One of my best friends has said, and I would have to agree, that Mary Lyon Hall (ML) would be the best dorm at Swarthmore — if not for the shuttle situation. I do not mean to say there is anything wrong with the Garnet Shuttles themselves, nor the drivers. But, as some may know, around a month or two before the end of last semester, the app that showed the location of the shuttle, Transloc, stopped working. What followed was weeks and weeks of 30-minute waits, wasted time when shuttles never arrived, and calls to Public Safety that tended to be frustrating both for those placing and those receiving the calls.
Believe me, I understand that it is not Public Safety’s first priority to tell students where the shuttle is or if it’s running, but students also do not want to have to call in order to find this out. Unfortunately, it is the only option when there is no app to let students know, and the Swarthmore College webpage “Things Riders Should Know” even encourages students who have been waiting fifteen minutes or more to call Public Safety and request that the shuttle head to their location. Students notice the annoyance in the operator’s voice when they say that the whole route can take up to 30 minutes, and students also feel annoyance, albeit for a different reason. This semester, I live in Woolman and often spend time with friends in ML; the walk itself can take up to 30 minutes. Swarthmore students are busy and they would like to know if it’s a better use of their time to wait for the shuttle — which might show up immediately (or in five minutes or 40) — or for them to just walk.
Leaving ML in the mornings is not as bad, since there are two shuttles running on campus, but what if someone is in a rush? What if it’s raining or cold? It would certainly be more pleasant to take the shuttle, but there is no longer a way for us to know if it is practical. Sometimes Public Safety is not sure where the shuttle is and cannot provide that information.
There were problems before the collapse of the app, some of which I had to deal with. On several occasions, I’d be finishing up a grueling Crumb Cafe shift and see that the shuttle was close by. After deciding to wait because of the cold or the rain or just the convenience of it, the shuttle icon would disappear from the app as the driver took a break or finished up their shift early.
This is not to say that the shuttle drivers don’t deserve breaks or that it is not understandable why they might want to leave early after a night shift, but it is the last thing students want to see when they have been studying for hours and just want to collapse in bed as soon as possible. I will acknowledge that Swarthmore has implemented some changes to improve this, such as hiring a slew of new shuttle drivers. So far this has seemed to fix the issue of there being no shuttle even when a ride is scheduled.
I am also aware that there will be a new shuttle app released sometime in the near future. I heard that there already was a new app created in the spring semester, but it was not yet ADA approved. Is there a reason we could not and cannot have the app, mostly finished but requiring final touches, now? Alternatively, is there a reason more time and effort cannot be applied to making the app ADA approved? As it stands, this unreleased app benefits no one.
While there have been improvements in the shuttle situation (more drivers, ensuring greater consistency in when the shuttle is running), there remain several frustrations. However, these problems can largely be resolved if a new, functioning, shuttle app is shared with the student body, and Public Safety responders keep in mind that us students are just as peeved about the situation as they at times sound.
