2008 Woodie Awards
Nighttime van offers services off campus
Michelle Burwell
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Campus
In an effort to provide more safe rides to students, the Miami Nighttime Door to Door van extended its services to include off-campus-to-off-campus transportation for the first time in more than 12 years.
Prior to Jan. 5, 1995, the Nighttime Door to Door service provided off-campus-to-off-campus transportation to students. However, after several sexual assaults in the spring of 1994, the service decided to re-focus its time and resources on those who utilized the service the most.
According to Perry Gordon, assistant director of parking and transportation services, the sexual assaults led transportation systems to analyze the services and see what could be improved.
Gordon said the service shifted in order to be more accommodating to their primary riders - first-year students who live in residence halls. Off-campus trips were increasing the average completion time of rides, taking the van out of use for too long.
"Most of our riders historically are female; about 85 to 90 percent in any given year," Gordon said. "And most of those females are in first-year residence halls."
The van could be off campus for more than 50 minutes, leaving on-campus students away from a Miami Metro line and without
safe transportation.
"From 1988 to 1985 the average completion time was 21 minutes," Gordon said. He explained that the average completion time is the time a student picks up the phone to call for a ride to the time the van drops the student off.
That's why in January of 1995 the decision was made to eliminate off-campus transportation and focus on getting the average completion time down for the service's primary riders - on-campus students.
However, in recent years, the average completion time has dropped to 14 minutes. Gordon explained that the drivers have become more efficient and picked up multiple people along the way, rather than picking one up at a time. The completion time also dropped because of the elimination of off-campus trips, and the impact to the average completion time after adding the off-campus-to-off-campus service has not yet been measured.
Prior to Jan. 5, 1995, the Nighttime Door to Door service provided off-campus-to-off-campus transportation to students. However, after several sexual assaults in the spring of 1994, the service decided to re-focus its time and resources on those who utilized the service the most.
According to Perry Gordon, assistant director of parking and transportation services, the sexual assaults led transportation systems to analyze the services and see what could be improved.
Gordon said the service shifted in order to be more accommodating to their primary riders - first-year students who live in residence halls. Off-campus trips were increasing the average completion time of rides, taking the van out of use for too long.
"Most of our riders historically are female; about 85 to 90 percent in any given year," Gordon said. "And most of those females are in first-year residence halls."
The van could be off campus for more than 50 minutes, leaving on-campus students away from a Miami Metro line and without
safe transportation.
"From 1988 to 1985 the average completion time was 21 minutes," Gordon said. He explained that the average completion time is the time a student picks up the phone to call for a ride to the time the van drops the student off.
That's why in January of 1995 the decision was made to eliminate off-campus transportation and focus on getting the average completion time down for the service's primary riders - on-campus students.
However, in recent years, the average completion time has dropped to 14 minutes. Gordon explained that the drivers have become more efficient and picked up multiple people along the way, rather than picking one up at a time. The completion time also dropped because of the elimination of off-campus trips, and the impact to the average completion time after adding the off-campus-to-off-campus service has not yet been measured.
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perry gordon
posted 4/13/07 @ 8:29 AM EST
In reference to the story on the Nghttime Door-to-Door service, the writer misread the statistics that I provided as background for the story. The article states that the service transported 1115 people in 2001-02. (Continued…)
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