Riding the Metro

As a poor college student without a car, the Metro should be a huge asset to me, right? Wrong. I live a mile from campus, which has the nearest bus stop, so my daily commute is done on my bike. What I, and many other people in this college town, really need is a way to get around town for other events like concerts or bar crawling or social rides. The problem is that Capital Metro only runs during the day, so I'm left high and dry for any evening activities. The extra runs during South by Southwest this year showed what catering to the party crowd, as opposed to the commuters, can do to bring them profit. The usual fare only covers about 27% of the operating cost, while the busy buses that week made up 74% of the operating cost. The rest is usually covered by taxpayers. Capital Metro plans to implement evening runs on a trial basis this summer, and I'm really hoping to see more evening activities in the future. If people didn't have to worry about paying for parking downtown, they could hit up multiple locations without spending an arm and a leg on lots or cabs. Congestion would be considerably diminished.  There would be less drunk drivers on the road if everyone could just take the bus back home. It provides a better opportunity for people to go downtown, so the local economy would be stimulated, plus it would open up more jobs for bus drivers. It's an all around winning situation, and then I could get my party on! : )