If you’re a Kansas University student without a car, it’s still pretty easy to get around town. And it’s about to get easier.

KU’s Student Senate sponsors a bus system for students, KU on Wheels. The city has its own system, the T, that reaches into other parts of town. And officials of both systems were in talks this spring to start a pilot program to allow students to use their KU on Wheels passes to ride the T.

Students climb aboard a bus on campus. KU on Wheels and city officials are working on a plan to allow students to use their KU on Wheels passes to ride the city's T around town.

“It would be a benefit to us and a benefit to students,” said Karin Rexroad, the city’s transit director. “It’s an exciting prospect, definitely.”

Even if the proposed pilot program falls through, KU students still have transportation options.

KU on Wheels operates from 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday when KU classes are in session, providing rides mainly from heavily student-populated areas of town to and from campus.

The system runs more than 25 buses a day on 15 routes. This system is funded in part by the Campus Transportation Fee, a $16-per-semester fee paid by all students.

Service is also provided three days before the beginning of the fall and spring semesters, but not during the weekends or during breaks from school.

Passengers must show a bus pass or pay $1 to ride.

	www.ku.edu/~parking

In the Park & Ride program, a student gets a pass to park their car at the Lied Center and ride a bus to campus. Park & Ride is primarily targeted toward the student commuter population. Nonstudents and students living in university housing may not purchase the passes.

The program was started in 1998 to relieve parking and traffic problems on campus. For more parking information, contact the KU Parking Department at 864-7275 (PARK) or visit its Web site at www.ku.edu/~parking.

SafeRide is a free taxi service for KU students that operates from 11 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. seven days a week when school is in session.

KU Student Senate also operates this program, which started in 1986 as a way to decrease drunken driving among students. It carries about 20,000 passengers a year. Approximately $3 of a student’s transportation fee goes to support this program.

LiftVan is a “paratransit” program that offers door-to-door transportation service for students with disabilities. The hours are the same as KU on Wheels, which operates the service in coordination with Services for Students with Disabilities.

The T provides trips to parts of town that KU on Wheels doesn’t cover for the most part.

“It’s the trips to Target or something like that,” Rexroad said.

Students are allowed to ride already, but they can’t use their campus bus passes. They must pay the 50-cent fare instead.

“If it comes up they want a discounted fare,” Rexroad said, “that we’ll have to explore.”

KU officials aren’t interested in raising the transportation fee in order to join with the city, however.

“Tuition’s probably going to go up 40 to 50 percent next year,” said Mike Appleby, the coordinator for KU on Wheels. “So we’re not comfortable with any large rate increases.”

The proposed program sprang out of joint meetings between city and KU officials who have also considered eliminating duplication in areas served by both systems. Rexroad said KU and the city both provided some service to South Iowa Street, West Sixth Street and east Lawrence between 19th and 23rd streets.

Rexroad said officials didn’t know how many students might use the T, but she thinks the pilot program would raise ridership.

“I would think so,” she said. “Right now, when you look at our statistics, when KU on Wheels is not rolling our ridership goes up.”