Letter: Only ride the bus when necessary

“Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you will be walking out the door.” The great song from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is a special part of many of our childhoods.

As we move forward in the spring semester, I would like to encourage my fellow Cyclones to get out and walk more.

A quick story to illustrate my point: I saw a colleague of mine riding the 21 Cardinal Route. He got on the bus near Hawthorne Market at Fredrikson Court. He then proceeded to get off at the very next stop on the route (the one on the other side of the street from the horse barn for all you Freddy people).

The walk from where he waited at the bus stop to where he got off would have taken a shorter amount of time and saved the bus driver and everyone on the bus time from having to stop and wait for him to get off.

After chiding my friend for doing this I noticed many other users of the 21 route have been doing the same. The walk to that stop is quicker, there are numerous health benefits to walking, you can help save the environment rather than having the bus stay idle while you get off and you can save time for others. With all of those pros to walking, what is the excuse for you to take the bus? You can no longer cloak your laziness by the cold of winter, just be courteous and kind to your fellow Cyclones and stop wasting people’s time.

This may not seem like the biggest of issues that face society or even Iowa State but I think this issue is more a reflection of our generation and the laziness that is unfortunately a part of it. I understand there is a time and a place for riding the bus, however, as we continue through 2016, I would ask all of you to reflect upon how much you use the bus and if the benefits outweigh the negatives.