By Sam Hedenberg

Senior staff writer

Despite student safety concerns, the SGA last night backed the creation of a plan that would allow nonstudent residents of College Park to ride Shuttle-UM buses.

Transportation Director David Allen said the SGA’s backing of the proposal would weigh strongly on his decision to possibly give the initiative a green light, but no decisions have yet been made.

“My expectation is that the students will propose something that will be good to most of the student body,” Allen said.

Several members of the College Park City Council – as well as Mayor Stephen Brayman – also came to last night’s meeting to voice their support for changing the university’s shuttle service.

“We think this is a strong move that would help develop communication with residents,” District 3 Councilman Andrew Fellows said. “I don’t think that many people will use it, but it will go a long way to help with the relationship between long-term city residents and students. This is a well-crafted proposal and there won’t be any downside.”

Fellows said the service could be a possible solution to alleviating traffic problems on Route 1, which has recently become a hot topic among council members.

Student Government Association President Andrew Rose originally opposed increasing services to residents, but agreed on the conditions that students would incur no additional costs, student services would not deteriorate and student safety would not be jeopardized.

Though Rose said he now supported the initiative, some legislators still had reservations, saying allowing all residents to use the bus routes freely raised safety issues.

Denton legislator Jason Lewis headed the opposition of the bill, saying opening the routes to residents would be a serious safety risk for students.

“We would essentially be providing criminals a direct line to dorms, suites and apartments on campus,” Lewis said. “We already have problems with tailgating in dorms, and this would only encourage greater security risks.”

Outlying Commuter legislator Nick Aragon disagreed.

“No criminal is … going to get on a bus, get dropped off on campus, commit a crime and then sit at the bus stop and wait for the bus to pick them up again,” Aragon said.

To quell safety concerns, Lewis proposed an amendment to the bill that would have opened day commuter routes to residents, but make evening routes like the Orange, Purple, Blue and Gold lines available only to students.

The amendment failed because legislators found it too constricting.

“The more avenues we close off, the less flexibility we will have in future discussions,” SGA chief of staff Devin Ellis said. “Don’t shoot your negotiations in the foot before we get to the table.”

The original idea to grant residents access to the shuttle routes came at the prompting of Sen. John Giannetti (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), who organized a meeting with city, university and SGA in September to discuss the issue. Giannetti presented 11 College Park residents in favor of the proposal, saying access to Shuttle-UM routes would be convenient for transportation around downtown College Park and possibly alleviate traffic issues on Route 1.

Ellis said he was surprised Giannetti was not present during the vote, especially since council members came to voice their support.

“Are we doing his work for free here?” Ellis questioned.

Giannetti said he was not invited to last night’s meeting, but said he was “working closely” with Rose on the issue.

“I think we’re ready to follow through on it,” Giannetti said.

Giannetti said the next step is to ensure if the initiative would increase costs to Transportation Services, they would be covered by someone other than students, possibly the city.

Previously, Giannetti quoted a price tag of $10,000 for city access to the bus routes, but Ellis said the figure was “pulled out of thin air.”

“The number was merely meant to be a placeholder,” Ellis said, adding he predicted the cost to the city would probably be more than $10,000.

It is unclear how costs could be covered, but Allen said he strongly opposed charging residents fare upon their use of the bus. Instead, Allen suggested the city or other agency pay the university a fee for use of the buses.

Giannetti said if the city were unable to cover costs, he would seek money from the state.

The proposal will go before Allen for final shaping shortly, and a pilot program will be initiated if Allen approves it.

Contact reporter Sam Hedenberg at hedenbergdbk@gmail.com.