Road to Nowhere

Graphic by Anika Dua

Let’s be honest here – if you’re living on South Campus as a sophomore, it's usually not by choice. (Unless you're a student athlete, because then you have the whole set up with all of the athletic facilities being in your backyard). But for the rest of us, it’s kind of a pain to find a way to our 8 am classes everyday. So here are the transportation options: you could hitch a ride with a friend who has a car, but what happens if your schedules don’t align or, god forbid, they can’t find parking? Or, you could take an Uber, but let’s be honest, we’re all college students here and we need to save that money for Dunkin and Starbucks runs. This leaves us with the last and seemingly most efficient way to get to campus: the bus system. It is what the school offers as transportation, so it has to be the most reliable, right? Wrong. 

The issues with our bus system are pretty well known here at Syracuse. Picture this: it’s 5 pm and everyone and their mom is trying to get back to their apartments at the same time, so your choices are to sandwich yourself between a bunch of strangers or if you magically manage to find a seat, risk having a stranger practically sit on your lap. Another familiar scenario: you’re sprinting for your life at 7:45 to catch the 7:46 bus that’s pulling away in front of your very eyes. (Spoiler: you don’t make it, so you have to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus). Chaotic doesn't even begin to cover it. 

Now, most of the problems stated above seem to be avoidable with personal fixes: like getting to the stops earlier or picking times to go home when there’s not so many people getting out of class. But these solutions don’t mean that it’s not still inconvenient and maybe it’s a sign that something in the transportation system itself needs to change.