An accident occurred between a CATA bus and a car around 10:45 last night on the corner of Burrowes St. and Beaver Ave.
Earlier this week we reported that Copper Beech had decided not to renew its contract with CATA for prepaid bus passes for its West Aaron tenants. This was due to the fact that CATA was requesting a 21% rate increase. After several days of angry complaints from the tenants, Copper Beech decided to give the power to the people and allowed the residents to give their input. Yesterday, Copper Beech regional manager Stephen Hilton sent a letter to the West Aaron residents informing them that their CATA privileges would be returned.
Read after the jump to hear more about Copper Beech's decision...
This article will tell you definitively who the starting quarterback for the Nittany Lion football team will be. That's not true. I lied. How do you feel right now? Confused? Angry? Exhausted from riding this emotional rollercoaster? It's not fun when someone promises to give you one thing, and then takes it away, is it? That's what the Copper Beech residents at West Aaron Drive are feeling after having been stripped of their CATA bus passes.
Read after the jump to learn why Copper Beech tenants at West Aaron lost their CATA passes...
Some of you might have noticed late last week that there was a bizarre increase in the number of CATA buses running along Burrowes Road, most notably the appearance of Blue Loops where they historically haven't been. Due to construction on the corner of College Ave. and Atherton Street, CATA will be rerouting the buses that normally run north on Atherton Street up Burrowes Street.
The full story after the jump.
ARHS and UPUA have accepted the fact that Penn Staters drink. With the help of new information cards, they're striving to get students home safely.
The cards display phone numbers for three taxi services, the number for the campus escort service, and a miniature CATA bus schedule. The front and back are shown here.
Steve Roberts, associate vice president of Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS), conceived the idea of the cards in light of the recent State Patty's Day. We contacted Mr. Roberts for an explanation of these cards.
"The cards are printed on cardstock and thus are durable. Additionally, they are not in the traditional format of a flyer or larger piece of paper which would typically be thrown out. The cards are about the size of a normal business card and slide easily into your wallet or purse so that when students go out it's not a hassle to bring it with them."
In addition, he says that several bars and apartments have already requested information cards to distribute to students.
At my floor meeting last night, my RA passed around a stack of these cards. My floormates agreed that while the front side may prove useful, the reverse side is laughably illegible due to the minuscule font size.
This initiative is a great idea, and I hope it succeeds. However, a bit of advice for the lost drunkard in need of transportation: call a taxi, don't wait for the bus. It's highly probable that you can't decipher the font.
CATA's lack of support for cash-strapped Graduate students here at Penn State has started to get on some bus rider's nerves.
Two of those Graduate students, Crista M. Livecchi and Emma Gaalaas Mullaney, have started a Facebook group called "PSU Grads for Transportation Equity," calling for CATA to give them the same kind of financial break it gives full-time Penn State staff members. According to the group, Penn State staffers are currently eligible for CATA's Ride for Five program, which offers a bus pass for $5 a month as opposed to the regular rate of $49 a month.
The Grad students, on the other hand, who don't have two pennies to rub together, have to pay the full monthly rate.
To an outsider like me, this seems like a humongous load of crap, but, as I said, I'm on the outside looking in. Fortunately, both creators of the group were kind enough to offer me some insight on the situation, explaining things much better than I ever could. Read on to find out what they had to say.