By Autumn Berend

Editor in Chief

All aboard for the Clackamas Community College Xpress shuttle.

The college has worked to improve the Xpress shuttle bus that traverses from the Clackamas Town Center, Harmony and Wilsonville campuses to make commuting less of a hassle for students. The changes include making the travel time more accurate for arrival and departure, full service for finals weeks to allow students to arrive on time, and routes increased with 28 seat shuttles, which are marked in green.

The CCC Xpress is a shuttle service provided by the college to help those who need transportation from one of the campuses to another, since not everyone has a car or can pay for the bus.

The revision of the shuttle’s schedule doesn’t make services longer on Fridays.

“We have a limited budget, so we have to make hard decisions,” said transportation systems analyst Luke Norman in an email.

Based on ridership data and feedback, efforts were made to change the route during Final’s Week.

“We heard from a number of students who were unable to reach their finals or were turned away from full shuttles,” said Norman. “Then we identified which times of the day most students were impacted and prioritized improvements then.”

But what if someone fears potential discrimination? Does it change when the bus no longer is on campus grounds? The answer is no.

“Discrimination is an issue that we take seriously, especially since transportation plays a key role in accessing education,” said Norman. He further stated that anyone that has had to deal with discrimination should contact Patricia Anderson of Human Resources.

Finally, last year the shuttle’s bike racks suffered from vandalism, which prevented some students from bringing their bikes with them. Norman says that both shuttle’s bike racks were stolen last year and that they’ve taken steps to prevent further issues.

“We’ve worked with Campus Safety and Campus Services to find a more secure area to park the shuttles and have not had any additional issues,” said Norman. “We hope to have bike racks on both shuttles when service starts on September 25.”