Opinion Board | Riding to safety

With the shooting at the Koko Bongo over the weekend, nobody needs to be reminded that we live on an urban campus that is far from immune to crime.

Fortunately, Penn has a number of security measures in place to protect its students: 898-WALK, 898-RIDE and the fourth-largest private police force in the country. For the most part (at least for now), students feel safe walking around campus.

But while students can request a walking escort through 898-WALK at any hour of the day, 898-RIDE only operates from 6 p.m to 3 a.m., with a limited on-call service available from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m.

The 6 p.m. start time works as long as it doesn't get dark before then, but it won't in a week when we set our clocks back for daylight savings.

Once winter sets in, it'll be getting dark as early as 4:30. It's no revelation that the streets get more dangerous once night falls, so it would seem obvious that the 898-RIDE's schedule should adjust to sync with sundown.

Strangely, Penn Transit has no plans to offer this service earlier.

Granted, it wouldn't make sense from a cost perspective to offer shuttle service 24/7 (and there's no real need), but would it be that financially straining to have the shuttles begin their routes at 5 p.m. rather than 6 p.m.?

Given how committed the University says it is to student safety, adjusting the schedule should be a no-brainer.

898-WALK often can't efficiently dispatch escorts to off-campus locations due to availability issues (and who wants to wait an hour or more for an escort?), nor does the service extend as far eastward as 898-RIDE. In that sense, Penn Transit's decision not to change the shuttle schedule becomes more than just odd. It's dangerous.

Bureaucracy should not be allowed to trump student safety.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.