Since the KU on Wheels system is funded by student fees, it's unknown whether it can merge with a bus system that serves the public at-large.
Officials with the KU on Wheels bus system are getting legal advice on how to go about connecting, or even merging, the university transit system with a new bus system being developed by the city.
Holly Krebbs, transportation coordinator for KU on Wheels, said Wednesday that the university and the city's consulting firm, K.A. Associates, have been discussing ways to coordinate the two bus systems, but the major hurdle to overcome centers on the extent to which nonstudents can use the university bus system.
"That's a question we're dealing with now," said Krebbs, who also sits on the Lawrence Public Transit Advisory Committee that is helping plan the new city bus system.
KU on Wheels is administered by Kansas University's Student Senate, and it receives about 40 percent of its funding from activity fees that all students must pay when they enroll in classes.
Student activity fees were authorized by the Kansas Board of Regents, Krebbs said, and are intended to be used to provide services for students.
That may prohibit Student Senate from using the money to provide services that also benefit nonstudents, Krebbs said.
Since the early stages of planning for the new city bus system, city officials have said that coordinating services with KU on Wheels would be a top priority.
City Commissioner Mike Rundle said he was especially concerned about coordination when the city approved a contract with K.A. Associates, and he said he insisted that it be made part of the contract with the firm.
But the term "coordination" has never been clearly defined. Krebbs said the discussions going on now are centering on the idea of having "independent but coordinated" systems, which could mean the two systems would simply honor each other's transfers, or possibly even share in some of their revenues and expenses.
Others have talked about allowing the two bus systems to share vehicles, equipment or financial resources, or even merging the two systems into a single public transit operation.
"The main thing we have to figure out is, when the fee was created, what was the purpose," Krebbs said. For that, she said, officials are trying to pore through the minutes of Regents' meetings to figure out what the Regents had in mind at the time.
-- Peter Hancock's phone message number is 832-7144. His e-mail address is phancock@ljworld.com.
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