For students who can’t drive or lack cars, there is a solution. The Jonesboro Economical Transport, or JET, is a public bus system with stops across Arkansas State University and the Jonesboro community. 

“We have fixed route bus stops all throughout the city. We serve as a good 75-80% of the city of Jonesboro,” said Micheal Guthrey, transportation options director. “We have our paratransit service as well which is a service for people with disabilities who can’t safely utilize the fixed route bus service.”

Both the fixed route bus systems and the paratransit vans can take students wherever they need to go within the city limits. 

The buses run from 5:45 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. on Saturdays. The system does not run on Sundays. 

The system sees about 80 to 230 rides per day. 

The paratransit service, while part of the JET system, is not an actual bus. Rather, it is a van that comes to the person’s door, picks them up and takes them where they need to go. In order to qualify for the service, a person must have a functional mobility limitation that prevents them from accessing the JET fixed bus route service. 

“We get told on a regular basis how big of a help it is for people to be able to get to their doctor’s appointment or out to the store when they can’t even sometimes leave their wheelchair,” Guthrey said. 

JET began as a pilot program, which judges public interest, in 2008. Since public response was positive, the project became an entire city department. 

There are three buses that go through the A-State campus throughout the day. Stops include the First National Bank Arena for football games, the Student Union and more. 

It costs $1.25 to ride the bus and $2.50 to ride the paratransit van. However, for students with an A-State ID, they only owe 90 cents. Transactions are cash only.

A-State students can also use the A-State app, which features the JET Transit Tracker, which tells a student in real time when the next bus is arriving. The feature was implemented in 2015. 
“It shows the listing of all bus routes on campus and in the city, including all stops and the time of arrival at the stops,” said chief information officer Henry Torres in a 2015 press release. “In real-time it shows the bus moving on the map letting the user know how far it is from the next stop. It also shows businesses and locations throughout the campus and the city bus routes.”

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