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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 29, 2014
PAGE 3
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JCCC bus stop move yields little change
New JO bus stop
Old JO bus stop
LAUREN METZLER
@MetzlerLauren
The Johnson County Transit, or the JO, in collaboration with KU on Wheels and Lawrence Transit, moved the K-10 Connector bus stop from the Islamic Center lawn on 19th Street and Naismith Drive to Irving Hill Road and Naismith Drive near Allen Fieldhouse.
The K-10 Connector is the most popular bus route for the JO and runs between Lawrence and Johnson County. The change was made Oct. 6, and so far, there has been no real difference in ridership for the K-10 Connector, said Shawn Strate, transit planner for the JO.
There have been no complaints on the University's end.
"We haven't gotten any feedback at all," said Danny Kaiser, assistant director of KU Parking and Transit. "Usually that tells me that things are going fine."
"There hasn't been a lot of feedback," Strate said. "That's been kind of unique. Usually when we make a change, we get a lot of positive or negative feedback, and there hasn't been too much."
There were also traffic problems with the old stop. Cars would back up behind the bus on Naismith Drive when it would stop to let people in and out.
Kaiser wanted to make a change because he noticed the previous stop required students to take the Park and Ride bus to reach their final destination. These were not the only problems with the stop.
Sarah Sahin, an administrative assistant in the department of film and media studies, is taking calculus at Johnson County Community College and rides the bus there. Last year, she had to take the Park and Ride route, as well as the K-10 Connector to get to Johnson County.
"It probably added about 15 minutes to get near campus," Sahin said. "It's much more convenient to have a stop on this side of campus."
"There were no amenities there at all." Kaiser said. "It was picking people up right off of the grass, and it was private property."
To accommodate the 50-foot JO buses, the curbs around Naismith Drive had to be pulled back so drivers could
make turns in that area without the possibility of hitting oncoming traffic, Kaiser said.
"This was a relatively easy project, easy to plan, easy decisions to make," Kaiser said. "I love it when a plan comes together."
Kaiser suggested the change to the assistant director of Johnson County Transit in a conversation last year. The University undertook construction last summer to implement this plan.
"They felt and we felt that being able to relocate that stop would be best for the riders, best for traffic and really, best for our operations in general," Strate said.
For the JO, the process of changing the route has taken about six weeks. They needed a few weeks to time the routes and ensure efficiency, as well as a two week public comment period for riders to give feedback, Strate said.
"At this point, we're in an evaluation phase," Strate said. "And then, at the end of that phase, which will be here in a couple of weeks, we'll be able to look back and see how well it's gone in the first month."
Edited by Alyssa Scott
CARE FROM PAGE 2
this has got to change. So, I was in the right place at the right time.
I was also in the wrong place at the wrong time because I'm a victim of rape. It was a perfect storm. My assault happened and then all of a sudden there was this opportunity to become involved. That's where I began, as a student, facing the very realness of an assault in a climate where there was hardly any support and really hardly any recognition that rape really did happen with people who knew each other. That was the situation, it was an acquaintance. So we had all of this information beginning about what stranger rape was, but certainly not in the sense of acquaintance rape. We were classmates. So that was the beginning.
Kansan: What are some of the biggest needs you hope to address at KU?
SJR: I think I want to play a role in addressing the culture and the climate of the University. I think to not have an honest discussion that there is a rape culture that exists here and on every campus would be an immature discussion. It has to be discussed in a respectful and mature way by all of us. If I can play a role in bridging that discussion then that would be good work. Certainly, not something that I would ever imagine that I would do on my own.
What I've heard so far is that there is a lot of caring from students, administrators, faculty and staff. I think what happened is that federal laws caught up with us, as it's catching up with every university and college. Now here we are, in an everchanging moment and we just have to figure out how to get
us all caught up. I think those hard discussions have to be bad. We've had them before, we had them in the '70s. This is, in many ways, history repeating itself, just now we have different kinds of laws that we have to adhere to.
Kansan: What is the most difficult element of crisis support?
SIR: I don't know that I would use the word difficult. When I think of this, I think it is affecting when another person experiences trauma. It is a place where you simply stand in your willingness to hear the truth. Sometimes that truth for another person is really hard to listen to. The inclination is to jump in and fix it or say, "How could this happen?" with some kind of indignation. But the real truth is it's that person's story and probably the most honorable and respectful thing you can do is to fully listen and
then walk with that person through that trauma. The commitment begins with being willing to be a witness to that truth and being willing to walk with that person for as long as they want you to. Sometimes that's a lifetime and sometimes it's an hour.
to be present as they're telling you about what happened to them. You're not judging it, you're just listening. It isn't listening to fix it, because in the case of rape and sexual assault, it doesn't get fixed. Somehow you hope it smooths out, but it doesn't ever really get fixed. That doesn't mean you're not a whole person, it just means something happened to you that changed you. Now you have to figure out who you are in the midst of that change.
Edited by Ashley Peralta
There's a quote that says,
"Listening to the truth of someone's life is a privilege and an honor." I don't know that that's always difficult, walking in full humanness; you're present and you want that other person
Halloween is an important day in KU's football history. It was Halloween 1891 that KU and Missouri first met, and KU
prevailed 22-10.
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Isaiah 59:14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.