The new — or rather, old — bus routes are terrible. At least that’s what I’m hearing from every one of my friends and classmates and nearly everyone waiting at a Campus Connector stop. I have yet to hear that these new routes have benefited anyone in any way.

Because I live in Dinkytown and have class on the St. Paul campus, I could walk to Sanford Hall, jump on a connector within 10 minutes and be in class within 15 minutes. However, now I need to walk all the way to Coffman Union — an extra 10 minutes, minimum — to get on a bus that seems to take hours just to get down Washington Avenue. Being able to get on at Sanford Hall and get off near the University recreation center was another benefit. The new routes made it a lot easier and desirable for students to use the facilities, especially when it’s cold out.

The Washington Avenue Bridge Circulator, to be blunt, is pointless. During part of the day, if you’re lucky, it comes every 15 minutes, which is the time it would take students to walk across the bridges themselves. There is no point in standing in the cold waiting for a bus when I could walk and stay warmer. Also, why is there a stop in Seven Corners? It’s not on campus, and the stops near Willey Hall and Mondale Hall are a block away. It just slows things down.

I’m very curious about why these new routes are in place, and I imagine there must be some sort of data backing them up, since they don’t seem to help anyone. I think something needs to change, like reinstating the routes from last semester or adding more buses to the Washington Avenue Bridge Circulator route. At least, I think a University-wide survey should be done to see how people feel about the new routes versus the old.