Many students at HFCC rely on public transportation in order to get to their classes. Students commute on buses from many different cities in order to get an education at this Dearborn campus. The (DDOT) Detroit Department of Transportation serves mainly the students in the Detroit area; however, students living in the outskirts (or surrounding areas of Detroit) utilize the SMART bus transportation system as well. On a daily basis, multiple picks-up and drop-offs occur at the Evergreen Road bus stop in front of Henry Ford. Despite the constant flow of buses, many students are not pleased with the bus system.
“I have to leave an hour early to be 5 minutes late,” first-year student Lamar Horton says about the DDOT bus schedule.
The chart (shown above) shows a summary of the route times of the Evergreen and Southfield buses Monday through Friday.
Both buses begin their southbound routes at 6 am Monday through Friday. After the Southfield bus departs from Northland Mall at 9:20 am the next doesn’t leave until 2:00 pm, leaving the Evergreen route the only one in service for almost 5 hours.
When questioned about these bus routes, a DDOT bus driver replied, “As for adding more buses or adjusting the scheduled times, I haven’t heard of anything yet.”
The gaps in the bus schedule aren’t an issue to some students. However, they have requests regarding the way drivers follow their routes.
Bus-riding student Daisha Sadler says, “DDOT buses are never, ever on time, but the SMART buses are.”
“You better get a god pair of walking shoes,” says student Eugene Watkins.
Although bus-riding students are dropped off at specific locations, they generally have to walk a good distance to get from stop to stop.
Fortunately there is a shuttle bus service available for all students who are able to access the Greenfield or Michigan bus routes that end at the mall. The HFCC shuttle bus is in constant route Monday through Friday from 7 am to 7 pm. In addition to servicing the Evergreen campus, shuttle bus drivers take students to the Dearborn Heights campus as well.
Numerous students plan on utilizing the shuttle bus as the weather continues to change. Waiting in the food court at the mall seems much better to students than waiting at a bus stop in rainy, cold, or snowy weather.
The struggles with the system of transportation endured by students are unfortunate. Because of the schedule times, students end up doing a lot of waiting around and waking up early in order to get themselves to school, and they still end up late to class. In the future, the DDOT may realize its flawed system and make changes; for now, it remains a problem for countless HFCC students.