To Bus or Not to Bus: Penn State CATA Bus Stories
“My roommate and I were walking down the Pattee Mall when we heard a big crash at the bottom of the hill,” Lehman said. “A CATA bus had pulled out of the stop by Allen Street on West College and rear-ended a truck, luckily, it seemed like everyone was okay and the truck didn’t look too damaged, but it was still really scary to see happen.”
Lehman said that now, she prefers to drive to class, and she gives the buses a wide berth.
CATA Bus services provide daily rides to countless off-campus Penn State students. For Eda Uyanik, a senior in Rehabilitation and Human Services, and Jasmine White, a senior in English, these buses are necessary to get to campus.
Uyanik has been riding the CATA Bus system for four years now and considers herself a seasoned veteran of the CATA Bus system.
She explained that cold weather and cramped buses can make riding the CATA Bus unbearable, but with no other means of transportation other than a hefty uber bill at the end of the month, Uyanik is forced to endure.
“The worst experience I had on the CATA Bus was last semester when they were having a tough time with the staff shortage,” Uyanik said. “So many cars were honking at him and cursing him out because his turns were way too wide and would almost hit their cars, at one point when we got downtown, he was getting frustrated with the passengers for not wanting to put the windows down in the cold weather.”
White, on the other hand, is rather new to the system as she transferred to Penn State at the start of her senior year last fall.
She explained that while some of her bad experiences were riding the bus, many of them were not on the buses themselves but rather waiting for them.
“I haven’t been riding long, probably only a semester, but I have had some interesting experiences on the bus,” White said. “I remember one time I was waiting for the bus as it was late and there was a hailstorm; all my stuff got soaked and the hail left welts on my skin.”
Although most of these students contribute their unpleasant experiences on the CATA Bus to unstable schedules, poor weather conditions, or bad drivers, not all these CATA Bus horror stories are surface deep.
Caroline Capuzzi, a junior double majoring in journalism and psychology, said that she once endured a traumatic experience with a passenger on the bus.
“One winter I was riding the bus with a friend and two roommates when we encountered an old man on the bus who kept muttering profanities under his breath,” Capuzzi said. “The man looked over at my friend and made a gun motion with his hand, then started saying a racial slur; he even threatened to kill him.”
While this experience was not at the fault of the CATA Bus company, Capuzzi said that she now has a slight fear of riding the bus downtown.
Jacqueline Sheader, CATA Public Relations Specialist, said that CATA bus has seen a severe staffing shortage for six months, and the company has taken many precautions
This includes electrostatic bus cleaning and pandemic-friendly bus protocols, as well as a 12-week driver training program to ensure drivers can handle driving in bad weather
“In winter weather we only use certain buses, the ones we know travel the smoothest with snow on the ground,” Sheader said. “We can handle capacity with only those buses, but safety and reliability for our riders and drivers is our prime concern.”
