Wednesday, September 6, 2000 - The Michigan Daily - New Student Edition - 3F GETTING AROUND TOWN Public transportation alleviates parking pains By Sara Fedewa For the Daily As students make their way to, campus this fall, the streets of Ann Arbor become increas- ingly congested, leaving students and resi- dents wondering what mode of transportation best suits their needs. While having a personal vehicle may seem to be the most convenient way for students to get where they need to go, pricey permits, problems with parking and costly tickets bften lead many to rely on bikes, walking or public transportation. The most prevalent problem among the car owners on campus is the difficulty of parking. The Office of Parking Services strongly discourages students from bring- ing cars to campus. LSA senior Kristie Thelen said, "A car is really unnecessary if you live on campus. Most places that students need to go are with- in walking distance and parking can some- Transportation tips r Busses start their routes as early as 6:40 a.m. N The final bus route is 2:20 a.m. Sunday. Thursday and 3:00 a.r, on Fridays and Saturdays. E Night Ride cabs offer late-night rides for $2 per person. To request a Night Ride Cab call 663-3888. 8 Safewalk and Northwalk offer a free walk home from Shapiro Undergraduate Library or the Media Union, times be so frustrating that it is easier to walk." A small number of students are issued a two-semester parking permit, allowing them to park in specified lots on campus. Freshmen and sophomores are ineligible for these per- mits and other students feel that the cost is so high that the permits are not an option. Recent LSA graduate Dave Cistantino explained that he applied for a parking permit when he was employed at the Uni- versity Hospital, but decided against pur- chasing it because the permit was "ridiculously expensive." The majority of students with personal vehicles must rely on parking on the street at meters or in one of the parking garages near campus. This can also prove to be costly as parking at a meter on campus will cost 60 cents an hour and parking on the street in the actual city of Ann Arbor costs 80 cents per hour. "Street parking is hard to find and once you do find a spot, it gets very expensive," said LSA junior Amelia Landesman, who chooses not to have a car on campus. On top of the difficulty of finding a parking space, the risk of acquiring a parking ticket, which can cost the car owner anywhere from seven dollars to $100 per citation, encourages many University students to leave their cars at home. Handing out 69, 313 parking tickets in the year of 1999 alone, the Department of Public Safety closely monitors Ann Arbor's streets, structures and lots, leaving it vir- tually impossible to "get away" with park- ing illegally. Given the potential problems with bringing a vehicle to school, many students rely on public transportation to get around Ann Arbor. The University provides free busses to students, which run on various routes through- out campus, including stops at North Campus, Central Campus and South Campus. These busses arrive at all stops every ten minutes during the week and every 20 minutes on weekends. One complaint among students is that, at certain times, the wait can be longer than the standard ten minutes. Corey Hunter, an LSA junior, said "Sometimes the busses can take up to a half an hour, especially at the stop in front of the Union." A representative of the Office of Trans- portation Services at the University, Bitsy Lamb said that most of the dissatisfaction among students with the bussing systems comes from their own lack of orientation with the campus and the bus schedules. "Students need to understand that this is their responsibility. No one is there to take them by. the hand to where they are going," Lamb states, stressing the importance of becoming familiar with the schedules and bus routes before using the system. Information about schedules and maps of routes are available on the Transporta- tion Services webpage at www.transporta- tion.umich.edu. The final bus route is at 2:20 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 3:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, but students needing to get back to one end of campus after these hours can still find free transportation through the Ride Home program. After requesting service at Shapiro Undergraduate Library on Central Campus or the Media Union on North Cam- pus, a taxi will meet the student and take them to a residential address within the city limits free of charge. There are other alternatives for late night transportation as well. The Nite Owl Bus Ser- vice provides a free shuttle ride from the Shapiro Library and Administration Services BRAD QUINN/Daily Parking is a permanent problem at the University and students have to find alternative means of transportation. One