The Bona Bus is probably one of the most popular services St. Bonaventure offers its students. Especially during freshman year, when many new students don’t bring a car, the Bona Bus is one of the most convenient ways to get around town. It can take you to Old Navy, Payless Shoe Source, Carmike Cinemas, Tops and Walmart.
The Bona Bus starts at 8 p.m. and runs until 1 a.m. Monday through Friday and picks students up at the Rathskeller, Robinson/Falconio circle, garden apartments, the stop sign in front of Francis Hall and Townhouse 26.
But the bus doesn’t live up to its full potential if it arrives right before a store closes.
Most of the stores in Olean close at 9 p.m., with the exception of Walmart and Tops. What if you had more than one store to go to? Or have a meeting at 8 p.m. and can’t take the bus till much later, when all the stores are closed?
Why not start the bus at 7 o’clock instead?
Starting the bus at 7 o’clock would give students two hours to catch the bus and shop before they have to worry about the stores closing. If you don’t have the luxury of a car on campus, the Bona Bus exists as one of the only other options you have, especially during the winter when it’s too cold to walk places.
According to Abby Cohen, Associate Director of Club Sports, Intramurals and Student Engagement, the Bona Bus starts and stops when it does so students using the Richter Center and the library, which are both open until midnight or later, can have a ride back to their houses. If a student using the library needs to go back to Townhouse 25 at midnight, it is obviously much safer and a lot quicker to just catch a ride back.
But why doesn’t it start earlier?
“The bus used to run during the morning and early afternoon,” Cohen said. “Participation was extremely low. A campus survey was conducted and it was determined that students wanted the bus during evening and night hours instead.”
Maybe it’s time to conduct another survey to see when students would prefer to have the bus run. If the bus started just a few hours earlier, chances are participation would go up.
If they can’t start it earlier, having it run for a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays would go a long way as well. Giving students a more convenient way to get to the store on the weekends during the day-when stores are sure to be open-would be incentive for students to use the Bona Bus even more frequently.
With the end of the semester approaching quickly, students are finding themselves with less and less free time to do some essential things, like going on a Walmart run to pick up some food or other necessary items. Having the Bona Bus run an extra hour or for a few hours on the weekends, especially around this time of year, would help students out a great deal.
Students have to be flexible with their schedules. The Bona Bus should be flexible with its schedule as well.
