New bus adds stops on academic campus
Finding motivation to walk from the Stuart C. Siegel Center to Oliver Hall on a hot, humid day can be difficult. VCU’s Office of Parking and Transportation might have made life a bit cooler for those who have to make that walk. They created a new shuttle bus.
Finding motivation to walk from the Stuart C. Siegel Center to Oliver Hall on a hot, humid day can be difficult. VCU’s Office of Parking and Transportation might have made life a bit cooler for those who have to make that walk. They created a new shuttle bus.
The VCU Outer Loop bus took off for the first time Monday, adding additional transportation service between VCU’s Medical Campus and its academic counterpart. The difference between the existing Campus Connector bus and the new shuttle is that VCU’s Outer Loop bus stops at several locations on the academic campus, enabling students and faculty easier access to all buildings.
“The new shuttle gives students the choice of being a block away from where they need to be,” said Paul Jez, associate vice president for business services and treasurer. “The Campus Connector only makes one stop on the academic campus – in front of the James Branch Cabell Library.”
The reason for the additional transportation service, he added, is the growth of students on the academic campus, in combination with the increase in the student population who live on the medical campus but take classes on the academic side.
“I think the new shuttle is a great idea,” said
| For more information and exact routes, please visit: http://www.bsv.vcu.edu/vcupark/shuttle.htm. |
Ashley Dickerson, a sophomore at VCU. “I live on West Broad Street and coming to Life Sciences will be much easier.”
While the bus-stops on the medical campus remain the same as the Campus Connector shuttle, the academic campus is equipped with new stops. The shuttle will serve student housing apartments on West Broad Street, the School of the Arts Building, Siegel Center, W.E. Singelton Center for the Performing Arts, School of Business, Oliver Hall and the Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for Life Sciences.
“Our (academic) campus has expanded north,” said William Johnson, parking and transportation manager. “We needed something new to connect it.”
The VCU Outer Loop shuttle is free of charge for students, faculty and staff as long as they show their VCU identification card. The first shuttle starts at Cabaniss Hall on VCU’s Medical Campus at 7 a.m. and returns to that location at midnight.
The bus runs approximately every 30 minutes during the academic year, Monday through Friday. However, the schedule is not certain until the first week of classes.
“Until you get the students back, you don’t know the full effects of traffic,” Jez said. “But I think it’s very important that we have a set schedule.”
The VCU Outer Loop shuttle will serve students and faculty for one year before it is reviewed to determine whether it will become a permanent transportation service.
“I sincerely hope it will succeed,” Johnson said.
While some students welcome the new service, others will rely on the traditional way of transportation.
“I don’t like waiting for busses,” said Nathan Gates, junior at VCU. “I prefer to walk.”
