Supersized shuttle buses now in drive

Two new forty-passenger shuttles appeared on campus this week after five months of building and years of waiting.

“We are trying to catch up the quality of buses with our load,” Public Safety Director Ken Vance said. “We had to get real big real fast.”

The shuttles cost approximately $90,000 each to build and will be paid for over the next two years through parking fees.

This addition to the fleet has been in the works for years, Vance said.

“We really have the same number of buses. We had to lease buses in order to carry our load until the new buses got here,” Vance said.

According to Vance, the size of the shuttles has alleviated crowding on the shuttles, but has also proved to be a problem for maneuvering around the streets en route to campus.

“Because of the length and width of the buses, we’ve had to modify the route because they just won’t fit everywhere,” Vance said.

The new shuttles currently run only from Bobcat Village to main campus, but Shuttle Supervisor Darryl Richardson said that was not the original intent. Students parking illegally on Jackson Street and Green Street are the primary barrier hindering shuttle access to dorms.

“People need to adhere to the regulations. Our responsibility to students is to get them where they need to be in a safe and timely manner,” Richardson said. “If I can’t get access to the streets, it’s making it difficult for me to give them adequate transportation.”

In the meantime, Bobcat students said they are enjoying the fast ride to campus.

Junior Amy Chappell rode the new shuttles and said they are an improvement.

“When I found out that they were going to go straight from Bobcat to campus I got excited because it is so inconvenient to go by the dorms,” Chappell said. “You don’t have to wait as long to ride.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 8 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry