Sitting on the curb outside Marketplace Mall, on a cold, bitter day in mid-January waiting for the UR Special to come, students may tend to contemplate the service.
While watching RIT students board their shuttle buses that seem to run every 15 minutes, one may wonder what the UR Special does when it’s not Wednesday or Saturday.
The happy blue and yellow bus with its proud UR label on its side does not sit idle on the five other days of the week, according to Strong Medical Center Transportation Supervisor Cliff Broadhurst.
Due to the laughable amount of parking spaces at UR, the university rents parking spaces from the Iola Campus, which is where the UR Special comes in to play.
“[The blue bus] runs [people] to and from the [Iola Campus] from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. – from sunrise to sunset,” Broadhurst said.
On Wednesday, the blue bus runs from Iola to Strong from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., when it begins to transport students to the Marketplace Mall and Wegmans, Broadhurst was quick to point out.
On Saturdays, the UR Special, which includes both the blue bus and yellow bus that the university borrows from a local bus company, the service runs from 12:20 p.m. to 11:27 p.m.
Saturday’s run also includes other stops, including Movies 10 and Lot A.
Interestingly enough, UR used to own the buses used in the service, but discovered that it was much cheaper to outsource to local bus companies.
The other advantage is that the bus only runs once an hour, so that UR students can spend “quality time” together, by huddling for warmth outside.
Like RIT, UR used to use the RTS buses, which are the ones that currently run circles around the UR Special buses.
Schnee can be reached at cschnee@campustimes.org.
