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Appalachian makes transportation changes for student safety |
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter
New legislation concerning Appalachian State University’s safe ride service and the AppalCART bus system has led to discussions regarding abuses of the services and the most efficient way to address the issues.
Student Government Association President Forrest S. Gilliam met with Vice Chancellor for Student Development Cindy A. Wallace, Director of Parking and Traffic Barry D. Sauls and Dean of Students Susie L. Green to discuss information found during the research phase of the legislation that would introduce a second phone line to safe ride.
 Freshman sociology major Sara S. Calvert waits in the snow for transport from Safe Ride outside of Plemmons Student Union Wednesday night. Calvert had been waiting for a ride to Frank Residence Hall for about 20 minutes when the photograph was taken. Photo by Derek DeSha
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“Barry Sauls made it clear that the second line wouldn’t work because there would still be the same number of vans - therefore the actual service would not be any quicker,” Gilliam said.
He said the proposal died in SGA when the Senate voted to not support the second phone line.
“I still think the second phone line would help as a short term solution, cut down wait time so at least
students can speak with someone to know a ride is on the way and to wait somewhere safe,” Gilliam
said.
Junior foods and nutrition major Rachel L. Wright said it is hard to get through to safe ride and students
usually have to call 10 times or more in a row to get through.
“Safe ride needs more vans so getting picked up would not take as long and the vans would not be full
all the time,” Wright said.
Junior foods and nutrition major Danielle Nelle said it depended on the time and day of the week as to
how difficult it was to get through to safe ride.
Gilliam said the safe ride service was initially for safety reasons only, but now groups of four and five
are using it for quick trips to the gym and convocation center.
“To help reduce these problems, safe ride will only be picking up groups of one or two students,” he
said.
Nelle said she used safe ride freshman year as a convenience to get closer to where she was going off
campus, but now believes students should not abuse the system and should only use it for safety
purposes.
“I think if you’re not in that much of a hurry, and it’s not a safety issue, you should just walk,” Nelle
said.
Gilliam said 20 percent of the calls to safe ride are from State Farm Lot, which puts those safe ride
vans out of service for a long time.
“After Spring Break, safe ride will no longer run to [State Farm Lot but] thanks to last year’s student fee
increase, we are extending the [State Farm Lot Appalcart] shuttle to 2 a.m. every weekday,” he said.
Gilliam said AppalCART is also looking into introducing one or two new routes to make a loop around
campus to hopefully ease the load on safe ride.
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