If you ride Charlottesville buses this spring, expect to run into a lot more University students, faculty and staff. They’re all getting free rides on city and county bus lines beginning Monday, April 2. Why do ‘Hoos skip the bill while the rest of us cough up our 75 cents? Well for one thing, UVA writes big checks: The University’s giving CTS an additional $130,000 in the coming year.
Free transportation will open Charlottesville up to University students, many of whom are limited by the fact that they don’t own cars. “We want to offer students a way to get around the city,” says Becca White, UVA’s director of parking and transit, who emphasizes the civic and environmental benefits of public transit. “I see it as a move towards reducing the use of single-occupancy vehicles.”
 The trolley is no longer an anomaly for free-ride seeking UVA students: Wahoos can now ride any city bus gratis. |
Many students already use the Free Trolley, which is consequently overcrowded and delayed. While the trolley carries well above the average number of passengers, other lines languish. Officials anticipate that dropping CTS fares will give the UVA population more choices, spreading the burden more evenly among city buses.
Letting ‘Hoos waltz on is only part of a wider strategy to coordinate city and University transit systems, according to the city’s 2006 Transit Development Plan. Currently, the systems run many of the same routes, slowing traffic and squandering resources. You’ve seen the West Main Bus Parade—either CTS or UTS has to give up some turf.
Phasing out UTS in favor of city buses is not on the agenda, says White. “Our objective is to have our service be coordinated so that those who use it can get where they want to go,” says Bill Watterson, CTS transit manager. “Whether that might eventually lead to some kind of merger is far in the future.”
Jealous of the easy-riding ‘Hoos? You too may roll in the roll-back before long. Following Chapel Hill’s example, CTS has proposed dropping fares altogether. While the initiative would cost the city and county together about $270,000 yearly, it could yield a 40 percent increase in ridership, according to the 2006 report.
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