by Joel Lev-Tov

With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, ridership of the University of Maryland shuttles has fallen to historic lows and its deficit has climbed to millions of dollars, forcing the university to make hard decisions.

According to a statement from the Department of Transportation Services, Shuttle-UM ridership is down 92% this fall compared to fall 2019. 

“This semester is different because there’s so many kids that just aren’t at school and then the kids that are at school don’t really want to use the bus system because there’s nowhere to go,” said freshman communications major Leah Paliakas, who sits on the Residence Hall Association’s Transportation Advisory Committee. “Nobody’s really using the bus system.”

One university official said Maryland has paused its regular programs encouraging students to use transit because of the pandemic.

“We are providing a safe product for sure in our buses but we aren’t advertising ‘come back and use our buses’ yet,” said David Allen, the Executive Director of UMD’s Department of Transportation Services. 

To prevent layoffs due to funding gaps, the university has tried a few different tactics, including a hiring freeze and delaying maintenance for parking lots. It is now allowing freshmen to park on campus and is even considering auctioning off parking spaces for art competitions.

Paliakas, a communications major, is not sure it is all going to work.

“There’s only so many corners you can cut. You can’t cut sanitation, you can’t cut the amount of gas that’s in the tank. There’s some variables that just cannot be cut.” 

The only option the university has is to cut routes, “which is just probably going to make less people want to ride the bus” or lay off people, Paliakas said.

So far, the university has not laid off any salaried employees, Allen said. It has, however, cut back some of the bus drivers working for the university on a yearly contract. 

“If they’ve managed not to lay off anyone that’s pretty amazing. They are doing the right thing,” said Deb Niemeier, the Clark distinguished chair in energy and sustainability at UMD.

“Unfortunately, there’s probably going to be some layoffs next semester, but they haven’t made anything official yet,” Paliakas said. Allen did not respond to this concern.

Shuttle-UM’s struggles are not unique. The University of Washington is similarly integrated into a metropolitan transit network and has seen a 75% reduction in employee usage of its U-Pass. The student U-Pass has been suspended since March at the behest of students, according to a spokesperson. 

Transit agencies across the country, too, are struggling in the wake of the pandemic and have been forced to lay off workers. At the beginning of the pandemic, national public transportation ridership plummeted to 5% of what it used to be and is now about 70% to 80% of what it once was, Niemeier said. 

Those still reliably riding transit are mostly low-income people and people of color. Shuttle-UM serves a similar income demographic, Niemeier said, since most university students “don’t have any money.”

There is hope for other systems, too. Congress passed a second COVID-19 relief bill Tuesday which included $23 billion in aid for higher education. The University of Maryland will decide how much of its funds to apportion to transit, Allen said. He called news that a vaccine could be available to the general population by June 2021 promising.

Until then, he said, Shuttle-UM will be in the “treading water stage of things.”