[nabs-l] Taking public transportation on college campuses

[Sami Osborne]

Hi Vejas,

I'm also a college freshman, and live in the college dorm but am 
only 15 minutes away from my house so I go home on weekends.  I 
use Paratransit service (called TRIPS in our county) to get back 
and forth between home and my campus
on Monday mornings and Thursday nights (I don't have any classes 
on Fridays).  Anyway, the place where the driver would usually 
pick me up/drop me off is kind of a parking area with four 
benches that is in the same area where all the (freshman) dorms 
are located.  Anyway, how the driver os where to drop me off are 
the following: First, this summer, I did some OandM training on 
the college campus.  My instructor was the one that
recommended this location to me, and she was very generous - you 
know what she did? She actually called TRIPS (the name of my 
paratransit company) to tell them that they should let the 
drivers know that this is the place that they should drop me off 
at from now on.  Unfortunately, though, most of them (except for 
one driver from my experience) don't automatically know this.  
What typically happens is the following: We get to the college 
campus.  Driver asks me: "OK, where do you want to be dropped off 
at?" I answer: "OK, I'd like to go to Mcnelis Commons (that's the 
name of my housing complex).  There should be an area between the 
dorms with four benches on either side." Driver says, "OK." We 
drive around the campus until the driver finds what he thinks is 
my description.  He then says, "OK, here you go." I get out of 
the cab and try to familiarize myself with where I am.  I always 
seem to describe the drop-off location very accurately, because 
so far it always has been the right place!
So what I would suggest you do is to tell the driver specifically 
to locate a Jamba Juice, and that there should be a parking lot 
next to it and that's where you'd like to be dropped off.  I 
would also, like I mentioned before my OandM instructor did, call 
the cab company and tell them to let the driver(s) know that you 
want to be picked up/dropped off at that particular location.

 I hope this helps, and I hope your first semester is going well 
so far.

Thanks,

Sami