All aboard the Campus Bus

Despite major changes to Madison’s transportation system, the good old 80 bus continues its traditional route through campus. Bryce Richter

Whether it’s to avoid walking up Bascom Hill, to evade the worst of Wisconsin weather, or to get home safely at night, one thing is certain: Badgers love to take the bus.

Nearly 30 percent of UW–Madison students report riding the bus to campus on nice days, and that percentage doubles during bad weather, according to a 2023 survey by Transportation Services. It’s hard to beat the convenience and cost: the four campus routes serviced by Madison’s Metro Transit — 80, 81, 82, and 84 — are free to use for all riders. Students can also acquire special bus passes, funded by segregated fees and other sources, that allow them to hop on other city routes at no additional cost.

On a university sandwiched between lakes, access to public transportation is all-important. There are only 13,000 campus parking spaces for some 80,000 students and employees (and even more visitors), which means that most students can’t keep cars.

The UW has been encouraging students to use other modes of transportation — including their legs — since at least 1924, when massive traffic jams behind Bascom Hall resulted in the university’s first parking restrictions. The rules forbade students from parking on campus east of the Stock Pavilion, freeing up space for faculty and visitors.

By 1963, campus bus lines were carrying more than 1.5 million passengers during the academic year. But UW students briefly revolted against their favorite motor vehicle. In fall 1966, the City of Madison converted University Avenue into a one-way street pointing west while allowing buses to use a “wrong way” lane heading east. A female student was soon struck by on oncoming bus. That spring, hundreds of UW students — already mobilized by the Vietnam War — protested the wayward lane by blocking an approaching bus with their bodies. The event led to a brief suspension of citywide bus service.

In the late ’60s, some feared that the city would lose its bus service altogether, with ridership rates dropping and the private Madison Bus Company nearing insolvency. The City of Madison purchased the business and formally took over the operation of the bus system in 1970.

Metro Transit has been a steady caretaker of the campus lines ever since. The unlimited-ride student bus passes arrived in the 1990s, and the campus bus routes became fare-free in the early 2000s.

Preparing for its Bus Rapid Transit program, the city launched a massive network redesign in 2023. Most of its routes were reconfigured and renamed with letters instead of numbers, but not the campus lines. So the 80 bus — reliably running every five minutes at peak times — lives on.

Published in the Spring 2025 issue