TUr door and the Owl Loop will soon be out the door.
These two existing services will be transformed into Flight, Temple’s newest on-demand service to get students around campus. Unlike previous transportation systems, Flight will be a two-way system and will provide students and staff with transportation to and from campus with the app “Tap Ride.”
Although Temple isn’t the first University to use a system like this, it is the first in Philadelphia. According to Temple Student Government President Ryan Rinaldi, this program is all about increasing safety both on and off campus. “We saw a need for a service to bring you back to campus, so we brought the idea to campus safety,” he said.
“By people being safely conveyed on a bus, it reduces the possible risk of people walking around this neighborhood during evening hours,” said Mark Gottlieb, Superintendent of Temple Service Operations.
Anyone with a TUid can use the service by requesting a ride on the app. Flight has the ability to pick students up anywhere within Flight service boundaries, which is Cumberland Avenue to the North, Girard Avenue to the south, Fifth Street to the east and 20th Street to the west.
Students can also request a ride to and from eight locations on campus: the IBC, Student Center, Morgan Hall, Johnson and Hardwick Halls, the Regional Rail, Tyler School of Art, White Hall and the Tech Center.
After requesting the ride, users will receive a virtual “honk” or notification from their driver once he or she arrives. Gottlieb added that this notification feature “adds a level of convenience…I anticipate demand to go up by at least thirty percent.”
According to Rinaldi, Temple currently provides students with around 2,000-2,500 rides, which means that this number could increase to around 3,000. Because Flight will use the 4 busses TUr door previously used, Gottlieb says that standard wait times could be around thirty or forty minutes, at least for the first couple of weeks.
Some students say they would rather walk home than wait for the bus to come. Senior Stephen Leonardi says that it might be hard to plan out his night that far in advance. “I mean honestly forty minutes seems like a long time,” he said.
Rinaldi, however, said that “if wait times go through the roof, we’ll be advocating for more resources from the university and for more busses.”
Students and staff will be able to use this app on Monday, March 14th.
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