After conducting the first ever in-depth survey about the SafeRides program, the Student Safety Advisory Board was pleased to find that students are generally content with the service.
“The outcome was actually positive for us,” SSAB member Jake Styacich (COL ’09) said. “The acceptable wait time was actually similar to what people reported waiting.”
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said an acceptable wait time was six to ten minutes; 24 percent of respondents reported waiting that long and 27 percent reported waiting 11 to 15 minutes. Most respondents said they used SafeRides one to three times a week.
According to Styacich, the motivation for surveying students about the SafeRides program specifically, rather than including it in the general survey of safety-related issues, as the SSAB has in the past, came from GUSA President Pat Dowd (SFS ’08).
Since conducting the survey, Styacich said he and Dowd have met with Peter Luger, the Executive Director of University Safety Finance and Administration, to analyze the data. He added that the SSAB will be working on the customer service aspects of the program—improving the dispatch service, perhaps using new technology—rather than investing in more vans.
“The data seem to suggest that the number of vans is good,” Styacich said. “The financial burden of another van probably won’t lessen the wait time.”
