BYU’s shuttle system provides an appreciated service for many students in Provo, allowing them to get to and from home quickly even if they don’t live close to campus. For some students, however, the benefit is more than just practical.

“It just brings me back to Warsaw in a way I never thought anything could,” says recently returned missionary Robert Banks. “After leaving Poland three months ago I didn’t realize how much I would miss being crammed into small space with twenty to forty strangers. The lack of personal space really makes me feel at home; I’ll even throw on a white shirt and sit on the bus for its whole route from time to time.”

The sentiment is shared by another recent RM, Julie Strower. “While I was in Honduras I just fell in love with the people, especially the way they smelled in already overcrowded and under-air-conditioned buses built out of spare parts. Sometimes, I accidentally start talking to people about the Church in Spanish too; just last week I invited my ward’s Relief Society President to be baptized.”

Acting quickly on this feedback, President Worthen has already instructed BYU Transportation workers to put out bids on Soviet-era buses built in the 1960s to replace the current fleet of vehicles.