Many people would say Lawrence isn’t large enough to support one public transit system, let alone two. That’s why bus supporters always have seen the advantage of the city’s T system teaming up with KU on Wheels, the Kansas University student bus system.

A proposal that will be considered by Lawrence city commissioners tonight may be a good first step toward making a joint bus system a reality.

The city’s Public Transit Advisory Committee is recommending that KU students be allowed to purchase a sticker for their KU bus passes that would let them also ride the T. The stickers would be sold for $20 a year.

It’s a nominal fee, but if enough KU students take advantage of the add-on, the money could add up. KU on Wheels sells about 8,500 bus passes to students each year. If only 10 percent of those students bought the $20 stickers it would raise $17,000. KU on Wheels is asking for onetime set-up costs of about $1,850 and an administrative fee of $50 per month plus 20 percent of the sticker sales. That cuts into the city’s share of the revenue, but in light of the T’s continuing low ridership, it still could be a noticeable boost for the T.

Most KU riders probably will continue to ride primarily the KU buses, but their Lawrence Transit System stickers would allow them to ride city buses on Saturdays, holidays and during school vacations when the KU system shuts down. City bus officials don’t expect the additional riders to increase the system’s operating costs. If that’s true the KU sticker program could provide at least a small improvement to the T’s bottom line.

Before the city committed to finance its own public transit system, efforts were made to try to team with KU to establish a bus system that would serve both KU students and other members of the community. Although such a system would have obvious financial advantages, students wanted to retain their own independent system.

Various factors might prompt them to rethink that stand. The age of the buses currently used by KU on Wheels and the cost of replacing those buses are one factor that comes to mind.

When the Lawrence school district started charging more students to ride the bus last fall, there was talk of the T taking up some of the slack. Another way the city might be able to boost T ridership is to work with school officials to make it more convenient for some school children to ride the city bus.

Giving KU students the option of using the T at a nominal fee certainly is a worthy experiment. In the long-term both KU and Lawrence would be better served by a single bus system that pooled its resources and its routes to provide more complete services to both students and nonstudents.