The North Wollongong man has a disability which makes getting behind the wheel of a car an impossibility.

“I can’t drive – this is my freedom,” he said while riding the bus back home on Friday morning.

Every day he travels on the shuttle with his son, taking him to school.

If the NSW government’s planned introduction of full fares in January actually happens, it’s a daily trip he simply couldn’t afford any more.

“If I lose this bus, it would be a disaster,” Mr Forscutt says.

He was one of the many people who signed the petition local MPs and fellow Gong Shuttle riders Ryan Park and Paul Scully were handing out on Friday morning.

“It’s good to see the people are trying to help,” he said.

“[The bus] really keeps people interacting with the community if they can’t get out because they don’t have a licence.”

For Mary Theoharidis, the Gong Shuttle offered an easy way to get from North Wollongong into town to do her shopping.

“It’s just convenient,” she says. “Living in this area I don't even own a car so it’s really good.”

She says she rides the green machine three or four days a week but would have to reconsider that if she had to pay.

“I’m on a pension so it would probably make it a little bit hard,” she says.

Retired emeritus professor Druce Dunn hops on the bus along Foley Street to head to the university to work on research in his field of materials engineering.

A fare wouldn’t bother him but he said he could see how a free bus benefits the wider community.

“I’d probably still use it because it is very convenient,” he says.

“But it’s good for the students and it relieves the congestion around the uni.”

Mr Scully said the petitions he and Mr Park were getting people to sign were part of the campaign to keep the Gong Shuttle free now that Mr Park’s 24-deadline for Transport Minister Andrew Constance to reverse the decision passed on Friday morning.

“It’s pretty clear from Andrew Constance’s comments is that he will not be changing his mind any time soon, so we’re going to have to once again fight as a community and take the message to the government that we don’t find this acceptable,” Mr Scully said.

Mr Park said he had written to Mr Constance calling for a meeting.

“I want to try and get a meeting with Transport for NSW and the minister with Paul and I to try and get to the bottom of exactly what has gone on here and where the evidence is that this has to be removed,” Mr Park said.