Tempe Orbit Bus

Thursday, November 19 2009 15:24

Arizona State students have a number of great options for getting around Phoenix and Tempe.  We have discussed all of the great advantages of living in apartments near phoenix light rail and taking your bike with you on the light rail.  Taking a bike with you on the light rail is a great way to get around Tempe when you are at the Arizona State campus, but what if you need to get a little bit further?  Enter the Tempe Orbit Bus.  This system combined with Phoenix light rail offers a public transportation system covering much of the greater Phoenix area for $40 per semester or $80 for a full year for currently enrolled Arizona State Students.

Orbit Bus is the city of Tempe’s free public transportation system.  It is perfectly designed to transport Tempe residents from the Phoenix light rail stations around to various areas of Tempe.  The system is broken into five thematically named routes with buses travelling by each stop every fifteen minutes from 6am to 10pm.

Orbit Mercury transports riders from the ASU campus and downtown Tempe to the eastern areas of Tempe ending at the Escalante Center along 8^th street, Hayden lane and Lemon Street.  The eastern bound leg of the Mercury Orbit travels toward the Escalante Center and the Westbound travels toward downtown Tempe.

Orbit Earth travels from the Arizona State University campus to the north Tempe.  This is the route of choice to get from downtown Tempe to the Tempe Marketplace and access to the Tempe Multi-Gen Center.

Orbit Venus is the systems western bound route providing coverage for western Tempe.  Venus Orbit travels from downtown Tempe to Broadway Road and Beck Avenue along Fifth Street, Roosevelt Street and Farmer Avenue.  The “Forward” route travels in a clockwise direction and the reverse is the “Back” route.

Orbit Jupiter covers half of the southern Tempe region.  Orbit Jupiter covers downtown Tempe and the Tempe Public Library along College Avenue and Dorsey Lane.  This route also serves our sister Tempe apartment community Rancho Las Palmas with easy access to the Dorsey Phoenix Light Rail Station.  The “Forward “ route travels in a clockwise direction and “Back” runs the return route.

Orbit Mars covers the other half of southern Tempe and also ventures a little further covering southeast Tempe.  This route covers the neighborhoods from Broadway Road and US 60 from McClintock Drive to the eastern Tempe border.  The eastbound route runs toward Ehrhardt Park and the westbound route returns to the Tempe Public Library.