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Asheville Transit Authority and UNCA Form the Bulldog Express.
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The Asheville Transit Authority and UNCA announced last week that they were creating a new bus schedule for UNCA students named the Bulldog Express. The new bus route will travel from UNCA to the Asheville Mall on Friday and Saturday nights.
Bruce Black, Director of Transit Services for the Asheville Transit Authority, says,
"UNCA has agreed to provide $6,000 a semester to help pay for the expense of the new bus line. The bus transportation will be free for UNCA students with an ID and all other passengers will pay the usual 75-cent fee. The cost for seniors and handicapped passengers is 35 cents. The Bulldog Express is the only Asheville Transit Authority bus that will be operating at night."Click For Bus Schedule
Melanie Rhodarmer, Assistant Director of Housing and Resident Life at UNCA, thinks there is a need for the new bus line. Rhodarmer says, "We have a large segment of our student population without transportation, and the new Bulldog Express will help them to safely travel off campus on weekend evenings." Rhodarmer also thinks that the new bus route will help the UNCA campus to become more integrated with the local Asheville community.
So far, the Bulldog Express has been well received by UNCA students, according to Black. Black estimates that, on the average, 65 people have ridden on the new bus route each weekend. The buses used for the Bulldog express route are also equipped with bike racks to accommodate students who want to bring their bicycles.
The bike racks are located on the front of the buses, and it takes only approximately 10 seconds to put a bike on a bike rack. Placing a bike on a bike rack is a simple three-step process. The bicyclist must first open the bike rack on the front of the bus if it is not currently holding a bike. The second step is to place the bicycle on the bike rack and the final step is to pull the lever over the front wheel to secure the bike.
The Bulldog Express travels from UNCA to downtown Pack Square, out to the Asheville Mall and then back to the UNCA campus. The bus will make the circuit every thirty minutes from 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. every Friday and Saturday night.
The Asheville Transit System also began offering a new weekend recreation bus route to the N.C. Arboretum, the Bent Creek Recreation area and Lake Powhatan in June 2000. This new bus route also only runs on Saturdays and Sundays.
Parking at Lake Powhatan is particularly crowded on weekends. This new bus route will allow visitors to travel to the Lake Powhatan area and be dropped off close to the lake, N. C. Arboretum or bike trails.
The buses handling this route also have the new bicycle racks on the front of the buses and can accommodate up to two bicycles on each trip. These areas have very attractive bike trails and the new recreation bus route should be attractive to the area's bicyclists. Black, said, "These bike racks will allow bicyclists to extend the range of their travel and utilize some recreational areas that otherwise might be too far to travel solely on a bicycle." Click For Bus Schedule
The Lake Powatan bus route will continue until the end of October 2000.
The Asheville Transit System has been trying to make its bus schedules more flexible. They hope that by rescheduling some of the bus routes and increasing the frequency of other bus routes, they will make riding the buses more convenient and accessible to local residents.
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