Shuttles ferrying students between the University of Missouri and their home neighborhoods depart every half hour or so. But on the Monday classes returned following Thanksgiving break, several of these shuttles abruptly cancelled services citing “weather conditions.”
Columbia had 2.6 inches of snow that day, according to the National Weather Service out of St. Louis. In the City of Columbia’s 2025 resident survey, only two in five people said they’re happy with how the city removes snow.
Reese Dorsett was in an immunology class when she got an email from her student living community, The Row. The message, sent at 11:02 a.m., said the last shuttle of that day would run at noon.
Dorsett took the bus that morning and didn’t have a car on campus. So, she left her class to make the last shuttle. Every seat was filled, and the aisle packed with students cramming in to get behind a white line marking the area riders were allowed to stand.
“I guess the shuttle from 11:15 just like never showed up,” Dorsett said. “And so then everyone was like, waiting for the 11:45, and then it was really crowded, and people almost like couldn’t get on. Because we have to like stand behind that white line.”
While Dorsett eventually got back to The Row, other students were stranded on campus, with the option to get rides from friends or use rideshare apps. Other student living communities also cancelled shuttle services mid-day.
The shuttle cancellations represent one area in which the accumulation of ice and snow on roads affects residents’ bottom lines. Dorsett said the reason she even took the shuttle back was because she thought having one of her roommates come pick her up would be dangerous given the road conditions.
Galen Hassler runs Galen’s Auto Body, a car repair shop in Columbia. Hassler said he’s seen an influx in the amount of people coming into his shop over the years, many of them students.
“When you see heavy snow, ice, you will typically see a lot more of the suspension damages versus your rear end collisions,” Hassler said. “Head-on collisions, sometimes, but the rear-end collisions, you don't see as much as you do the suspension damages.”
Hassler said repairs for suspension damage related to ice and snow can cost a few thousand dollars — with the upper range hitting $4,500.
While many of the associated repair costs could be covered by insurance, that may also be affected by the maintenance of roads in the winter. That’s an area of city upkeep where many Columbia residents expressed displeasure in the city’s most recent resident survey.
Michelle Guan is director of DePaul University’s actuarial science program and said better-maintained streets can equate to cheaper car insurance.
“Some communities may have strong snow removal infrastructure to maintain roads effectively," Guan said. "These factors can lower expected losses from (an) insurance perspective.”
So failing to clear snow can have a double impact: more expensive insurance or higher likelihood of needing to get repairs.
Hassler said there are preventative measures people can take to stay safe and avoid dealing with car insurance during the winter months. One important method is to keep an eye on tires and buy new ones if necessary.
“We actually have seen a couple accidents just in the last month that we've had accidents where the customers, you know, come in; they're wrecked,” Hassler said. “And I look at the tires, and I'm like, the tires are bald.”
Though the average set of tires costs several hundred dollars, when roads are left slick, it may be the safest, cheapest option.
