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BU cracks down on bus freeloaders

BU Today reports BU is going to start checking IDs on people boarding university buses, so no more free alternative transportation for people with no school affiliation.

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So BU kids can freeload the Green Line all they want because BU doesn't want to provide their students with a T pass because of fees, but we can't ride their dinky little shuttle. Riiiight.

If you're gonna Pay In Lieu Of Taxes at least let the taxpayers that you screw over ride the shuttle on your dime. Have a little more self-awareness, BU.

Although I'm not trying to ride a bus half-full of dudebros from NY & NJ.

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how are the BU kids freeloading on the Green Line? Do they not have to pay like everyone else?

Also, given that BU is on the hook for what happens to people riding their bus (e.g., if it gets into an accident - BU has deep pockets), one can't blame them for wanting to limit the pool of potential plaintiffs. I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner, and that the other private shuttles around town aren't a hell of a lot stricter about limiting the service to those for whom it is intended.

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> how are the BU kids freeloading on the Green Line? Do they not have to pay like everyone else?

A huge percentage of the time, when the B line comes above ground, students cannot get on at the front, so they have to enter at the back and they don't pay. I would hardly blame BU for this problem though.

That said, I would be overjoyed if BU made monthly zone 1A passes part of tuition for all students.

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For everyone who hates college kids on the T now image how much more you will hate it if the kids rode the train 3-4 times more because to them "it's free".

If all the area schools started giving out "free" T passes there would be bitching and moaning about how the colleges are abusing the public because the "Rich schools should run their own bus services so the stupid college kids stay off the trains".

Be thankful the schools run their own buses and shuttles as this keeps the T from being even more overcrowded.

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When all Boston Public Schools 7th and 8th graders start taking the T to and from school.

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Yes, BU students have to pay like everybody else and its the T's responsibility to enforce it.

I just really wish BU (and all the other colleges) would just eat the goddamn fee and give their students semester long passes a la BPS. The T is already at the table. But they don't want to impose another fee on top of the hefty list that results in an annual cost of $55,000. I would be interested in seeing a list of all their fees and which ones are considered more important than a "free transportation throughout the Greater Boston area" fee.

You're right, BU isn't wrong. But if they have such deep pockets why can't they just ante up?

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BU does give
out semester long passes through the parking services office -- but they're not free and you have to sign up before the semester starts.

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The Harvard-Longwood shuttles cracked down on freeriders as of 2000.

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I used to work at the Navy Yard site for MGH, which required taking their Main Campus->CNY shuttle every day. Sometimes tourists would use it to get to the USS Constitution - one day there was an entire tour group using the shuttle. For me, it was frustrating, as it delayed my trip to work and sometimes overcrowded the shuttle so much that you had to wait for the next one.

I think MGH/Partners has their shuttles open to the public though, because patients might need to move between sites during the course of the day.

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Shuttles are open to the public so patients and visitors can travel to satellite locations.

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They've always checked IDs on the M2 Harvard-Longwood shuttle. They don't even let everyone with a Harvard ID ride for free -- students from schools other than the Longwood-based grad schools, College, and GSAS have to buy a ticket. Years ago they didn't even let College students ride for free.

The public technically can buy a ticket as well, but you have to go to one of the ticket offices, and can't pay on the bus. And it's $3.25.

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I'll miss doing this occasionally! I used to work at BU and it was so much more efficient to take the BUS from the stop near St Botolph to the building I worked at than dealing with the green line. It was mostly amusing when people who are obviously not students rode it.

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Quite a shame

BU kids are animals. Letting the general populace ride on their busses might teach them how to behave in public.

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