Letter to the Editor: Shuttle Service Operates With Maximum Efficiency

By: Ian Quinn
Posted In: Opinion

Dear Editor,

As a sophomore here at Salve Regina University (and also as a work-study dispatcher for the Office of Safety & Security), I wish to call not your attention, but those of your readers, to your recent publication of 17 November 2004, specifically in which your article entitled “Saturday Night at Miley Hall” stated that the shuttle service “after calling … takes roughly [a] half hour to arrive, and waits an average of thirty seconds for you to get in before it speeds out of the parking lot to pick up someone else.”

Speaking as a university student, I would be entirely outraged if a shuttle I called for did not make its way to a destination within a 30-minute period, and then waited for the amazingly short time of 30 seconds! We students of Salve Regina have every right to expect that since we are essentially paying for the operation of the shuttle through our tuitions, it should operate in a timely – but safe – manner.

If I had to wait for 30 minutes, and then missed the shuttle because some NASCAR-wannabe driver zipped out of the parking lot almost as quickly as he came in, I would say “to heck with the shuttle!” and might end up walking.

Speaking as a work-study Security Dispatcher (who writes this article to you in a capacity reflectively solely of my personal views and experiences, not as an official representative of the Office of Safety & Security), I can assure you and your readers that the quote from your article, referred to in the above sections, is entirely inaccurate. It is true that the shuttles may sometimes become busy and may develop a waiting queue of students, but our shuttle drivers operate with the maximum of efficiency while not endangering the students on board.

Furthermore, I have personally observed via our radio system on more than one instance a high degree of cooperation between the drivers in assisting each other to transport students between destinations, irregardless of the shuttle’s assigned area of operations (on-campus or off-campus).

However, the leading cause of shuttle delays comes not from the shuttles themselves, but from fellow students like myself. I have personally observed on more instances than I care to imagine a shuttle driver observing in frustration that a student will have called for a ride, then has not bothered to walk downstairs and out front of the building to wait for the shuttle.

Yes, I understand that talking with your friends is a good thing, but I would call for the exercise of common sense by a small minority of your readers, who can often create a sizeable delay by creating what our shuttle drivers refer to as a “no-show.” (As our shuttle drivers are extremely patient, and will often wait for several minutes in order to give the student an opportunity to reach the shuttle.)

Finally, to correct something which was apparently overlooked in the article, I would of course remind your readers that the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority trolleys continue operations through the Salve Regina campus until approximately 8:00pm on weekdays, and 8:30pm on weekends and holidays (these times approximated from the RIPTA schedule outside Seaview Hall).

As was stated to SRU students via the campus e-mail system at the beginning of the semester, our on-campus shuttle begins operation at 6pm, continuing until 1am, while our off-campus shuttle commences operation at 8pm, delivering off-campus until midnight. However, it will continue to pick up students calling from downtown Newport between midnight and 1am (but it will not drop off students those times in the downtown).

I thank you for your attention to these matters.

Sincerely,

Ian P. Quinn