idea to know the various options you have for getting to and around campus.

Driving

Most students walk or drive to class. To park on campus, students must register their vehicles with WMU Parking Services, located off of the roundabout on the corner of West Michigan and Howard. Parking pass can be purchased for $300 for the entire year or $180 for an individual semester. The only students who are allowed to park at the residence halls are those who live in them. Students that live off-campus must park in parking ramps or structures, or at the loading zone, near the Haworth College of Business and Rood Hall.
During the first week of each semester, Parking Services does not ticket student lots, to allow for students to have enough time to purchase a pass. From Aug. 17 until Sep. 14, student lots will not be ticketed. Students should note that all reserved spaces including faculty and staff lots, as well as handicapped spots and metered spots will still be ticketed.

Parking services is open Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. From Aug. 31 until Sept. 11, parking permits will be available for purchase at the Fall 2009 One Stop Shop in the north ballroom of the Bernhard Center. Additionally, parking permits can be purchased in Lawson Ice Arena from Sep. 14 -17. Parking Services will be closed for Labor Day.

Yearlong, daily passes can be purchased for $5.00, or weekly permits for $15.00. These temporary permits can be purchased at Parking Services. When Parking Services is closed, students can go to the WMU police station, open 24 hours a day.

Many students question where the $300 parking permit cost comes from, and where it goes.

“It’s been like that for over six years, and we haven’t raised permit prices or fines on the tickets for over six years,” said Capt. Carol DeDow of Parking Services.

“We have managed to keep that cost down for 6 years even though the expenses continue to rise dramatically,” DeDow said. “We are trying to lessen the burden on our students.”

Where does the money go exactly? All over campus.

“Painting of roads, asphalt repair, fines, and parking revenue goes back to Parking Services. We pay for the free bus system that everyone in the county has access to,” she said.

“Every time you step on a bus, Parking Services is paying for that. Anytime you use your ID to get on a bus, it goes to snow removal.”

Taking the bus

One of the many Metro Transit and Brown line bus stops on campus, located along Goldsworth Drive between Valley I and II.

Bussing around campus and Kalamazoo includes both the Bronco transit and the Kalamazoo

Metro Transit systems. Students, faculty, and staff all have free access to these buses.

The Bronco Transit bus lines stop students at multiple campus locations, including Miller

Auditorium, Goldsworth Pond, Valley 1, Valley 2, Waldo Library, Read Fieldhouse, The Bernhard Center, and Arcadia Road.
The Kalamazoo Metro Transit drops students off at off-campus apartments and housing (the main routes to campus are Lovell and West Michigan), and also stops downtown, to movie theaters, Crossroads Mall, Meijer, Target, and much more.

To ride the Metro, students, staff, and faculty must have their Bronco I.D. present. These buses are available daily, except for Sunday, and run from 6 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Additionally, many apartment complexes, such as Copper Beech, provide their own busing for students.

A complete Metro route schedule is available at http://tinyurl.com/nm78ov, Brown and Gold at http://www.wmich.edu/broncotransit/.

Biking

Some students ride bikes to and from campus. Cyclists are encouraged to get their bikes registered through the WMU Department of Public Safety. Free of charge, students can register their bikes by filling out a form and receiving a sticker with a serial number. This form can be accessed online or at the WMU police station. If a bike is stolen, it is immediately entered it into the nation-wide stolen article computer.

“[Registering your bike] makes it easier for us to contact you if your bike was to disappear and we were to recover it. It’s easier to keep track of,” WMU DPS Lieutenant Gerald Kuss, said. “We log all the registrations into the computer and they are all on file and sent to our records bureau.”

Night time transportation and safety

While many students do walk alone, it is encouraged that students use the “buddy system” at night. If ever something happens while walking at night, the yellow emergency call boxes around campus are a quick and easy way to contact the Department of Public Safety in case of an emergency. As for students who do not want to walk alone at night, there are several solutions.

For evening transportation, WMU’s Department of Public Safety offers a service seven days a week called Saferide. Saferide begins once it is dark, and ends at 6:00 a.m. Students can use Saferide as many times as they want throughout the night. Many students call Saferide at 3 a.m. when the library closes for a ride to the Bernhardt center, and later to go back to their residence halls. Students can access Saferide by spotting individuals wearing bright orange vests, or by calling 387-7433 (RIDE) at night.

WMU‘s most unique way of keeping students safe is through a Registered Student Organization called Drive Safe Kalamazoo. DSK is a free, non-judgmental, confidential service run by students Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. DSK’s mission is to ensure the safety of our community by providing, on nights of operation, a safe ride home for WMU students. DSK will pick up students at any Kalamazoo location with the understanding that they will only take students home, whether that is the residence halls or an off-campus location. Enterprise cars loans DSK up to seven cars a weekend. DSK needs fourteen drivers per night (two per car) as well as students to dispatch in the apartment, and operators.

Anyone interested in volunteering can send an e-mail to info@drivesafekalamazoo.com.

A community van is available for anyone who cannot take the bus due to a disability. Additionally, there is a transportation system available for the entire Kalamazoo County called Care-a-van for any person with disabilities. It runs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Friday, and anyone who wishes to use this service must contact Car-a-van one day prior to usage. Each way requires a $3.35 fee. More information is available at http://tinyurl.com/lxu6ag.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Aug 30 2009. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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