Grand Valley sees record bus ridership

ALLENDALE, Mich. — More students than ever are parking their cars and riding the bus at Grand Valley State University. A record number of students -- 18,856 -- rode the bus the first day of classes. In the first week of classes, a record 87,800 students rode the bus, up by nearly 30 percent from the same time last year.

Erin Babson, operations manager for Pew Campus and Regional Centers, said three buses have been added since the semester began, bringing the total number of buses to 20. “We added two more buses to the Campus Connector route and one to the off-campus apartment set of routes,” she said.

The additional buses has cut wait time from roughly every 7-8 minutes, to every 6-7 minutes. Grand Valley’s Campus Connector runs between the Allendale and Pew campuses seven days  a week.

Grand Valley State University attracts nearly 24,000 students with high-quality programs and state-of-the-art facilities. Grand Valley is the comprehensive regional university for Michigan’s second largest metropolitan area and offers 69 undergraduate and 26 graduate degree programs. It has campuses in Allendale, Grand Rapids, and Holland and centers in Muskegon and Traverse City. The university is dedicated to individual student achievement, going beyond the traditional classroom experience, with research opportunities and business partnerships.

For more information, contact Erin Babson at (616) 331-6700.