Off Campus College Transport is set to expand its late night bus service this Friday in reaction to problems students have had getting home on weekend nights.
OCCT Director Giovanni Torres said that they have wanted to make changes since early last year. It became apparent that the buses were not meeting demand when packed buses had to turn away students trying to get home from Downtown, he said.
A solution to the problem was delayed because of monetary issues, Torres said, until OCCT came up with a plan that would address the concerns and fit its budget. Torres said he and his staff made final decisions earlier this fall, and they subsequently took steps to put their decision into action. The increased service will begin Friday, Nov. 12.
The adjustments focus on offering students more transportation to and from Binghamton University, as well as to houses on the West Side and State Street during late hours on the weekend.
OCCT will add one more bus to its service routes, bringing the total number to three. The additional bus will run between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. on a route that Torres said will compliment the schedule and result in an equal number of buses going to the West Side and Downtown Binghamton.
According to Jared Kirschenbaum, president of the Student Association and OCCT, the bus company hopes to allow another 130 students to travel Downtown per hour.
The combined effect of these changes should improve the frequency of late night bus service by double, Torres said. According to Torres, a trial run of these changes earlier in the year produced a positive reaction from students.
Torres noted that the student activity fee, which is built into tuition costs, was raised last year to help fund OCCT. Torres wanted to use the increase to give students better service.
‘The role of the OCCT is to provide students with safe, reliable service to get back and forth to where they need to go,’ Torres explained.
But these OCCT service increases have some cab company owners worried for their businesses.
Bob Pornbeck, the owner of Courtesy Cab, said that his drivers are already complaining about the changes at OCCT.
‘OCCT is a direct competitor, without a doubt,’ Pornbeck said. He believes the change in service will directly affect business for cab companies by decreasing the number of students who need a ride home.
According to Pornbeck, late night weekend service constitutes 50 percent of his company’s business. The competition with OCCT strikes another blow to cab companies already hit hard by the recession. He said that his business is down 40 percent from a year and a half ago.
Pornbeck said he thinks that OCCT has the right to offer students more bus service. But though he understands the importance of getting students home, he feels the increased service is unfair to the local cab companies.
‘They’ve kind of hurt the private industry as far as taxis go,’ Pornbeck said. ‘We basically exist off the SUNY business nine months of the year.’
He emphasized that a cab can take students right to their door. Still, he said he understands that ‘times are tough, and kids have their priorities on spending money.’
Torres said that OCCT’s goal is not to compete with cabs ‘ it is to provide another option.
‘A cab will get Downtown faster,’ Torres said, but he added that new cab laws have limited the amount of service they can provide to students.
This past summer, a new law was put into effect that changed the screening process for the hiring of cab drivers, resulting in the termination of a significant number of drivers and a decrease in service.
‘We are trying to fill the void, trying to make sure no one gets stranded,’ Torres explained.
Jessie Pollack, an undeclared freshman, said that she takes cabs over OCCT buses due to the timing of the bus schedule and the crowding that happens on busy weekend nights. With the increase in service supposedly solving this issue, Pollack thinks she would take the bus Downtown. However, she would still take a cab home.
‘Late at night, I would prefer to be driven back to my dorm than the [Old University] Union,’ she said.
For Jeremy Sloane, a sophomore majoring in integrative neuroscience, the changes to service make an easy decision even simpler.
‘Buses are the ideal way to get Downtown,’ Sloane said. ‘If a student has a choice between spending $3 or not spending $3 on a cab, the next step is obvious.’
Torres said that OCCT will monitor the changes once instituted and, based on the results, potentially continue expansion. He pointed out that service today is much different than it was two years ago, as more students have chosen to live on the West Side.
‘Service at OCCT is always changing and evolving to fit student’s needs,’ Torres said. ‘If those needs change in the future, we will go ahead and change it to something else.’