Students driving drunk between North and South Campus are a fact of life on the Hill. It is time the university and students come up with a viable solution.

One reason many students give for taking their chances with a drunken drive down Comstock Avenue is the number of buses that head to South after 1 a.m. on weekends. If you hope to catch a bus after 1 a.m. you only have four chances – or you can wait until 9 a.m.

The schedules are controlled by the university following meetings with Centro, said Steve Koegel, the company’s spokesperson. Centro does not have any 24-hour routes and the shuttles to the campus are the latest buses running every night.

‘If the university wants us to provide more service that is something we could look into,’ he said.

More service, especially on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights is exactly what is needed to make sure drunk driving is never an option. Operating cost per hour for a Centro bus is between $50-60, Koegel said.

If for those three nights two more buses were added to make runs for four hours each between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. the cost for an entire 15-week semester would be about $20,000. That is less than one student’s tuition for a year.

The university could also subsidize taxis to wait at College Place during times late at night when there are fewer shuttles. Students would always know of a place they could go for a cheap ride home that could be partially funded by the university and worked out with a local company.

Scot Vanderpool, of parking and transit services at SU, said the shuttle service now is built to facilitate the academic mission of the university. If there is an academic need the university will address it, he said. Vanderpool also mentioned other programs such as the Department of Public Safety’s Shuttle You Home service as options for students on campus late at night.

While SU is certainly an academic institution first, it also has a responsibility to make sure it gives students every option to make good choices. For $20,000 a semester the Hill could become a safer place on weekends. That would be money well spent.

RYAN GAINOR IS A JUNIOR NEWSPAPER AND PHILOSOPHY MAJOR. E-MAIL AT RMGAINOR@SYR.EDU.

Published on February 2, 2005 at 12:00 pm