Dear Editor,

On the morning of February 25, I had to come to school by student shuttle because my car was being repaired.

I left home early, and when I came to the Bahçelievler stop, I saw there were already other students waiting for the bus. With every minute the bus stop was getting more and more crowded. There were also several older people waiting for the bus. Like everybody else, I assumed that they were university employees. A half-full bus arrived after a very long wait (of course there is no need to mention the other 3-4 full service buses that had passed us by). By the time the half-full service bus arrived a real crowd had formed. People who had come 5 minutes before the arrival of the bus positioned themselves in front of others who had been waiting for an hour. The older people I mentioned suddenly began pushing everybody to get on. I was among a number of people who were forced to ride the bus standing up. The older people had found themselves a place to sit down. However, when we stopped at the main entrance of the campus, they quickly got off the bus. It was clear that they had no connection with the university and perhaps worked in Bilkent Center.

Although I am not a regular user of the service bus, I have a few suggestions:

1) It is against the law to allow passengers to ride a bus standing up. Because almost all the buses are full, a lot of students are late for their lessons. Wouldn't it make sense to send an empty bus or two directly to the Bahcelievler bus stop in the mornings? As well, people who have no connection with Bilkent University should be prevented from taking service buses. An ID check must be done when people get on the bus, not just at the entrance of the university.

2) The service bus drivers need to behave more politely.

Barış Eroğlu (ACC/I)

M. Sinan Çam, Transportation Services Manager, sent the following response to Barış Erooğlu's letter: