At this week’s Student Association Mass Transit Board (SAMTB) meeting, members voiced concerns over faculty bus passes and new services for visually and physically impaired students.

Faculty bus passes have sparked concern since the SAMTB began offering discounted passes this semester to faculty members. This is in order to ease the burden of finding a parking space due to upcoming construction.

Mikki Anderson, SAMTB adviser, reported that some faculty members have complained about certain bus routes, the 7/9 route in particular. Anderson said the main complaint has been the length of the ride.

“A five minute ride would take an hour on the 7/9,” she said. “You get three quarters of the way to Chicago (by car) by the time you got home.”

Anderson said the route will be reviewed, and possibly could be phased out due to the proposed move of the College of Engineering.

In other news, the SAMTB has been discussing a possible arrangement with TransVAC, a busing service for the visually and physically impaired. If used, the TransVAC would not take over the services of the already existing Freedom Mobile, but would add to them.

TransVAC travels to areas outside of DeKalb and also runs over vacation breaks, two services the Freedom Mobile does not perform.

Janet Potter, SAMTB fiscal adviser said, “We’re trying to expand our rapport with them (TransVAC).”

In other business, Steve Lawrence, director of Late Night Ride Service, said in his report to the SAMTB that the service has been running well. He reported that 339 people used the service over the two weekends of Jan. 22 to 23 and Jan 28 to Jan. 29.

Out of the 339 riders, Lawrence said 215 used the service on Friday nights.

In total this semester, the Late Night Ride Service has run for 45.7 hours and has a mileage total of 294 miles.

Also, changes have not yet been made on the weekend number 4 bus route. Many students might know this route as the “bar bus.” It is unknown when the changes will go into effect.