Royal Purple

Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Brad McAllister The free Downtown Shuttle was canceled last week due to a lack of riders. An average of one person rode

Empty seats have prompted a potentially permanent shutdown of the shuttle bus that until Nov. 1 ferried students between campus and downtown free of charge.

A release from Downtown Whitewater Inc., the company that financed the shuttle, cited "lack of use" as the primary reason for the decision. Tami Brodnicki, executive director of the company, said the shuttle averaged only one passenger a day.

"I am saddened by the lack of students that actually rode the free shuttle, Brodnicki said. "But at the same time I think something like this needed to happen in order for us to revisit this topic and come up with new ideas."

Ben Franklin, employee at Brown Cab, the company that provided the shuttle bus, said he wasn't very busy on a typical day. He said he hoped the service would succeed, but was disappointed while driving it because the shuttle bus didn't have many riders.

"I wish more people had used it, [driving for] it was kind of boring," Franklin said.

Downtown Whitewater's Vice President Bill Bowen said the company's board of directors will consider resuming the service for the spring 2008 semester, potentially with different hours of service and/or different routes.

Downtown Whitewater is waiting for the results of a student survey and will discuss the shuttle bus situation at future company meetings.

Brodnicki said she was confident that the shuttle bus could be a successful asset to the students, provided they actually know about it and use it.

"Absolutely this can work," Brodnicki said. "It didn't work well the first time around but we will learn from that experience and move forward. We will learn from our mistakes and try again and do better the next time around."

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