City residents voiced concerns Tuesday regarding the reduction of Regional Transit System buses and the increase in fares that may take effect this fall.
At a City Commission meeting, RTS officials made it clear that rising gas prices forced RTS to reduce its operating cost. Gainesville resident Candy Ganyo said she has no objection to an increase in fares and would even pay more if RTS would keep routes the same.
"I don't want to sit on campus an extra half hour and wait for the one to go through," Ganyo said.
Frank Bracco, a UF senior and student senator, said the new system would shift much of the operating cost to UF students while cutting some of their services.
RTS officials agreed that UF paid a large percentage of RTS costs.
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said UF generates about $9.2 million for RTS per year.
City spokesman Bob Woods said RTS projects its deficit this year to be around $1.5 million. About $1.3 million of that comes from increased fuel prices.
On campus, the frequency of routes 122 and 126 would be reduced, and the Lake Wauburg shuttle would be eliminated.
"When students arrive in the fall, they are going to see their services cut and be sitting at a bus stop wondering how the heck they are going to get to class and how the heck they're going to get home," Bracco said.
Sikes said students are paying $5.40 per credit hour to use RTS.
This will increase to $6.11 in the fall, which means students will pay $73.32 for a 12-credit semester.
Bracco said the amount of money UF students are paying to use RTS services does not justify a reduction in routes.
"The students pay a very large amount of RTS operating cost," Bracco said. "We want our services continued."
Doug Robinson, chief transit planner at RTS, said he understands why people don't want RTS to reduce its routes. However, it is impossible to cover the cost of operation by simply increasing bus fares.
Robinson said this is because bus fares only cover a small portion of RTS's operating costs.
"I wish it were that simple, that fares were covering all of these services," he said.