popular way to move around campus is the University bus system. (Above) Students exit the bus at the C.C. Little bus stop on North University Avenue. Building to stops on Central Campus only. These busses run every 15 minutes from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week. The Night Ride program offers a late night shared taxi that goes anywhere in Ann Arbor for only two dollars a person. This offer is available from IlI p.m. to 5:45 a.m. Monday through Thursday, from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Friday, from 7 p.m. through 8 a.m. on Satur- day and from 7 p.m. through 5:45 a.m. on Sundays. To request a Night Ride Cab, call 663-3888. Another option for transportation in Ann Arbor is the busses run by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. Full information on schedules and fares is available on the AATA website at www.theride.org Costing 75 cents a ride, the public busses run to places such as Briarwood Mall and the Maple Village Shop- ping Center from stops throughout campus. The AATA also offers shuttle service on football game days for two dollars per ride and a free shuttling service from off-campus commuter lots to stops on campus. The numerous taxicab services in Ann Arbor offer students more options for get- ting around the city. With more than ten taxi services listed in the Ann Arbor yel- low pages, the biggest difficulty may lie in selecting one company. Bob Gordon, owner of the Ann Arbor Taxi Service said, "Any taxi-cab has the same rate, which is set by city council." For that reason, the option of "shopping around" for the best deal is unnecessary and an individual will probably be left choosing a cab according to its availability and promptness. Taxi services can also be utilized for trips to and from the airport. The Ann Arbor Taxi Service offers a S40 flat rate for such trips. The utilization of a cab for a trip to the airport will be especially helpful to those making last minute travel plans and those wishing to be picked up directly from their home. Perhaps a more cost effective option, the Michigan Union Ticket Office sells tickets for the Commuter Express, a shuttle service to and from Detroit Metro Airport. These tickets costs S21 one-way and S40 round-trip and must be purchased 24 hours prior to the requested shuttle service time. The Commuter Express leaves the Union every hour at 15 minutes after the hour, start- ing at 5:15 a.m. and going until 7:15 p.m., while the shuttle leaves Metro airport every hour on the hour starting at 7 a.m. with a final shuttle at midnight. Whereas transportation may seem more try- ing for disabled students, the city of Ann Arbor and the University attempt to aid those students by providing more accessible and less expensive means of transportation. Any disabled person may take a taxicab anywhere in the city for only S 1.50. The University also hosts a Handicap Parking Assistance Program and allows students to apply for University permits if they are issued a valid handicap permit by the state. Students should apply for both.a of these options at the Office of Parking Services at 508 Thompson Street. Even with all of the transportation options in Ann Arbor, the option that stu- dents at the University utilize the most is their own two feet. Walking to class, restau- rants and downtown eliminates the frustra- tion of parking and the cost of taxis or busses. Students travelling by foot at night should be aware of two programs offering escorts for the way home - Safewalk and Northwalk. Available at the Shapiro Library and the Burslcy Residence hall, respective- ly, both of these programs provide free nighttime walking services for destinations within a 20-minute radius of their base. With so many options on campus, students should be able to find a convenient cost- effective mode of transportation even with- out the luxury, or hassle, of their own car. 'City, ' remain recycling leaders By Krista Gullo Daily Staff Reporter The city of Ann Arbor and the University continue to be among the nation's recycling leaders despite reported lagging recycling rates in S the state and across the nation. "Recycling is alive and well and strong in Ann Arbor," said Ramsey Zimmerman, project manager for Recycle Ann Arbor, a private non- profit collector of the city's recy- clables. The Fall 1999 semester marked the 10th anniversary of the Univer- sity's recycling program. Today there are more than 3,000 collection containers for recyclable goods in University buildings and residence halls for students, faculty and staff. The program has expanded from the collection of white office paper, newspaper and corrugated card- board to include the collection of mixed paper and container collec- tion. Since its start in 1989, the Uni- versity's recycling program has been successful in increasing the portion of goods recycled on