Columbia Transit will be discontinuing shuttles to off-campus housing in May, but MU is taking transportation matters into its own hands.
“If you’ve lived in Columbia for the last five years, you would know that our campus has changed a lot,” Jackie Jones, vice chancellor for Administrative Services, said in a press conference Wednesday. “Our goal is to respond to those changes.”
With the help from consultants of Solstice Transportation Group, MU Parking and Transportation Services will begin the largest comprehensive study conducted on campus to determine whether MU will start its own transit routes to off-campus housing. The study, which was discussed during the conference, will begin when consultants arrive in Columbia on Feb. 6.
“For us, the best thing we can do is create a comprehensive review,” Jones said. “We have decided that the bottom line is ‘What are the transit needs of Mizzou students?’ and make decisions from that.”
Jones said the consultant will be brought in to help with the initiative because they have had success surveying and determining transit needs at other universities.
“It is important to bring in someone with a national perspective,” Jones said. “What’s important for us is what questions are the right to be asked and how we should collect information. This consultant has had experience at Iowa State and University of Illinois. Why change the wheel when (the consultant) has a system that works?”
The evaluation and plans will cost MU $65,000 and will be funded by Parking and Transportation Services, Jones said.
[According to a previous Maneater article](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2012/1/24/communications-about-transit-remain-open-between-m/), the plans to change MU’s transit system began when Columbia proposed to make severe budget cuts that would end services to many apartment complexes along Old Highway 63 unless MU agrees to an $80 per semester student fee.
Jones said Mayor Bob McDavid is very supportive of MU’s plans.
“We have been in contact with (Mayor McDavid) and his office has offered assistance with collecting information and research for our evaluations,” she said.
Jones said the main concern for MU is the specific needs of the students and the city of Columbia as a whole.
“If you look at other universities’ (transit systems), you would see that each one of the systems are based upon unique issues that those cities and universities had,” Jones said. “The main issue is to find the unique needs for Mizzou students.”
Missouri Students Association Senate Speaker Jake Sloan said he thinks collaborating with a consultant is a positive decision made by MU.
“I think it’s a good step to hire a consultant,” he said. “I don’t meet with the consultants until February but given the fact that Columbia is shutting down transit to university students it’s necessary for the university to protect it’s own.”
MSA President Xavier Billingsley also said that hiring a consultant is a good way to get an unbiased view of what MU’s transit needs are.
Jones said apartment complexes that already have their own private transit system would continue with those systems. Apartment complexes around campus that are currently on the Columbia Transit routes have been contacted to participate in the current transit plan.
“Some of the apartment complexes have gotten on board with our plans, and we’re hoping that others will get on board as well,” she said. “The decisions are up to the digression of those individual apartment owners and companies.”
The evaluation and review phase is only the first phase in Solstice’s transit plan. Jones said the university is hoping to complete surveys and evaluations by the end of March, but so far there is no set end date in mind.
“I’m much less concerned about when the plan will be finished and more concerned about the quality of the end result,” she said.
