By Diane Brown
Facilities and Operations

With all of the construction in and around campus this summer, faculty, staff and students may want to consider travel options provided by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA). Carrying four million passengers a year, the AATA staff continues to look for ways to improve its service and will add two new routes this month—from Saline and Ypsilanti Township, increasing bus access to many more households.

Three AATA programs are particularly helpful for U-M commuters:

U-M faculty and staff can ride free from any Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti stop to campus through the AATA Bus Pass program. A special pass and a U-M ID are all that’s needed to board the bus.

Up to six vouchers per year are offered for a Guaranteed Ride Home. A Yellow Cab taxi ride will be provided from a U-M worksite to anywhere in Washtenaw County by calling the number on the required special voucher.

One of the most popular AATA programs—Park-and-Ride—for U-M students, staff and faculty offers free parking in one of four lots and free rides to campus by showing a U-M ID. No special pass is required. The lots are located on South State Street across from the Howard Cooper auto dealer, Green Road near Baxter, the Maple Village Shopping Center on Maple Road and Pioneer High School.

A variety of departure/arrival times (the buses run all day and into the evening) exist for the bus routes that service each of the lots. The short travel times on many routes make the buses an attractive alternative to fighting traffic and searching for a parking spot.

For example:

Departing at 7:17 a.m. from the State Street lot, the Route 36 bus takes only eight minutes to reach the Michigan Union and 11 minutes to reach the C.C. Little stop.

The Route 2 trip from the Green Road lot to University Hospital takes 18 minutes, and another five minutes to arrive at the stop at North University and Fletcher. Passengers leaving the Hospital at 4:41 p.m. arrive at the lot 17 minutes later. The Route 22 bus provides a nine-minute morning ride and a seven-minute afternoon ride between the lot and Pierpont Commons.

Early birds using the 6:30 a.m. Route 12U bus from the Maple Village Shopping Center will arrive at Washington and Thayer at 6:43 a.m. and Mott Hospital at 6:50 a.m. The 7:20 a.m. trip to Fletcher and Washington takes 14 minutes, 19 minutes to Mott.

From the Pioneer lot, riders have the option of taking the Route 14 bus for a 17-minute ride to Mott Hospital, or walking across the street to the Crisler Arena parking area to catch the U-M commuter bus, which departs every 10 minutes.

For additional AATA information, including detailed route stops and arrival times, call (734) 996-0400 or check the Web at www.theride.org. Information on U-M commuter bus routes and schedules is on the Web at www.parking.umich.edu/.

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