News > September 4, 2008

By Katie Phillips | Staff writer

The university decided to add a night schedule to the shuttle bus that commutes students to and from different locations on campus. Stops at night will now be regularly scheduled, just as they are during the day.

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Unlike in the past, the university shuttle is running on a schedule at night this year instead of being “on-call.” (Sophie Mullinax/Old Gold & Black)

Previously, night shuttles only ran after 6 p.m. when a specific call was placed by a student.

Regularly scheduled service will be available from 7:45 a.m. until nearly 3 a.m. The shuttle use has increased by over one-third in popularity in the past four years, growing from 29,000 to 43,000 student users per year. Similarly, the number of night shuttle users has grown from three times to five times the amount of day shuttle users in the past four years, according to University Police statistics.

Originally, the shuttle operated through a system of volunteers, an initiative started by Student Government in 1999.

Now it is run by official Campus Police Department, uniformed, full-time drivers. Student Body President Jermyn Davis, said that last year the Student Government sent in the suggestion to make scheduled stops for the night shuttle in order to “enhance safety of the students regularly using the night shuttle.”

“The shuttle is designed for safety … and at the same time, ridership has grown tremendously, so we’re trying to be more efficient,” Chief of Police, Regina Lawson said.

For the Police Department and others, creating a night schedule seems to add a new level of safety for riders, so that no one is waiting in line for the shuttle to dart around campus and from dorm to dorm in an inefficient manner. The daytime route begins at a stop in the lower lot of Student Drive off of Polo Road at 7:45 a.m. It then proceeds with stops in this order throughout the day: the upper lot of Student Drive, the First Assembly of God church parking lot, the Worrell Professional Center, Wingate Road between Calloway/Kirby Halls and Greene Hall, Tribble Hall, Winston and Salem Halls, Lot C and finally Lot A before the shuttle heads back to Student Drive.

The day system for the shuttle is designed to be at each individual stop every twenty minutes. This continues all day and once back at Student Drive at 6 p.m., the night shuttle begins.

The night route is slightly different, with fewer stops at academic buildings and more stops at residence halls.

It, too, begins at Student Drive at 6 p.m., thus proceeding to make stops at the First Assembly of God parking lot, the Townhouse Apartments, Palmer and Piccolo residence halls, Greene Hall, Tribble Hall, Lot C, Lot A, Lot P, Martin and Polo residence halls, and finally making a stop at Martin residence hall before heading back to the lower lot of Student Drive.

The last night shuttle leaves Student Drive at 2:30 a.m. and proceeds to make one last loop through campus before finishing at Tribble Hall at 2:44 a.m.

The night shuttle system is designed to be at each individual stop every 30 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the day shuttle due to the increase in night stops at residence halls.

Both day and updated night timetables are posted at each stop around campus.