Collegiate Times

When I was a freshman, I sprinted across the Drillfield to catch the University City Boulevard bus—only to realize that it wasn’t going to leave for another five minutes.

Don’t make that mistake. Learn how to properly navigate the Blacksburg Transit, also known as the BT, properly, and your life will be much easier.

1. Go to btransit.org and go to “Schedules & Maps” on the top sidebar. Pick your bus route.

2. Open “Timetable” in a PDF or JPG and find the timetable for the bus you need to take. Most days, it will be “Full Service Weekday/Saturday/Sunday.” Occasionally, the buses operate at “Reduced Service,” which happens when BT anticipates low demand—typically when students are on break.

3. On the timetable, you will see columns. The top of the column says the name of a stop. If the stop is listed on the time table, it is a time check. The bus will arrive at the stop at every time listed in the column. If the bus is early, it will wait until the listed time before leaving. So for the University City Boulevard bus, when it is operating full service on a Tuesday, it will leave Burruss Hall at 7:15 a.m. and leave Patrick Henry/Toms Creek at 7:30 a.m., etc. It will stop at other stops along the way, and to see a full list of these, look at the bus map.

4. To get the bus to stop, simply pull the yellow rope in the bus (unless you are approaching a time check, then the bus will stop anyway).

5. Check btransit.org for route updates or changes, especially during inclement weather.