Riverdale Park residents could soon be taking a seat on Shuttle-UM buses.
The council of the 6,000-population town to the university’s south hopes to “piggyback” on a program that allows College Park denizens to ride Shuttle-UM buses free of charge.
Until 2008, only students, faculty and staff members were allowed on Shuttle-UM buses. But a new state law allowed the service to begin picking up city residents. In exchange, the city pays the Department of Transportation Services $5,000 annually. The law was scheduled to sunset in June 2011, but legislation making it permanent has been proposed in the House of Delegates and state senate.
Riverdale Park hopes to use the legislation as a way to join the program, Ward 2 Councilman Alan Thompson said.
“I’ve watched for years, university shuttle buses going through [Riverdale Park],” Thompson said. “That’d be really cool if other residents could ride that.”
Resident ridership on the buses is relatively low, DOTS director David Allen said, but the program has created more public transit options for city residents and has mainly been met with praise, said state Del. Barbara Frush (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s).
“It’s been a good thing for the city of College Park and the residents of College Park” said Frush, who represents College Park and is sponsoring the bill removing the sunset clause. “I think it gets the young people and the residents together in a good way. I just think it’s useful.”
The timing and convenience of attaching an amendment to the sunset clause bill motivated the city to consider the ridership program in such a small amount of time, Thompson added, who otherwise would have considered proposing the program in a few years.
Riverdale Park Town Administrator Sara Imhulse, who used to be the assistant to the city manager in College Park, has played a key role in getting both programs off the ground.
“I mentioned it to my new town administrator [Imhulse], and she worked with College Park,” Thompson said. “She said if you want to do it, then we should do it now.”
Imhulse emphasized the plan was in the early stages and said it was reliant on the state legislation passing.
DOTS has not negotiated any sort of agreement with Riverdale Park about the initiative, Allen said. However, there may be difficulties in implementing Riverdale Park’s use of the M-Square Connector bus.
“That particular route is kind of a charter,” Allen said. “We’re paid specifically for it by those who are represented in the M-square. For them to use that bus, I don’t know if that would be appropriate.”
korkut@umdbk.com
