Janie BoschmaHere we are. The Thursday before finals and the last issue of The Spectator. I know you are all devastated that you won’t be able to keep up on UW-Eau Claire news for the next four weeks. But I assure you, the staff of The Spectator will be keeping tabs on all of the events that go on this winter that could affect you, and you’ll be able to read our award-winning coverage when you get back.
As for my last column, I thought I would touch on something that has worn on me this semester – bus etiquette, more so the apparent laziness of some people who live on-campus by riding the bus down the hill when they could just as quickly walk, thus allowing the off-campus riders to have a comfortable ride to campus. I hate to leave on such a sour note, but I think it needs to be said so that people can understand what they’re doing and how ridiculous it is.
Each morning, I walk out of my apartment near the Bollinger Athletic Fields. It’s a short, 30 second walk to the bus stop where about 15 of us off-campus riders wait. When the bus pulls up, there are 20 or 30 people on it already. What for? I doubt that many people got on at the Bollinger parking lot or the stop next to the gas station on Stein Boulevard. The only other stop before that one is in front of Oak Ridge Hall on upper campus.
It is the most frustrating thing in the world when I have to stand to come down to class when it’s 40 degrees outside and sunny and all of those who are on the bus already are perfectly able-bodied people who could have made the short trip down the hill to class. Heaven forbid they have to walk down the hill in the morning.
I get so confused when the time frame is much shorter, the exercise benefits are greater and the aesthetic benefits are better.
If you start out in front of Oak Ridge, it is .83 miles down to the furthest academic building, Hibbard Humanities Hall, if you take the roads. That is, if you go down University Drive towards Towers Hall, make a right past the Towers’ field towards the Towers’ parking lot, then a left past Towers and a left down the Garfield Avenue hill. That distance is much longer than the path most students usually take when heading to class. Walking past Governors Hall and Horan Hall and down the stairs to the hill is still shorter than going past the tennis courts and down the stairs between Hilltop Center and Horan Hall.
At any rate, the bus trip takes an average of 15 minutes from Oak Ridge Hall down to Kjer Theater. The same amount of time it would take to walk at a 4 mph pace, which is typical of most peoples’ walking speeds.
At that pace, a 150-pound person is able to burn about 85 calories for the trip. Up that number if you’re walking slightly faster and lower for slower. Also, increase that number slightly for a person more than 150 pounds and lower it slightly for someone who weighs less. For a reference point, a 120-pound person will burn about 68 calories and a 200-pound person will burn 114 calories. Stick a heavy backpack on and the calorie output goes up again.
Another reference point. Riding the bus for 15 minutes burns about 18 calories for a 150-pound person. Again, slightly more for a heavier person (about 24 calories for a 200-pound person) and slightly fewer for a lighter person (14 calories for a 120-pound person).
Now, what happens when it snows? That’s when I find the bus the most packed. The riders who board on upper campus don’t want to walk down the hill for fear of getting snowed on or slopping up their pants, which is going to happen anyway traveling between classes.
But when it comes to hazardous driving, the bus often tends to be quite late, running on weather delays and the like. It’s something that we off-campus riders have to deal with because we have no choice to walk. It is impractical. But why would the on-campus riders want to risk being late for class when they can walk down the hill and beat the bus that might take a half hour to make its round trip?
Aside from the same or faster time it takes to walk down the hill and the health benefit of doing so, the scenery is much more appealing. I’m not sure about the rest of campus, but the lone Hardee’s restaurant with two cars in the parking lot, the bland hospital, the concrete jungle of Clairemont Avenue and the ShopKo Plaza are not as aesthetically pleasing as the Chippewa River and its snow covered banks and the campus as it comes into view.
I lived on campus for two semesters and walked to class every day. Sure I had some complaints, but I still did it. Rain, snow, sleet and cold, I still bucked up and walked my way to class.
Walking down the hill and back up rather than riding makes that chocolate-covered brownie in the cafeteria more appealing and worthy of the splurge. It makes it possible to sleep in rather than having your life run by the schedule of the bus, which isn’t always as dependable as your own two feet.
Hopefully that wasn’t too cynical for the last “Dishin'” column, and you all have a happy holiday and safe winter break. See you in 2008.
