Transition

UR is currently undergoing talks with the Rochester Geneseo Rochester Transportation Authority about modifying existing transportation services to better serve the needs of the UR community. These changes could potentially have a huge impact on the accessibility of the city to the university community. UR and those involved in these talks should be praised for taking strong steps towards an almost certainly fruitful result, the ability of UR students to get into the city.The city of Rochester has many attractions to offer students at UR. However, many students do not get exposure to the city because they feel that without a car, the city is too inaccessible.The changes being discussed are primarily designed to serve the student body. RGRTA and UR’s administration are planning with that goal in mind. A key issue is the availability of transportation information to students. For these changes to be succesfully implemented, information concerning existing and new transportation services must be made conveniently available for students.The fact that this is a primary area of attention for the discussions is a good sign that these changes are likely to take the right form, and be extraordinarily useful for students.It is important that any transportation changes should make students’ access to Rochester areas of interest much more convenient than it is currently. Hopefully, these would include routes that go directly to various places of interest to students. This could be achieved through a system in which students could pay for unlimited access to bus routes similar to systems at other universities. This idea could be very successful in practice and could make things easier both for students and for RGRTA.Coordinating some of these changes with the Rochester Every Day program could be one easy way to meet many of the UR student body’s needs – addressing where we want to go and how we can get there.The success of these possible changes does not rest entirely on the shoulders of the administration and RGRTA. Much of the impetus lies with the students. The UR student body will make up a huge portion of the ridership. Because of that, the students’ participation – or lack thereof – will determine the success of any new system.It is thus important that opportunities for student feedback present themselves, and that students should participate to help shape any upcoming changes. These discussions may be indicators of positive changes to come, both in terms of actual restructuring of routes and better distribution of information. The benefits that could potentially be gained from these transportation changes are enormous. We students ought to do our best to support and encourage this process so that UR can be more fully and fundamentally connected to the city that is our namesake.