A campus-wide e-mail notified us this week that Transportation Services and the student-led Finance and Facilities Committee (FiFaC) are implementing direct shuttles to Boston and New York City for our upcoming Thanksgiving break, which are estimated at a cost of $20 per student. Additionally, these groups have also proposed the addition of a Zipcar rental service on campus. Both of these measures will help to compensate for the University’s current lack of transportation services.
This new transportation shuttle trial run is in part a reaction to PeterPan Bus Service’s stopping all service to Middletown this past summer. While we would have liked to have seen this new expansion of transportation services before PeterPan Bus Service’s cutbacks, overall we are pleased with Transportation Services’ and FiFaC’s rapid response to try and satisfy student transportation needs, especially in the midst of an economic crisis and budget cutbacks.
Compared with other colleges in the Northeast, Wesleyan is extremely isolated. Many Northeast schools already have extensive transportation service structures in place. Brandeis University, for example, offers a free Boston/Cambridge shuttle service. Yale University also has a shuttle available to pick up students from the New Haven train station. Wesleyan’s $5 shuttle to New Haven, which leaves for the New Haven train station once on Fridays and picks up there once on Sundays, is helpful but hardly sufficient.
We encourage students to sign up for the Thanksgiving break shuttle. While providing a one-way shuttle to Boston and New York is only a small step, signing up for it will both save students money and signify student interest in the University’s Transportation Services and FiFaC’s providing more transportation options.
Furthermore, Transportation Services and FiFaC are also considering implementing a Zipcar program, which would be similar to programs at Middlebury College and Smith College.
The Zipcar program has the potential to be a great resource, and according to Transportation Services Manager Marcello Curridori, it may be implemented as soon as fall 2009. Students could use it to drive to job interviews and to take day trips in Connecticut. Further, it should be able to pay for itself by its second or third year—an important motivating factor considering the current economic crisis.
This discussion of transportation options reminds us of the Ride Board that was posted in the old campus center. Although there is now an online version, the board in the campus center, while somewhat primitive, provided students with a simple, tangible option for carpooling.
The Thanksgiving break shuttles and the Zipcar program both have similar benefits to the beloved Ride Board: they allow students to save money and will promote the use of environmentally friendly group transportation.
While Wesleyan lags far behind other colleges in its transportation options, if students show interest in these new services, we have the potential to rapidly improve resources for the vast majority of students.
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