Students on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus are being offered another sustainable way to commute to the Tempe campus with the university’s new express shuttle.
Along with the rest of ASU’s fleet of intercampus shuttles, the new express shuttle is a free service and is equipped with Wi-Fi, so students and faculty can access the Internet on their commute. The 31-passenger shuttle runs from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, making hourlong round trips between the Downtown and Tempe campuses.
Shereen Shaw, the communications specialist for ASU Business and Finance, said the new shuttle will benefit Downtown Phoenix campus students and faculty who commute between Phoenix and Tempe.
“(The express shuttle) is another way to meet the growing demands of the growing university,” Shaw said. “We realize that many students will have classes at many, if not all four, of the campuses, and so this is a way that Parking and Transit Services provides for a sustainable way for students to get between campuses.”
Shaw also said the intercampus shuttles are a way for students and faculty to make productive use of their time while commuting between campuses.
“Because the shuttles are equipped with Wi-Fi, students can get onto social media, they can use whatever electronic device they want that connects to the Internet,” Shaw said. “Faculty can grade papers, they can access Blackboard and they can do whatever they need to do in preparation for the class they are about to teach.”
Shaw said the total intercampus shuttle expenditures for the university are $4.7 million, an increase from the $2.6 million spent last year. She said that although the service isn’t free to ASU, Parking and Transit Services sees it as a great benefit to the students and faculty.
Nutrition sophomore Ashley Alaniz typically takes the shuttle twice a week to Tempe for her dance class. She said she has taken the new express shuttle to Tempe, although she wasn’t sure what the difference was between the new white express shuttle and the original shuttles.
“I think that they should send an email to every ASU student to let them know about it,” Alaniz said. “When I was there waiting for the shuttle, I was expecting the ‘Maroon Shuttle,’ and then the white shuttle just came and I figured I’d get on it if I had to.”
In addition to the express shuttle, ASU has implemented weekend and game-day shuttles to further convenience students who don’t live on the Tempe campus. Frank Smith, Undergraduate Student Government Downtown President, said the new weekend shuttles run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every hour and the game day shuttles will run from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next day hourly.
“This really unifies our campuses,” Smith said. “It really speaks to the model of one university in many places and it’s really bridging that gap of transportation.”
For game days, Alaniz said she still plans on taking the light rail, despite the new game-day shuttles.
“People prefer taking different transportation,” she added. “Some (students) could take the shuttle for the games, and some could take the light rail.”
Contact the reporter at Nina.Barone@asu.edu
