Jordan Donovan eating string beans
Looking at Jordan Donovan, face in a textbook on the subject of discrete math at 9 o’clock on a Friday night, you might think of him as a model student. Donovan would be quick to tell you otherwise, though.
Oxford — The Mark has long been in need of a bus stop on the OUT network, with residents’ nearest option to catch the bus being nearly half a mile away at the connection. Finally, residents of the last apartment complex on the left are getting their wish sometime this year.
The Oxford University Transit commission green-lit a $2.5 million budget for 2014 put together by city planner Tim Akers to be presented to the Mississippi department of Transportation. Among the bus purchases and repairs in the new budget is an extension of the Green route, that services Old Taylor Road, to now run to city limits which would give residents of The mark and soon to be completed Faulkner Flats a safer and more convenient bus stop. The change is expected this year but no definite date has been given.
The lack of service to a single apartment doesn’t scream for attention on the surface, but most students’ options for getting to campus are battling campus parking, biking to campus, or making the trek to the Connection, most would agree the addition to the bus route can’t come soon enough.
One student who lived at The Mark from fall of 2012 to spring of last year cites the lack of public transport as his main incentive to move further up Old Taylor Road so he would have access to the OUT bus stop at University Trails.
“It was the worst,” said Ole Miss junior Corey Simmons. “I had to leave my apartment in the back of The Mark by 7:00 in the morning to make it to the bus stop at the Connection by 7:30 or I’d end up being late for my 8:00 class. It sounds like I’m just whining about having to walk, but it gets really cold at 7:15 in the morning, especially when there’s rain pouring down. The lack of a sidewalk didn’t help much either.”
Simmons assumed not having a car in Oxford, MS wouldn’t be a problem given what a small town it is and the good things he had been told about the bus system here. He also had the unfortunate luck of having a class schedule did not line up with any friends who drove to campus and at the time didn’t own a bike.
“My car finally gave up on me a few weeks before school started,” said Simmons. “A couple friends who were already going here said it wouldn’t be a problem ‘cause there are bus stops everywhere and parking on campus wasn’t worth the trouble.”
The lack of quick access to public transport doesn’t only act as an incentive for students to move out of the apartment complex, but for some the lack of a nearby bus stop can be a deal breaker for moving into The Mark. This is exactly the case for sophomore IMC major Shawn Buelow as he looks into housing options for the fall.
“I’ve got a couple friends that live out there. Their place is really nice, you don’t get a lot noise from neighbors or anything, but one thing I hear always complain about is how much of a pain it is to have to walk from the Connection to their apartments,” said Shawn Buelow.
The reason having convenient access to an OUT bus is such a large factor is due to the fact that Buelow does not own a bike that he could ride to and from campus and, while he does actually own a car, the price of a parking sticker and subsequent headache of dealing with Ole Miss’ parking problem has him looking into other housing developments.
“Where I live now isn’t the worst place but I’d really like to get closer to campus,” said Buelow. “There are other places on Old Taylor to live, but they’re not all as quiet or have as much room as The Mark does.”
In addition to the extension of the OUT bus’s Green Route to the city limits, the Orange route will now be running an hour later servicing until 6:30 and the Yellow Route is extending its line to include West Oxford Loop.
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