Due to a recent survey conducted by UC Davis’ Fleet Services, the Davis-Berkeley afternoon shuttle will leave Davis at a later time than the current 2:15 p.m. departure.
Of the approximately 1,000 people that participated in the survey, 62 percent of voters favored the latest departure option at 4:00 p.m. Fleet Services is following-up with a second survey that extends the departure time options into the early evening.
“We were trying to provide as many options as possible,” said Mark Robinson, bus operations supervisor for Fleet Services. “The second survey will narrow down the exact time frame that best suits our customers.”
The schedule change was set to begin Jan. 1, Robinson said.
Furthermore, the morning shuttle’s departure at 7:30 a.m. will not be changed, as stated on the Fleet Services’ website.
Fleet Services began considering a schedule change to conserve resources and provide a better service, Robinson said. The budgetary deficit of the program itself obligates the service to be self-sufficient.
Currently, the shuttle makes two trips a day and transports about 15,000 riders each year, said Richard Battersby, director of Fleet Services, in an e-mail interview. The shuttle stops are located on Hutchison Road at the loading dock of Shields Library on the Davis campus and at the west gate entrance on West Crescent on the Berkeley campus.
Courtney Mullarkey, a sophomore environmental policy and planning major, takes the shuttle twice a month to visit friends at Berkeley.
“I would like a later return time,” Mullarkey said. “It would be more convenient just because it gives you more time to do whatever you want to do.”
– Martha Georgis