cam- pus by students, faculty and staff. The recycling program, which was initiated due to student support, has been most successful in recycling paper. Comparing 1996-97 and 1997-98, the amount of paper recycled at the University rose from 2,000 tons to 2,167 tons and the amount of con- tainers recycled rose from 124 tons to 127 tons. "This whole community is so pro- recycling" said Sarah Archer, the University's recycling.coordinator. While recycling has increased on campus so has the amount of trash. The University's trash rose from 7,700 tons in 1996-97 to almost 8,000 in 1997-98. "We aren't seeing as much waste diversion," Archer said, referring to other ways to dispose of garbage, other than in landfills. Archer attributes the increase in waste to the strong national econo- my which encourages greater pur- chasing and packaging and less reducing and reusing. "It is important for people to think about reducing not just recy- cling," Archer said. "It takes a lot more to do the reduce part," said EnAct facilitator Brianne Haven, an SNRE junior. The University bases its recycling goals on Washtenaw County's goal of a 30 percent diversion rate. "We have been achieving that goal for a number of years," Archer said. At the city level, Ann Arbor is one of the top five recycling cities in the nation, according to the Insti- tute for Local Self Reliance. "For at least three years Ann Arbor has had participation rates that have been over 95 percent in terms of the number of people who recycle at least once a month," Zim- merman said. Ann Arbor has a 50 percent diversion rate already, Zim- merman said. Zimmerman credited Ann Arbor's success in recycling to its long term history and to the dedication of city residents. Ann Arbor started recy- cling in 1970 during the first Earth day celebration and curbside recy- cling began in 1977. "Our program has a full wide range of materials that are recyclable and there are no plans to reduce the number that will be accepted," Zimmerman said. Currently Recycle Ann Arbor is committed to exploring new options such as electronics and carpet recy- cling. "We have had very strong cooperation from U of M students, making sure it is a community wide effort," said Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid Sheldon. Sheldon said that because so much material is recycled in Ann Arbor the city is able to keep land- fill fees relatively low and she does not anticipate the fees to increase. She also said the money saved by recycling has allowed the city to expand the services that it delivers to its citizens. Educating people has been more successful than mandat- ing recycling in Ann Arbor Sheldon said. "We have not taken a manda- tory approach," Sheldon said. Cara Clore, recycling measure- ment specialist at the Michigan Recycling Coalition, said legislators in Michigan need to mandate the use of recycled material in the man- ufacturing process. "If recycling isn't working, it's because there isn't a market for materials collect- ed and one way to create markets is to require producers to use a per- centage of recycled materials," Clore said. "Quantity, quality and a market for recyclables makes recycling success- ful," said Lucy Poroshko, recycling coordinator in the Pollution Preven- tion Section Environmental Assis- tance Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quali- ty. There is currently no Michigan legislation mandating the use of recycled goods in production and Doroshko is not aware of any legisla- tion in the future. The main legisla- tion concerning recycling mandates counties to assess where solid waste is going and to judge the potential for recycling, but the actual recy- cling is not mandated. "Mandates can be a burden sometimes," Ann Arbor first started recycling during the first Earth Day in 1970. Doroshko said. Clore could not speculate about the state of recycling in Michigan because there are currently no com- prehensive statistics about recycling in the state. Michigan has not bud- geted money for the issue. In order to address the recycling information void the EPA has given the MRC a $48,000 grant to develop a mecha- nism to perform a recycling mea- surement study annually. The results of the survey are scheduled to be published in October or November. Doroshko said that money has not been budgeted by the state to con- duct a comprehensive study of recy- cling because it is focusing on source reduction rather than recy- cling. Doroshko also said it is diffi- cult to gather consistent information on recycling.. I I CODES Continued from Page 2i= two different area codes. LSA senior Andre Shannon said he was concerned about the hassle of more digits, but was accepting of the possible overlay area codes, "1t xici, Lihe-'somew~Ahat of anf UNITED AUTO AND FLEET REPAIR COMPLETE SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE OIL CHANGES I