Written by Jessie Sawyer
Lewiston doesn’t have much in the way of public transportation. There is a bus, although very, very few Bates students ever use it, and many have never even heard of it. Taxis are available, but, again, not many students use them. Even first years will have a few friends with cars, and students either drive themselves or they beg for rides. There is a school-run shuttle on the weekends, which goes to points of interest in the Lewiston and Auburn areas, and it even sells discount tickets to the Flagship Cinema in Lewiston. However, this is often a last resort for students because it’s inconvenient to plan your trip around the shuttle’s one-hour-apart arrivals and departures, and the shuttles don’t always run as late as some movies do. Craftier students send one or two people ahead on the shuttle to buy cheap movie tickets and then bring a car so that they can all ride home together after the movie gets out. Batesies are economical geniuses.
Probably the most frequently used forms of transportation for Batesies are walking or riding a bike. Even Wal-Mart is within walking distance if you’re really determined, though walking back laden with all your purchases can be strenous. Many spots in Lewiston are within a 10- to 15-minute walk from campus. Around half of the Bates student body owns a bike. The College also organizes trips to a number of cities in New England, as well as to events like the Common Ground Fair. It’s best to have a car on campus because it can be inconvenient to rely on your friends or the school for transportation, but if you don’t have a car, you can still get around. Public transportation in Lewiston isn’t very reliable (or available for that matter), but Bates has made an effort to compensate, and generally, students’ transportation needs are met—even if it means an hour wait in the cold.