The Register-Guard reported yesterday (when I was not able to blog) that the Lane Transit District is thinking about cutting the late-night 79x bus because of rowdy behavior by riders on non-school nights. Drivers union head Brian Pasquali told the R-G: “Anywhere from mild to abusive confrontational language, we’ve had people throwing up, people vomiting, we’ve had people passing out, we’ve had guys carrying gals off the bus who are passed out. It’s basically the bar brought onto the bus.”
Having been on the bus late at night while working on the article I wrote about it, I can attest to the spirit of that comment firsthand. While I was riding it on a Friday night, I talked to one group of inebriated OSU students who wouldn’t shut up about how great Craig Robinson was. One girl got on the bus outside of Rennie’s Landing and announced that it was her nineteenth birthday. She was serenaded by a cadre of drunks, whom she repaid by flashing her breasts.
But ASUO Transportation Policy Adviser Nick Schillaci, who rode the bus with me, said that might, kinda, be the point. “What if they were driving?” He asked.
It’s kind of ironic, considering that one idea floated in the ACFC was to cut the bus on Mondays through Wednesdays, because there are comparatively few riders then. I went on a Tuesday night, also for the story, and it was definitely a lot quieter. But one student riding it told me it was absolutely necessary to him. He said he stayed late at the Knight Library on weeknights and, before the late night bus, he had to catch a $20 cab home to Stadium Park.
Sam Dotters-Katz is also quoted in this R-G article and it makes me a little bit sick to have been so distracted by a lousy election that I got scooped on an ASUO topic I’ve been following all year by the R-G. At least I scooped them in reporting that LTD wouldn’t be cutting routes.