DOTS is looking into developing a free mobile application for NITE Ride to remedy some complaints about the nighttime curb-to-curb service.
The application would function like the transportation service app Uber, which allows users to request a taxi to pick them up from their preferred location, said David Allen, Department of Transportation Services director.
“Someone can request a ride via the app. They’ll know where the vehicle is; the vehicle will know where they are and can be dispatched to get them,” Allen said. “So students could stay inside, stay safe and come out as the vehicle pulls up.”
Allen said this idea came up in a recent meeting with University Police Chief David Mitchell when discussing student safety. The current Shuttle-UM NITE Ride service offers students a ride to campus destinations that normal bus routes don’t service. However, some students said they experienced long waiting times and unhelpful operators.
Senior nursing student Laurie Hunt said she uses NITE Ride regularly and thinks the app could promote safety.
“[The dispatcher] will tell me a time and I’ll go outside and wait, and I just don’t feel safe, and it’s freezing or snowing,” Hunt said. With the app, “students wouldn’t have to wait outside in the dark.”
Last week, the Residence Hall Association approved a resolution presented by Transportation Advisory Committee Chairman Steve Chen, calling for the development of the app.
About 24,000 NITE Rides were requested over the past academic year, Chen said. He said there are currently two NITE Ride vehicles serving students, with an average arrival time of about 12 minutes. However, he said, many students complain about several aspects of the service.
“The kinds of things I’ve heard are: Operators don’t pick up; service is slow; operators aren’t helpful,” Chen said. “The app will make it easier for students to know where they can request a NITE Ride and provide live, on-demand information about their requested ride, hopefully making the service more appealing and easy to use.”
Carly Brody, a junior American studies and environmental science and policy major, said when she attempted to request a NITE Ride, she wasn’t sure where it could pick her up, and she ended up walking to her destination. She said she would appreciate an app that could make the service more accessible.
Hunt agreed and said she would rather use an app to request rides than deal with the “frustrating” current dispatching system.
“It’s a really good idea, and I would definitely use it because I just get really fed up,” Hunt said. “Especially when it’s really backed up or you have to wait for a driver and sometimes you worry they forget about you — and sometimes they have.”
The university’s budget crunch led DOTS to apply for grant money to help fund the project, which would cost about $4,950 to develop, Chen said.
Allen said DOTS is pursuing grants from the Pepsi Enhancement Fund and Parents Initiatives Fund and should know whether it received both grants by the beginning of June. Allen said he has been talking with an app developer about app customization and implementing the app on the campus.
Chen said the app is expected to cost DOTS about $1 per use, which would be paid to the developer.
RHA President Sree Sinha said she was concerned that students might not be aware of the $1 cost to DOTS and would use the service arbitrarily. She said she worried that this expense would show up in mandatory fees if it became more popular than expected.
Gideon Potok, a sophomore computer science and economics major and RHA senator, voted against the RHA resolution.
“Students may not realize the impact of this service because they may not feel it in their pocket,” Potok said. “It seems like just a free taxi service.”
But Allen said he doesn’t expect to need to raise mandatory fees as a result of frequent app use.
“NITE Ride is our door-to-door service that fills in where our buses don’t go,” Allen said. “It can only be so popular because it only goes so many places.”
