The Arbiter 1-31-11

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Culture

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The No. 10 ranked Broncos humiliate Pac10 foe Stanford.

What are your teens watching? More sex on TV raises concern.

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Issue no.

Sports

Opinion

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38

Volume 23

First Issue

FREE

January 31, 2011

arbiteronline.com

The Independent Student Voice of Boise State Since 1933

What’s in a transit center? What is the Transit Center? The Transit Center is a new building connected to the SUB that has intercounty buses pick up and drop off for students and the community.

How do I use it?

Grab a bus sticker from the Info Desk inside the SUB, then you can use your student ID to ride any Valley Ride bus. Daniel Patchin/THE ARBITER

After five years of planning, the new Boise State Transit Center at the Student Union Building is scheduled to open Monday. The 3,000 square foot building is an addition to the SUB and will provide a central place for local and intercounty bus routes.

It is open this week for students to see, but buses won’t start coming through for another few weeks.

Transit Center drives one location for commutes

What’s a Kiss-and-Go? The Kiss-and-Go is an area where you will be able to stop and drop someone off quickly. And hey, give them a kiss before they go off to class.

Why did they build it?

Edina Macic Journalist

The 3,000 square foot Transit Center complete with a digital screen displaying news, routes and weather as well as a Kiss-and-Go opens this week. Buses will begin to use the facility in a few more weeks. The construction began in summer of 2010 with the goal to facilitate transit needs for not only students, but for the community. “Originally, the Transit Center was going to be placed inside the Lincoln Garage. After reflection, it was decided to move it to the Student Union Building,” said Aaron Whitman, project manager. The Student Union Building provides many services to students and visitors that come through, which is why it’s logically the best location for a Transit Center, according to Whitman. He said they had to get a documented categorical exclusion and jump through numerous hoops before they were able to design the center. “It’s (a) 3,000 square feet addition to the SUB. We went to great lengths to make sure we had enough space for everybody.” Looking out the SUB’s front entrance, there are three layers to the facility. There should be plenty of room for all types of traffic: There are areas set aside for pedestrians and those waiting for buses. Whitman said they’ve tried to segregate the different levels of the facility to make traffic circulate easier.

What’s Inside

News Opinion Sports Culture

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The benefits of the Transit Center are that it is not only safe but it’s going to be an inter-county bus stop. For example, if you live in Nampa and take the inter-county bus it’ll drop you off in front of the Transit Center and pick you up and take you back to Nampa. It’s the same with the Meridian and Caldwell buses. There is no parking but, there is a Kiss-and-Go. “One of the things I was excited to see put in here is what we call a Kiss-and-Go,” said Whitman. “If you have a spouse or someone that needs to drop you off it’s an area designed for them to stop and drop off.” The Kiss-and-Go is located outside the Special Events Center. Inside the Transit Center there will be a touch screen television mounted on the wall. This will provide bus schedules, maps, weather, live shuttle tracker, news feeds and a staff directory in one place. The screen’s front page will have the news feeds, time and weather. The Transit Center cost $2.3 million to build and was funded from a federal earmark for public transportation and from Boise State dollars. The university put in half a million dollars which came from central reserves and transportation, according to Director of Transportation and Parking Services, Casey Jones. “There wasn’t a problem to fix before the transit center but this is planning for the future. We know transit alone is incredible to the university,” said Jones.

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To provide transportation to students and the community all in one area instead of all over campus. For example, if you live in Nampa and use an intercounty bus it will drop you off at the Transit Center and could also take you back to Nampa.

How much did it cost? Total cost is $2.3 million dollars. Half was received from the central reserves and the transportation department at Boise State. The rest came from federal earmark for public transportation.

How much does it cost to use?

It’s free. Just grab a free bus sticker from the Info desk inside the SUB.

More news today: Daniel Patchin/THE ARBITER

University Drive will wrap around the new Transit Center addition to the Student Union Building. The 3,000 square foot addition cost $2.3 million and upgraded the West side facade of the SUB.

News Editor

news@stumedia.boisestate.edu

Assistant News Editor daniellecraig @stumedia.boisestate.edu

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When does it open?

See page 2

Weather

Today

40º high

Funding cuts from state likely to increase student fees

Wednesday

Tomorrow

Partly Cloudy

chance of precip: 20%

33º high

Sunny

chance of precip: 0%

38º high

Sunny

chance of precip: 0%

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