Not long after Cal Poly Humboldt announced it would quit funding evening bus routes around Arcata, more than 1,600 students and faculty signed a petition demanding its reinstatement.

The Humboldt Transit Authority runs three bus routes in Arcata. Until recently, all of them ran into the evening. That was possible with the assistance of Cal Poly Humboldt, which subsidized the routes. It paid HTA $99,450 for 34 weeks of evening service, 18 weeks short of a full year to compensate for the university’s winter and summer breaks. It decided to yank funding for the Gold and Red routes’ evening services, because the number of people using them was too low to justify the cost. Earlier this year, it also stopped paying for the Green and Gold route for the same reason. 

HTA estimated earlier this year it would cost about $150,000 annually to fund year-round evening service.

Cal Poly Humboldt instead contracted with the HTA to spend $60,588 on just the Orange Route, which exclusively runs on weekday evenings from about 7-10 p.m and on Saturdays, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. It covers the same amount of ground as the Gold and Red lines combined, but takes longer to cycle through fewer stops. 

However, the university has only committed to supporting it through the end of this semester. The shuttle that takes students from the Hinarr Ho Moulik dorms to campus will also cease running then, though that’s also because of a conflict with the rules that govern HTA as a federally subsidized public service. Many students aren’t happy, and a three-week push to get students to sign a petition demanding the university continue backing them when the semester ends garnered about 1,650 signatures, according to James Menendez, a member and former vice president of CPH’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America. 

Menendez, a 22-year-old political science major in his second year of study, pointed out that’s over a quarter of the total number of students attending CPH. (Some faculty also signed it.) They wanted to deliver a copy to university president Richard Carvajal on Monday, but he was out. Michael Fisher, its Vice President for Administration and Finance, had to do instead.

Menendez prefers to walk, so he wasn’t too badly affected by the cuts. Last year, he lived on-campus, at the Hinarr Ho Moulik dorms, which are about a mile from campus. The shuttle, he said, was a vital mode of transportation for him and other dorm residents, and he says they’re preparing to get up and leave earlier to compensate. 

When he does depend on the bus to get around in the evenings, he’s frustrated by the longer wait times to get a ride from the stop near his house. “I don’t think it is an efficient substitute,” he told the Outpost. “…It’s impacting people who are trying to get to the bus. It’s less accessible to riders.” 

Colin Fiske, a dedicated local advocate of public transportation and the executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, told the Outpost he too wanted the routes restored. 

“Cal Poly Humboldt students have sent a strong message to the administration demanding the restoration of funding for evening bus service in Arcata,” he wrote in a statement sent to the Outpost. “We stand in solidarity with the students in their demands. Many Arcata residents use this service, but students in particular rely on it to get to classes, homes, jobs, grocery stores, and more. With gas prices skyrocketing, personal vehicles are out of reach for more and more students. And with climate disasters multiplying, the university’s own Climate Action Plan calls for them to ‘support improvement of public transit services to campus.’ Now is the time for Cal Poly Humboldt to live up to its values and make a long-term commitment to funding year-round evening bus service in Arcata.”

A university spokesperson told the Outpost that “the University is collaborating with the HTA to reach the same goal: provide quality transportation that serves students and the entire region.” She said they’d have more detailed responses after HTA’s next board meeting this Monday.

It’s important to ensure a continuity of service, HTA’s chair of its board of directors, Humboldt County Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, told the Outpost. People depend on consistent service, and they won’t ride the bus if they can’t depend on it.

“We each take ownership for our role in this,” she said. “HTA has limitations when it comes to the number of buses and drivers we have, and our operational capacity. And we understand that Cal Poly Humboldt also has constraints when it comes to funding.”

Menendez doesn’t see why the university quit funding the Gold and Red routes’ evening runs, especially when it was willing to pay $5 million for a vacant piece of land a mile from campus to build a parking lot with 212 spaces. With that money, it could have bankrolled its chunk for evening services dozens of times over, he said.

“They say they’re the financial stewards that want to do the best for the school, but I don’t see how that’s doing the best,” he said. “I don’t know. It upsets me because I view the bus thing as a good thing. I think everyone likes the bus. No one’s got a problem with the bus. So why are we cutting it?”