UNM Students, PATS Host ‘UNM Ride the Bus Week’

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dent gov­ern­ments host “UNM Ride the Bus Week” Feb. 20–24. Dur­ing this week UNM stu­dents will also rec­og­nize con­tri­bu­tions of State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gail Chasey and City of Albu­querque Mayor Richard Berry in pro­vid­ing no cost access to trans­porta­tion on the city tran­sit sys­tem, ABQRide, to cur­rent UNM stu­dents, staff, and faculty.

A press con­fer­ence is sched­uled for Wed., Feb. 22 at 1 p.m. in Stu­dent Union Build­ing Ball­room C in addi­tion to week-long infor­ma­tion events on campus.

“In a sur­vey con­ducted of grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sional stu­dents at UNM, 66 per­cent say the ABQRide free bus pass pro­gram is impor­tant to them,” said Travis McIn­tyre, lobby co-chair for the Grad­u­ate and Pro­fes­sional Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion (GPSA). “We would like to sin­cerely thank Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gail Chasey for ini­ti­at­ing the pro­gram and we would like to thank ABQRide and Mayor Richard Berry for con­tin­u­ing the program.”

The ABQRide free bus pass pro­gram began in August of 2007 as a result of Rep. Chasey’s lead­er­ship in the State of New Mex­ico Leg­is­la­ture to fund a free tran­sit pro­gram for UNM’s stu­dents. The goal of the pro­gram is to reduce traf­fic, con­ges­tion and car­bon emis­sions by pro­vid­ing incen­tive to stu­dents to use tran­sit to com­mute to UNM. Although state fund­ing for the pro­gram is no longer avail­able, the pro­gram, now in its fifth year, con­tin­ues through fund­ing from var­i­ous Uni­ver­sity sources and on-going col­lab­o­ra­tion with ABQRide. Staff and fac­ulty were added to the pro­gram in August of 2008.

To par­tic­i­pate, cur­rent stu­dents, staff and fac­ulty must prove eli­gi­bil­ity and obtain a sticker that is placed on their Lobo iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card. To ride an ABQRide bus, they sim­ply show the bus dri­ver the valid ID and sticker and ride for free.

“Usage of the ABQRide free bus pass pro­gram con­tin­ues to grow with 15.2 per­cent of the Uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity using it as their pri­mary form of trans­porta­tion to the Uni­ver­sity com­pared to just about 2 per­cent in 2004 prior to the free pro­gram,” said Robert Nel­son, interim direc­tor for UNM Park­ing and Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices (PATS). “Stu­dents have really led this change in trans­porta­tion behav­ior and con­tinue to play a key role in sup­port­ing and pro­mot­ing the pro­gram on cam­pus, while reduc­ing the impact of Uni­ver­sity traf­fic in the community.”

The ABQRide free bus pass pro­gram pro­vides not only traf­fic reduc­tion and sus­tain­abil­ity ben­e­fits, but also assists stu­dents in access­ing their edu­ca­tion by pro­vid­ing an alter­na­tive to car-ownership.

“ASUNM real­izes how impor­tant the free bus pro­gram is to many under­grad­u­ate stu­dents,” said Flo­ren­cio Olguin, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Gov­ern­men­tal Affairs for the Asso­ci­ated Stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico (ASUNM). “We wanted to cre­ate a week ded­i­cated to remind­ing stu­dents that rid­ing the bus to and from cam­pus is con­ve­nient, eco­nom­i­cal and sustainable.”

In addi­tion to the press con­fer­ence, ASUNM, GPSA, and PATS will host and spon­sor infor­ma­tional events through­out the week at the Trans­porta­tion Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter in the Stu­dent Union Build­ing and at UNM shut­tle stops.

For more infor­ma­tion about the ABQRide Free Bus Pass Pro­gram visit: http://pats.unm.edu/TIC.cfm

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact: Danielle Gilliam, PATS Pro­gram Spe­cial­ist, 277‑0461; dgilliam@parking.unm.edu

Media Con­tact: Ben­son Hen­drix, (505) 277‑1816; email: bhendrix@unm.edu