If you attended the CU vs. CSU game last Sunday, you might have been one of the nearly 900 CU students that rode a Buff Bus to the game.
CU’s Athletic Department and student government teamed up for the sixth time last weekend to provide students free transportation from the Coors Events Center to Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver to see CU take on rival CSU in the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
Last year, more than 800 students utilized the program’s 12 buses. Slightly more used the service this year, when 12 buses shuttled 888 students to the game at about 12:30 p.m. last Sunday, said Bryan Flansburg, director of transportation at CU.
The slight increase in participants deterred some potential riders.
“The line went all the way down the Coors sidewalk past the stadium,” Gina Wilson, a junior studying integrated physiology, said. ”There was no way I was going to wait that long.”
Flansburg said many students rely on the bus program to get to the game.
“Most students don’t bring cars to Boulder,” he said. “For them there is no other way to get to Denver.”
Last Sunday the Buff Buses made the 45-60 minute trip down to Denver without a hitch. But many students didn’t return to the buses for the ride back to Boulder.
Ellie Roberts, CUSG tri-executive and junior communications and elementary education major, said it is common for people to find other ways to get home after taking the Buff Bus to Denver.
“There are a lot of seniors that take the bus who stay down in Denver and go to the bars or have friends in Denver,” Roberts said.
After CU’s win, Buff Buses began arriving between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. 240 gallons of gas were used by the 12 vehicles during the event, Flansburg said.
Those who did not attend the game were not affected by the shortage of Buff Buses on campus, which have a regular weekend service to and from Will Vill.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ari Browne at Shikari.browne@colorado.edu.
