Rather than sprint toward another bus to get to work on time, students can save their breath and ride the 72 bus route on Rural Road within the next 10 minutes.
Valley Metro has announced the route will run every 10 minutes from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Effective April 25, the newly implemented times add more convenience for student riders, Valley Metro Public Information Specialist Ann Glaser said.
“It was recognized that there were a lot of riders and a lot of demand for the improved frequency between Tempe Transportation Center and Camelback road,” she said. “That corridor serves a lot of key destinations. You have the ASU campus in downtown Tempe, you have ASU Skysong in south Scottsdale as well as downtown Tempe and downtown Scottsdale.”
Glaser said adding times to the route is important because of the amount of riders it gets on a daily basis.
“Route 72 is a high-ridership local route,” she said. “It is one of the top 12 busiest routes in the Valley Metro system throughout the Valley.”
Glaser said the new times will benefit ASU students who depend upon the route.
“By increasing the frequency for ASU students, it provides them the opportunity to have more convenient access to the areas they need in their life,” Glaser said. “To get between classes, to get to work, to get to the entertainment that they’re seeking. It provides just another option and more convenience for them.”
Conservation biology senior Marianna Hauglie has been taking the route for nearly three years and said the changes won’t greatly affect her, though they will make traveling easier.
“Honestly, it’s not going to affect my life that much except to make it easier,” she said. “(With) that particular bus, I enjoy how often the routes come, but I think adding more times can help.”
Computer science freshman Tessa Wells, who also rides the shuttle, takes route 72 multiple times throughout the week and said the new times will make a big difference.
“I will finally be on time for work because of adding more bus routes,” Wells said. “I take the bus from the Tempe campus to Scottsdale around Fashion Square. With the current times, I usually leave around midday and it’s usually pretty hard to get there.”
Wells said she believes the time additions were in high demand for students.
“For the first 20 to 25 minutes, you see a lot of students getting on and off," she said. "I think, there’s a large amount of people who live or have family around there, so that’ll probably be nice for them. But for me personally and for a lot of people who are working in Scottsdale, it will make it a lot easier to get back and forth between jobs.”
Related links:
7 struggles of riding Valley Metro
Free Orbit buses expand to south Tempe with an additional route
Reach the reporter at Emmillma@asu.edu or follow @Millmania1 on Twitter.
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