Some 17 students stood at bus stops yesterday to warn those waiting for a bus that they could be wasting their time and risking their health.

Seven students at the Pattee and Paterno Library and 10 students by East Halls promoted walking and biking as part of a project for Biology 450W (Experimental Field Biology).

Students held signs and passed out fliers with statistics comparing walking time to bus travel time.

For each location, the walking time either beat or tied the time students recorded for taking a bus, which included waiting for the bus, driving and walking to each location from the closest bus stop.

Ellen Lovelidge (senior-biology) noted health benefits inherent to walking, and said she learned in her strength training class that students lose an average of six pounds a semester by walking to class.

Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) Service Development Manager Eric Bernier said in the past few years, CATA has worked closely with the university to strategically locate bus stops for students who need to travel across the campus rather than travel short distances.

"It's entirely possible that someone could walk from East Halls to the Creamery faster than taking the bus," he said. "The people who go only one or two blocks are the ones slowing the system down ... but if someone is determined to take the bus one or two blocks, they're going to take the bus one or two blocks."

After spending an hour at the bus stop, the group walked around campus in a mock bus created by holding rope together, encouraging students along the way to walk with them. When the group reached Allen Street, it handed out fliers promoting hiking.

The students' biology professor, Chris Uhl, stood with them at East Halls. "Every time you do something good for your body, like walking, you are also doing something good for your pocketbook, like not spending money on gas, and something good for the environment," he said.

He said 25 percent of car trips in the United States are under a mile.

Mike Krueger (freshman-finance) walked through the demonstration in East Halls.

"This shows that they should get more buses," he said. "It doesn't show that more people should walk."

Although Vinny Fattorusso (junior-kinesiology) was not initially a demonstrator, he picked up a sign and stood with the protesters.

"I usually take the bus, but these girls talked me out of it," he said.