Echo Times

Issue date: 5/12/04 Section: News

COM student´s boarding #29 on Sir Francis Drake

Bus service to College of Marin was drastically affected when Golden Gate Transit cut its services by 30 percent last November. For many, the changes mean a transfer. For some, the journey times have doubled. For others, using the bus to attend college at certain times is no longer an option. They just can't get home from an evening class.

Roxanne Rogers is one of those who no longer have a choice -she has to take the car.

"I would like to go to school everyday, but without a car I can't," she said.

Rogers is looking to graduate from the natural history program at College of Marin. All classes are night classes so an efficient transportation system is crucial for her. Prior to the November cuts, Rogers used to take bus No. 20 to school that - both day and night - stopped at Second and Main Streets in Sausalito, two blocks away from her apartment.

This semester things are different. Either she leaves one of her night classes 20 minutes early in order to catch line No. 22 that takes her to Marin City, where she must switch to another bus to Sausalito. Or, if she doesn't want to miss the last part of the class, she waits on the murky campus for 20 minutes until the bus takes her to San Rafael transit center. After a 45-minute wait there, she can grab the bus that will actually drive her all the way home. By the time she reaches Sausalito, it is 11 at night.

Her financial aid barely supports her. Rogers takes the car and lives above her means rather than going through stress and fear every night.

Rogers initially took the night buses, but waiting for the bus alone at the transit center in San Rafael late at night was not a pleasurable experience for her.

She said she felt scared because, besides some homeless people and other night wanderers hanging around the area, the transit center was gloomy and isolated.

"It is really important for women, who are especially vulnerable, working people and returning students to be assured they can get back and forth to school," she said.

"When all was said and done, we didn't eliminate service from any street segments, just reconfigured the route, its frequency or the span of service (how long in the day it operates)," said Mary Currie, public affairs director for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District (GGT) in an email. "Some people do need to now transfer to get to their destination, but the service is still there."

Continued...

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