Collegiate Times

Adjustment is the word of the day at Virginia Tech. Adjusting to new driving patterns all over campus, adjusting to parking spaces being moved because of new construction, and adjusting to more crowded buses.

The Blacksburg Transit is will offer a temporary plan to help students get to campus on time, adding 13 more buses to the normally schedules routes.

This is simply a trial period for the BT and will last from today, Sept. 1 to Friday, Sept. 11, according to an official press release.

"It's pretty exciting to see a shift from students driving to campus to taking advantage of the BT," said Debbie Freed, alternative transportation manager. "Students have already paid to ride the bus with their transportation fee, so using it really makes a lot of sense."

There has been a drastic increase in the amount of students riding the bus to and from campus.

"There has been about a 17 percent increase in the amount of students taking the bus from this week last year," Freed said, "I think it's partially due to a shift in thinking, from wanting to take your car to hopping on the bus."

For students who are still looking to drive themselves and park on campus, all of the spots lost in the Prices Forks Road lot have been moved to the Duck Pond lot formerly reserved for campus residents.

Although they have been moved, no commuter spots have been lost. Residents who would have lost spots can now park on the Chicken Hill lot located behind the stadium.

How this shift in student transportation will affect parking permit sales has yet to be seen as parking services will not have all of the final numbers until later next week.

"Students usually take these first couple of weeks to iron out their travel routes, and the buses usually adjust accordingly," Freed said. "But the numbers are much higher this year and they are going to add these buses for a short time until the rush calms down."

Most of the buses will be trippers that will drop off on Perry Street near campus instead of the normal stops on the Drillfield, in an attempt to increase efficiency, according to the BT official press release.

The routes that will be affected with an increase of buses are Hethwood, Toms Creek A/B, Main Street and Patrick Henry.

The BT also recommends trying to leave a window of 45 minutes to get to class on time, or take advantage of the trippers that are now dropping off at Perry Street.