Penn Transit underused but appreciated

After two years at Penn and innumerable forays into Center City and West Philadelphia, College senior Elias Gonzalez was stumped when asked about Penn Transit Services.

Between the Penn Shuttle, Penn Bus and the newly added Campus Loop routes, he was “totally ignorant of what they do and what they can do.”

As a sophomore transfer student from the United States Military Academy, Gonzalez was never formally introduced to Penn’s $3.7-million transit service.

His two-day orientation — best described as a “Cliffs Notes version” of the New Student Orientation for incoming freshmen — made no mention of the service, and Gonzalez had not heard about it since.

Under the radar

Many students can recite the 898-RIDE phone number from their NSO presentations, but few can identify the service to which it leads.

Wharton junior Amelia Wilson spent the majority of her freshman year thinking that the number led to a pseudo-chauffeur service.

College junior and former Daily Pennsylvanian staff member Lauren Hitt once called from 30th Street Station only to be turned down because she had reached Penn Accessible Transit — a separate Penn Transit service available only to those suffering from disabilities.

In reality, 898-RIDE directs students to the Penn Shuttle Service, which has designated stops on campus and provides door-to-door service off campus between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m.

In response to students’ confusion, Penn Transit has increased its outreach during NSO over the last two years by offering preceptorials in conjunction with SEPTA and SEPTA’s Youth Advisory Board to introduce students to the different transportation options on campus and around the city.
Eighty students participated in last year’s seminar and 34 signed up this fall.

However, as seminar attendee and College junior Sophie Choi pointed out, “It’s not the easiest thing to understand — especially during NSO.”

A convoluted system

Even for those looking to be proactive, accessible information can be elusive.

Choi, who first looked up Penn Transit online in order to get to a friend’s house on 49th and Springfield streets, said she was baffled by the website’s convoluted schedules and explanations.

“You couldn’t really tell which service was which and the times were really complicated to read,” Choi said.

Ironically, schedules at actual Penn Transit stops are kept to a minimal level of simplicity, substituting, “Shuttles come every 20 minutes” as an all-encompassing statement for timetables.

To students like Choi, that loosely translated to “the most you’ll have to wait is for 20 minutes, but it could be one minute, three minutes or 17 minutes,” fueling uncertainty and ultimately frustration.

Unrecognized success

Despite these grievances, many frequent Penn Transit riders testify to the overall quality and convenience afforded by its services.

Wilson remembers on numerous occasions when the drivers would wait by the roadside until she had entered her house before driving away.

Penn Transit was first introduced in 1972 following an attack on campus, which bred an impetus for safer travel alternatives. It began as a bus service and then evolved to incorporate shuttles by 1985. Eventually, the system added Penn Walk, an escort service provided by the Division of Public Safety, said John Gustafson, assistant manager of Penn Transit Services.

Many athletes and graduate students who live farther off-campus are already frequent beneficiaries of the service.

On most days after practice, College junior and football player Dan Saris can be found riding Penn Transit home with a crew of his teammates, each saddled with equipment too heavy to carry.
“It is a really good service … but largely underused by students,” Saris said.

Contrary to what the learning curve might suggest, Penn Transit has enjoyed a steady increase in ridership since its inception. During the last fiscal year, monthly ridership peaked in November at 60,565 riders, according to Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger.

Penn Transit is also currently the largest shuttle system provided by a single university. Most universities offer either shuttles or buses, but rarely both, Lea-Kruger added.

Stanford University’s Marguerite Shuttle operates under a similar program. However, it does not offer door-to-door drop-offs nor does it offer evening and weekend services from mid-June to mid-September.

Bettering Penn Transit

In a push to “satisfy the students and improve the service,” Penn Transit streamlined its website last fall according to rider feedback, said Matthew Brown, associate director of Penn Transit Services.

The new website also incorporates a direct link to Penn Transit’s latest GPS initiative, PennRides.

PennRides sends real-time information to students’ smartphones and computers about a shuttle’s location, carrying capacity and expected time of arrival.

Choi, who originally found the website difficult to use, responded positively to the changes.
“It definitely does a much better job of explaining what the different services are and where the different buses go,” she said.

With the opening of Penn Park and Penn’s continuous eastward expansion, Penn Transit has also introduced Campus Loop, which will operate between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Prior to the launch of Campus Loop, Penn Transit offered services only after 5 p.m.

Lea-Kruger admitted that the services can be confusing, but she emphasized that this is true of any major public transit system.

“Students should give [Penn Transit] a call if they don’t understand it. There are staff that will walk you through it,” she said. “Just try it.”

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