Evening Express no longer shuttles students late at night
The Aggie Shuttle will no longer run till 9 p.m. on the evening routes due to the lack of student use and tight budgets.
Up until this fall, the Aggie Shuttle ran a one-bus evening route for students till 9 p.m., Alden Erickson, aggie shuttle supervisor, said. However, the bus will run till 7 p.m. starting this semester, eliminating the last two hours of service, due to the deficit in the transportation department, Erickson said.
“Budgets are not able to be run on deficits,” Erickson said about the cuts being made.
Last year, around $25,000 was spent on bus shelters across campus, Erickson said, and the department of transportation tried to sell old shuttle buses to cover the costs and deficits. However the old shuttle buses did not sell, Erickson said, and to save money and not raise student fees, the last two hours of the evening route was eliminated.
“I had to come up with quite a considerable amount of money,” Erickson said about the deficit.
By cutting the evening route by two hours, nearly $7,000 can be saved during the academic year, Erickson said.
Kia Souna, evening route shuttle driver, said she supports the elimination of the last two hours of the services.
Souna said she has encountered a few upset individuals about the change in shuttle time.
“I had a few people I had to drop off and thought it ran till 9 p.m., they were pretty upset about that,” Souna said.
Stefani Goodsell, a junior majoring in psychology, said she used the evening route for safety purposes.
“When I was a freshman living in the Student Living Center, I didn’t have a car, and if I had an SI [supplemental instruction] or something to go to that was later on in the evening, I would take the shuttle there and would not have to walk back in the dark by myself,” Goodsell said.
The Utah State University transportation department did an extensive survey about ridership, Erickson said. Last year, the shuttle drivers counted every passenger that used the service. On average, 157 people per month will be effected by the change on the evening route, Erickson said, compared to the 6,750 people that use the shuttles daily.
“I feel that 7 p.m. is way too early,” Goodsell said about the shorter hours, “because a lot of people if they want to work out or do something on campus, they don’t even make it up there until 7 p.m. and by the time 9 p.m. rolls around, if they didn’t drive, they don’t have a way home from campus.”
Erickson said he attended a national university shuttle conference and USU offers students a good service compared to other universities.
“USU has as good of system as any university, if not better,” he said, “it is university owned and operated. We are the least expensive to the students, and give as good of service, if not better.”
The average student body fee nationwide to pay for shuttle service runs $24-$37 per semester, Erickson said, however USU students pay $8 for the Aggie Shuttle.
“In the day and age where education is costing more and more…I like to keep off the backs of students as much as possible,” Erickson said to the idea of increasing student fees to maintain the evening route time.
Goodsell said the transportation department should have surveyed the students about the change of hours.
“I think they should have surveyed the students because students should have a say where the money goes in student body fees.” Goodsell said. “It’s good to know what the student body wants.”
If the student fees were increased, then the shuttle system could run the evening route till 9 p.m., Erickson said, “I need to make decisions to cut the budget and still be able to operate as efficiently as possible.”
The transportation department will put flyers up about the change of hours, Erickson said. However, the transporation website and signs posted around campus still have the old evening shift posted.