This semester, about 21 University of Idaho students are enrolled in 11 language classes at Washington State University in Pullman. Because the Wheatland Express shuttle between Moscow and Pullman does not run any longer, many of these students are left with few transportation options, said Bill Smith, Martin School of International Studies director.
“It’s not like you can arrange one van to take everyone over,” Smith said. “You know, they (classes) are all at different times of the day and different days of the week. These are language classes which are in a series … to get people ready to go abroad.”
Some students, unable to find carpools get rides from friends, Smith said.
“I know the boyfriend of one of our students takes four students, and then hangs out in the library in Pullman for an hour, and then drives them all back,” Smith said. “What makes everyone uncomfortable is relying on an individual who might get sick or might have jury duty, and then they can’t get to class.”
The Martin School has been working with Parking and Transportation Services and the College of Natural Resources to arrange for students to use CNR fleet vehicles.
“Right away, it was a possibility,” Smith said. “But there were a lot of things to be worked out, and even still, we’ve got several students who are in the process of finishing their training.”
The process includes a background check, online defensive driving courses and an agreement between the Martin School and CNR that the department will pay the deductible if there is an accident.
“There’s a lot of moving pieces even if you determine that’s the way it’s going to go,” Smith said. “The system isn’t structured for undergraduates to check out a CNR car.”
John Epperson, a senior in political science, drove a CNR car to WSU for the first time Friday.
“I was sort of the guinea pig for international studies. Now that everything’s worked out, it’s not that bad,” Epperson said. “(Friday) was kind of a first test drive — just trying to get used to the different vehicles that they’re offering us. I mean, mainly that they are things like Priuses and other more modern vehicles.”
Epperson said he depended on Wheatland Express to travel between UI and WSU for his Chinese class.
“When they got rid of the bus, it just kind of eliminated any possibility to go down there, especially in winter,” Epperson said.
Epperson has been riding his bicycle and carpooling for the first eight weeks of the semester, he said.
“I’d been looking, but there hadn’t been any real solid solution that I could find,” Epperson said. “It’d started becoming something that required more than just, you know, me and like two other people, because apparently all of us didn’t really go for buying a car.”
Darrell Stout, CNR operations supervisor, said the motor pool is charging about $25 per day for the use of the cars, paid for by PTS out of its operational budget.
“We don’t have a budget for it,” said Carl Root, director of PTS. “But we felt that we should offer some limited assistance by Parking and Transportation.”
Root said the future of the program is undecided and will largely depend on whether the price stays around $2,000.
“We offered to fund this as long as the cost doesn’t amount to an extensive support,” Root said.
Root said the assistance is intended to help students caught unprepared for the change.
“We introduced Zimride hoping students would match up and find rides,” Root said.
Smith said the CNR vehicles will give students the time to find more permanent options, or the universities time to work out another solution.
“For our students, we just know that if you go into this knowing that the van doesn’t exist, you can adjust differently for it then,” Smith said. “We’re not entirely sure what we are going to do, but we know that we will be able to plan for it.”