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Transportation in Ann Arbor
Transportation in Ann Arbor
As a UM student, you have two options on public transportation. First is the school bus, we call it Blue Bus since blue is representative of UM. We shout “Go Blue” when we watch UM football competing with other university. Blue Bus is a very convenient way to transport between campuses. We have several routes commuting south campus, central campus and north campus. The frequency for a route is 20 minutes. So if you live in on-campus housing, it will be certainly on the route of Blue Bus. Detailed information can be found here: http://www.transportation.umich.edu/
Another way is the city bus. With UM student card, you can take the city bus for free. It has many routes that cover most area in Ann Arbor and Yipsilanti, a town next to Ann Arbor. Many routes also drive through campus; many students take city bus to central campus frequently. However, it may not be convenient to take city bus on weekend in that the frequency of the city bus reduces to 1 hour per bus. You can check the schedule and routine here: http://theride.org
Ann Arbor is not a big city, but the winter here is really cold. So depending on your financial condition, you might consider purchase a car here. In weekday, parking in campus is extremely difficult, because priority is given to faculty and staff. There is a GSA (Graduate Student After-hour) permit for graduate student that allows you to park in the campus parking structure after 3pm in weekdays. After 6pm, all the street parking will be free, too. However, it is still hard to find a parking slot. Parking information could be found also at: http://www.transportation.umich.edu/ Many students use car for weekend grocery and vocation traveling. Most grocery stores are not close to living area, which is quite inconvenient for students without cars, especially in the cold winter. During the semester, we usually will have a one-week break around mid-term. People usually go out for a trip to New York City, Chicago, LA or even Toronto since it is really close to Michigan (only about 4-hour’s drive. But international student need Canada visa and have their I-20 signed for traveling by International Center). At this time, a car will be quite useful.
If you plan to travel by plane, you will be most probably taking off at DTW, the airport in Detroit, which takes about 45 minutes to drive there. At the beginning and ending of the semester and holidays, the university will have shuttle from campus to DTW. http://www.msa.umich.edu/airbus/
Next time I will introduce you some good restaurants that I’ve been to in the past semester.
Posted by chanwei at February 18, 2007 05:05 PM
