348-RIDE: Useful or Useless?

It’s a Thursday night that has dragged on a bit too long, but there is still one pressing question; how in the world am I getting home? If you live on campus the obvious answer is 348-RIDE. But what if you don’t? Are you forced to drive home when its clear it’s not a good idea, or do you try to find a friends house to stay at and regret the decision to live off of campus. 348-RIDE is an asset to many students at the University of Alabama, but there are many downsides to the free taxi service the university has provided. The fact is that not only does 348-RIDE not pick up students at off campus locations, but the limited hours of operations, and the long wait periods are all major problem areas that this program needs to address.
The 348-RIDE service is tremendously helpful to on campus residents, but for students that live off campus, it isn’t helpful at all. While students do have other options to get home, none are free or as easily accessible as 348. Roughly seventy percent of students that attend the University live off of campus, and there need to be more safe ways for these students to get home at night (University of Alabama- Off-campus Housing 2).One solution to this problem is to have the shuttles service off campus locations where there are large student populations. Some of these locations could be large apartment complexes such as University Village, University Downs, and The Retreat, where a vast majority of students live. If just these three complexes were added, many more students would be able to utilize 348-RIDE and hopefully decrease the amount of alcohol related traffic citations. 348-RIDE saves lives every night of the week, but so many students are putting themselves at risk when they decide to get behind the wheel of a car after they have been drinking. If the University offered more transportation options, one could only imagine how many more lived could be saved each day.
Another issue with 348-RIDE is the limited hours of operation. 348 does not begin running until ten p.m., which doesn’t seem too early, but most Crimson Ride buses stop running at seven p.m. Students that live in residence halls that are far from the center off campus are faced with the dilemma of walking and putting themselves at risk, or driving and knowing that their car has to be moved by six the next morning. If 348 is not going to start operating until ten, then the buses should be required to run until 348 opens. This would give students a way around campus nearly 24 hours a day.
If you are depending on 348-RIDE to get home, you should probably call at least forty-five minutes early because the wait time to be picked up or dropped off is ridiculous. On game day weekends, especially, the wait can be up to an hour for a ride. Luckily 348-express has helped to alleviate the high quantity of students that need rides, but it still is an enormous problem that must be addressed. A simple solution would be to put more shuttle vans into service on the weekend nights when demand is highest. If the wait time was decreased then that would, in turn, mean a higher capacity of students could be transported each night.
Another benefit of expanding the 348 ride system is that it would free the local taxi services. If students on campus have more ways to get around, then there will not be such a huge back up for any of the taxi services on campus. These are the simplest ways to correct the problems so that 348 can become more helpful to more students. If these problems were addressed and corrected then it would be a much more efficient and useful service that would benefit a much larger portion of the student population.