York’s goSAFE is going green and improving service by replacing four vans with one shuttle bus and expanding its foot patrols on the Keele campus.
The goSAFE service recently tracked demand and use on both the Keele and Glendon campuses. The results showed that one shuttle bus can accommodate passengers on busy routes, particularly the Keele campus South Route destined for The Village and Murray Ross Parkway.
A larger bus with capacity of 24 passengers, currently used for the Glendon-Keele Shuttle, will now also be used for the evening Campus Shuttle from 7pm to 2am in the fall/winter and from 8pm to 2am in summer. The newly named Campus Shuttle will run approximately every 30 minutes from Vari Hall. The Campus Shuttle will pick up and drop off passengers only at specified shuttle stops along the route. The North Route to Jane and Shoreham will be made available by request from Vari Hall.
These changes will allow an expansion of foot patrols. Some of the employees currently operating the smaller goSAFE vans on campus will be redeployed to enhanced foot patrol services that play an important role as the eyes and ears of security on campus. There will now be four of the two-member teams available, an increase from three teams. Personnel of goSAFE will provide walking escorts to safely walk members of the York community to and from any on-campus destination.
As part of their regular duties, foot patrol personnel also check blue light emergency phones, safety phones and conduct a weekly review of all exterior campus lighting to improve campus safety.
The Glendon campus will now be served by a golf cart and foot patrols, enabling the program to retire the van currently in use.
The Glendon golf cart is a zero-emission electric vehicle and its use, coupled with the retiring of the five smaller vans, is part of a larger initiative by Campus Services and Business Operations to move toward more environmentally sustainable types of transportation.
For more information, visit York’s Transportation Services Web site or the goSAFE Web site.