The Voice - Student Newspaper

Glendale cuts bus lines, funding

As the U.S. dives headfirst into its economic crisis, Arizona is faced with its own unique set of problems.

Faced with financial ruin, legislature has called for some immediate budget cuts.

However, while they strive to determine the future of this great state, some negative impending consequences loom for Glendale Community College (GCC) students in the wake of a "new" bus system.

While many feel the new changes in the Glendale and Phoenix public transportation system do not adversely affect them, still others, like GCC students, Holly McCarthy and Melissa Jones, are left to ponder how to navigate their lives around a bus system that has become unpredictable and unreliable, at best.

McCarthy, 19, who works while attending GCC full time to become an EMT, is only one of countless hardworking students who depend on public transportation on a daily basis. McCarthy's sister, Jones, 18, also uses the bus for her daily commute just as often. While unaffected by the new time changes that went into effect Dec. 29, 2008, they have noticed a new trend this semester: late buses. Together they wait sometimes 20 to 45 minutes for a bus to come.

McCarthy relates her experiences since the New Year: "I got left waiting for an hour at a bus stop." It can also be a struggle to shift one's schedule to accommodate longer wait times between buses.

Previously, buses in Glendale arrived every half hour; now they come every hour, if they come at all. I have also, personally, felt the effects of this change. My parents and I share our one car. I take it to school while my dad takes a bus to work each morning and evening. Ever since the Glendale bus cuts, he has been left waiting at a bus stop countless times; only to find it never comes. This forces him to hurry home to our only car, leaving me to bike the five miles to school and back, a total of ten miles a day.

While these occurrences may seem cruel and unfair to students like McCarthy, Jones, and I, these situations, alongside every other facet of life that is created by economic stress, will merely become yet another addition to a long list of lifestyle changes that most Americans have found themselves making and struggling to adjust to.