Student Senate Vice President Sanah Feroz, is working with the University of Rhode Island Department of Transportation and Parking to implement bi-directional shuttle services moving in one loop throughout campus based on a Rhody Shuttle Survey she set up to gain feedback from students, faculty and staff.
Over 900 URI community members responded to the survey, which aims to implement bi-directional shuttles, which move in two directions between two locations onto campus.
Bi-directional shuttles are highly relevant to the URI campus considering its large size, according to Feroz.
With changes to the shuttle services being made solely on driver observations, this will be the first time in decades that a campus-wide survey assessing student thoughts about the shuttle service and transportation has been conducted, according to Feroz.
Prompting a smooth transition from one-way to bi-directional campus shuttles, the survey was completed to provide data that assesses multiple aspects of the URI shuttle service, according to Feroz.
“The big focus on this was to check if bi-directional shuttles was a concept that students wish to see implemented,” Feroz said. “The survey results showed that the majority of students agree they want to see [bi-directional shuttles] happen at URI.”
Roughly 30% of respondents reported that they were unsure about bi-directional shuttles but open to the services, with only 5-6% opposed to the initiative, according to Feroz.
A presentation on survey findings was given to the URI Department of Transportation and Parking so that staff can better understand student needs as they implement bi-directional shuttles onto campus, according to Feroz.
“[Student senate] doesn’t directly communicate with the shuttle services, TAP does that, but the initiative of change on campus,” Feroz said. “The actual deciding how the [shuttle] goes, where it goes and the frequency comes from TAP.”
When elected into office last spring, Feroz said her and student senate President Argha Goswami built their campaign with the initiative to tackle campus issues relevant to student needs.
Feroz picked up that there was a “campus wide sentiment” on the need to change shuttle services.
Looking at the transportation services of other universities, especially Brown University which has bi-directional shuttles, served as a major inspiration for her work, Feroz said.
“Combining two factors together, we have real life experience and we have a growing sentiment of people to see change,” Feroz said. “This is why one of the big initiatives that I campaigned for regarded bi-directonal shuttles and it’s rewarding to see it come into fruition during the end of my term with the student senate.”
This semester, Rhody Hill Climber has since implemented bi-directional shuttles, according to TAP manager, Joe Paradise. Paradise has worked with the student senate all 12 of the years he has been with TAP.
It was an easy and quick change for TAP to make with only one additional stop across Center for Biotechnology and Life Services being added to the previous route to make the shuttle bi-directional, according to Feroz.
TAP’s work with the senate has been a driving force in new initiatives such as bi-directional shuttles, according to Feroz.
“[TAP employees and staff] were the professionals that gave me this opportunity to try this new idea out,” Feroz said. “If it wasn’t for their openness and receptiveness, this initiative wouldn’t be where it is.”
Students with questions about transportation, whether those questions regard the shuttle services or not should definitely feel open to communicating with TAP according to Feroz.
“Oftentimes Transportation and Parking gets a bad reputation since they give the tickets and are in control of the parking situation,” Feroz said. “People might not necessarily always have positive feelings about them but the team is very hardworking and is truly trying to make everything better even though they get that ‘they’re just policing us’ reputation.”
The goal of TAP is to make changes based on student feedback, according to Paradise.
“If [bi-directional shuttles] are what the students want, that’s what I’m here for,” Paradise said. “I’m here to serve the students.”
