Posted: 10/4/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Thomas Root A large group of students attempts to squeeze onto the 22 Illini on Feb. 16. The C-U MTD and the University will not begin negotiating until a campus traffic study is completed.

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District is looking into renewing its service contract with the University before the current contract expires on August 19, 2008.

Negotiations will only begin after the completion of an ongoing study analyzing how MTD buses are moving people through campus, concentrating on where riders board and exit the buses. The study will give University administrators and MTD staff a better idea of how to run buses through campus and keep the safety of the campus community at the forefront of the service goal, said Pam Voitik, director of campus services at the University.

"We want to provide good service but service that is also safe," she said.

Two recent student deaths as a result of accidents with MTD buses have piqued the interest of the campus community, students and administrators alike in pedestrian safety, but Voitik said it is unfair to only target the MTD.

"The two incidents that did occur could have just as easily been motorists and not bus drivers," she said. "It could have been someone in a University vehicle, it could have been another student, it could have been a faculty or staff member on their way to a meeting."

Voitik said any impact on the University's contract with the MTD following another such incident would require a critical analysis.

"I can't say how we would respond not knowing the circumstances around it. We don't want to have anything like that and we'll do everything we can to minimize conflicts to lessen the likelihood of that happening," Voitik said. "Can we prevent it one hundred percent? I don't know."

University spokeswoman Robin Kaler said that another student death would not have any influence on the contract with the bus system.

"A death, as tragic as it is, is not a breach of the contract per se," Kaler wrote via e-mail. "Of course, we have worked cooperatively with the MTD and the cities on issues of pedestrian safety. Many initiatives have been launched blending education, enforcement and engineering."

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