A revision-minded University Transit Service is in the driver's seat and is now set to start down the road to some significant route and schedule changes.
According to Rebecca White, director of Parking and Transportation, UTS is planning alterations to its routes, schedules and service intended to be implemented by fall 2008.
White said the proposed changes stem from five main issues such as a need to update routes and address traffic delays.
"Number one, the blue-orange, the primary route that serves students, has not been revised since 1985," White said. "Housing demographics have changed."
White also noted that because the current route is actually one long "figure-eight," traffic delays can have a rippling, negative effect on the system.
Additionally, White said UTS would like to simplify the schedule's time tables, maintain a single schedule as opposed to the current "night-day" and "regular-holiday" ones and further serve high-demand areas such as Hereford and first-year dormitories.
White said an open forum for student input will be held this evening at 6 p.m. in the Forum at Observatory Hill.
"We are looking for feedback," White said. "We don't want to start from scratch, but we are going to make a proposal and then go from there."
Student Council President Lauren Tilton said the forum later today is the product of a dialogue between Student Council and UTS during the past summer.
"When you think about UTS, they are also serving the Health System and the Medical Center," Tilton said. "[Undergraduate] students are just one part. But we wanted to make sure students are heard, so we agreed to have the forum."
Tilton, like White, said one of the primary issues that needs to be discussed is how to better service first-year students. She also noted that a "dorm" route has been suggested to enhance the service provided to all those living in on-Grounds housing.
"The question is, how do we make Lambeth, Copeley and Faulkner feel less far away?" Tilton said.
Tilton added that the number of bus stops on McCormick Road and the construction of bus stop shelters may also be discussed.
Isaac Wood, chair of Council's Student Life Committee, said the forum will help determine a feasible solution to current transportation woes.
"There was a need for a forum so that every student would have the option to weigh in on it, and we suggested and planned the upcoming forum," Wood said.
White said the planned GPS-based system allowing students to track bus location will be installed before any route changes are implemented, adding that the GPS system will be modified when the routes are.
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