Blacksburg Transit has advised students to avoid the shelter, located on the southern sidewalk of Prices Fork Road, which is one of the last where students are picked up along the corridor. Instead, the agency has suggested students stay on their side of the road to the north and get picked up early in the bus route. Buses are less likely to be full when they arrive there, Rhodes said.

Students gathered at the shelter, though, aren’t following that advice, largely because they’d have to wait on the bus as it drives along almost the entirety of its route.

Maelyn Bell, a freshman at HIE Student Housing, said one of her friends ordered rides from Uber to get to campus because she couldn’t count on catching a bus.

Alexis Anderson, another freshman student there, said Uber is a common solution for people who can’t catch a bus, though “that gets expensive,” she said.

She’s had to wait for a bus for as long as an hour to get to campus. And during the weekend, the buses are also difficult to catch, sometimes leaving students stranded from dining halls where they’re required to purchase meal plans from.