Boston University Parking and Transportation Services added a new shuttle bus to complement the already existing fleet of BU Shuttles last week, BU spokesperson Colin Riley said.
This shuttle will run on a new route called the “Comm. Ave. Loop,” according to Billy Hajjar, the director of Parking and Transportation Services. The new route skips the trip to the BU Medical Campus that the other shuttles will continue to make, as they have since the shuttle service began in 2005.
The addition of the new route is the product of a new statistical system that was used by the university last year to better understand students’ transportation needs, according to Hajjar.
“The Comm. Ave. Loop is a result of 2016-2017 passenger count data analysis and rider feedback,” Hajjar wrote in an email. “A new automated passenger counting system on the shuttle buses provided daily use patterns throughout the academic year, which included times buses tended to be at capacity.”
The new shuttle will display the words “Comm. Ave. Loop” on its electronic message boards, and it will operate weekdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., according to Hajjar, as these are the times when the buses tend to be most crowded. During these time intervals, the bus will stop at 33 Harry Agganis Way, Amory Street, St. Mary’s Street, Blandford Street, Silber Way, Marsh Plaza and the College of Fine Arts.
“We recognized that there’s greater demand for people to be able to go up and down the Charles River Campus,” Riley said. “This is why the Loop shuttle was put in during peak hours … This is just an additional [shuttle] and we don’t think it will necessarily increase the traffic on Comm. Ave.”
Students can see the path of the Comm. Ave. Loop in green on the BU mobile app. The route of the normal daytime shuttle will continue to be displayed in red, according to Hajjar.
In addition to the new bus and route, the exterior designs and mechanical systems of all the buses, including the engines, transmissions, seating, air conditioning and heating systems have been replaced or refurbished, Hajjar added. Additionally, bike racks were fitted onto the buses to allow bikers to enjoy the benefits of the shuttles as well.
Parking and Transportation Services worked closely with the BU Marketing and Communications department to redesign the graphics on the outside of the buses, according to Hajjar. The red, white and black exteriors have been replaced with a more colorful and vibrant design. Reactions to the upgrades have been “overwhelmingly positive,” Hajjar added.
Several BU students said they were ambivalent about the new design, but were happy to hear about the implementation of the new Comm. Ave. Loop.
Ruoxi Qin, a first-year graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he does not care for the new shuttle design, but he is glad that there is a new, more efficient route.
“For me, it just looks like an advertisement or something like that,” Qin said. “I think [the Loop] is great because I live in Brighton and I have to take the T here, and if the bus is getting better, then maybe it’s more convenient for me.”
Katie Calandriello, a sophomore in the College of General Studies, said she is planning on taking the shuttle this year and thinks the new design is fine.
“[The new exterior] is okay,” Calandriello said. “I wouldn’t have personally done that. If I was going to design a bus, I’d probably want to put something like maybe a giant Terrier on a skateboard. That’d be pretty cool.”
Maurie Zhang, a junior in the College of Engineering, said he takes the shuttle often and hopes the Comm. Ave. Loop makes the shuttle more reliable.
“It’s more flashy,” Zhang said of the new shuttle exterior. “I don’t really see what the point is. The old ones were nice … Also, for every new upgrade, they’re making us pay back for it, like [with] those laundry machines.”
“I don’t really care too much about the outside,” Zhang added. “It just needs to show up on time. That’s all we care about.”
