EDITORIAL – SafeRider needs extension, improvement

It seems that there are some glitches in Pitt’s after-hours transportation system.

SafeRider… It seems that there are some glitches in Pitt’s after-hours transportation system.

SafeRider is a mode of transportation provided by the University for students to arrive safely at their destinations between the late hours of the evening and the early hours of the morning.

During the school year, this service starts at 7 p.m. and ends at 3 a.m. on weeknights and 5 a.m. on weekends. Throughout the summer months, it begins at 9 p.m. and ends at 3 a.m. all week long.

Each student is granted 20 trips per semester and one round trip per evening within the parameters of SafeRider travel boundaries. The boundaries are the same as Pitt’s daytime shuttles.

The problems exist in the fact that these SafeRider travel boundaries do not include all of the Pitt-owned apartment buildings. Thus, if a student in need of this service lived at College Gardens, she would be dropped off five blocks from her destination.

This doesn’t seem logical. If SafeRider’s purpose is to ensure the safety of Pitt students after hours, how does dropping off a student far from his or her destination fulfill that purpose?

Let’s face it: These are trying times here in Pittsburgh. To say that crime is a concern is an understatement. Anyone in decent range of a Pittsburgh newspaper headline can attest to the recent increase in crime.

While the majority of these incidents of crime are not inflicted upon Pitt students, it dramatically affects students because the scene of the crime isn’t just on “Law ‘ Order” anymore; it’s in our back yard.

This summer alone, three women have been held up at gunpoint in the Oakland area. Also in the past months, the reported shootings on Dawson, Frazier and Ward streets — streets that many Pitt students call home — lead us all to question not only what strides the city of Pittsburgh will take, but also the strides the University will take.

Another factor that should influence some of the restrictions of SafeRider is the current state of Pittsburgh transportation. More often than not, if you hear anything about Port Authority, they’re on strike, off strike or just suffering financially. But more specifically, we as students see that bus schedules are becoming less accurate and buses stop running even earlier.

All things considered, the University does deserve praise for even instituting a service such as SafeRider with door-to-door service. Let’s face it, unless a meter is running — or your gas mileage — it’s not likely that you will get such service with any form of alternative transportation.

But at the same time, Carnegie Mellon University’s after-hours service, ESCORT, runs throughout the year — including the summer months — daily from 6:30 p.m. to 6:40 a.m., and each student has an unlimited number of trips each semester.

On an average school day at Pitt, that’s a half hour earlier starting, and it ends three and a half hours later. While they also have parameters, the CMU service provides transportation between any university building and all university-owned off-campus residences.

But then again, CMU students pay much more than we do to attend school. So it’s likely that someone is out there writing an editorial about the need for a limousine service at CMU.

But, at the very least, Pitt should include all University-owned residences within the boundaries of SafeRider. It also wouldn’t hurt if SafeRider ended at 5 a.m. daily as opposed to 3 a.m., since that is the standard for half of the week anyway.

Considering the dangerous times we are living in, someone has to account for the shortcomings of the public transportation system to ensure the safety of Pitt students, staff and faculty. Pitt invests so much in student recruitment; it wouldn’t hurt to protect them to the best of their ability when they get here.