The University Transit Service's pilot program had its first trial run last weekend, providing bus service for University students between the hours of 12:20 a.m. and 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday night. Officials said the program was well-utilized but not glitch-free.
"The first weekend went really well and students are responding well to the new service," said Clayton Powers, Department of Transportation co-chair for the Student Council Student Life Committee.
The first night, April 7, 166 students used the service, which was a lower number than expected, Powers said. April 8 and April 9, over 330 students used the service each night.
Parking and Transportation Director Rebecca White confirmed that one problem occurred Thursday night when one of the bus drivers missed a section of the route because he misread the route instructions. White also said while passenger behavior has been commendable, there has been a problem with passengers trying to wave down buses at non-bus stops.
"Passengers need to wait at the bus stops," White said.
A provision of the pilot program does not allow passengers to stand and thus only permits as many passengers as there are seats. The buses seat between 24 and 28 passengers, and there were two reported instances over the weekend in which the bus could not accommodate all of the people at a stop, White said.
The program was initiated and set up by Student Council in response to student interest in a late-night weekend bus service, Powers said. Council circulated a petition last semester which asked whether students would be willing to pay up to five dollars in annual student fees for the service.
After receiving over 1,000 signatures, the petition prompted Council to request the service from the University administration. The administration agreed to the program under the conditions that student buses and student bus drivers would not be used, Powers said.
Powers added that while the program was budgeted to raise student fees by five dollars, these numbers were estimated based on the use of school buses and school drivers. Because school buses and school drivers cannot be used, the fees will most likely increase to around seven dollars.
Because the service still is in its pilot phase, Council has the opportunity to make changes that might better accommodate students, Powers said. Currently, the late-night service runs full blue and orange routes, but half the number of buses that are provided from 8 p.m. to 12:20 a.m. According to the results of the pilot program, which is scheduled to continue the next three weekends, Council will consider if and what changes should be made to the service, said Powers.
"One of our goals with this pilot program is to not only ensure that the buses are being efficiently used but to make sure this is the best use of students' transportation money," Powers said.
One option for the transportation funds could be to provide bio-diesel gasoline for UTS buses, which would make them more environmentally friendly, Powers said. He said the evaluation and effectiveness of the pilot program will better determine the use of transportation funds.
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