The schedule of shuttle buses make it hard to get around campus at Montclair State.
Photo courtesy of miguel (Flickr)
Whether you’re a commuter or a resident, getting around at Montclair State University’s campus is time-consuming and difficult, mostly due to the university’s shuttle services. They often make transportation around campus much harder.
Shuttle buses are provided to students to make traveling around campus easy and effective. Yet, that is far from the current state of the shuttles on campus. This is an ongoing problem every semester.
Even though students voice their opinions, it seems as if absolutely nothing is being done to resolve the issues effectively.
Online services such as the Nextbus app and the “Where’s the Shuttle?” page on the Montclair State website have been developed for students to track when the next shuttle bus will arrive at a given location.
Yet, the app rarely answers the question: Where is the shuttle?
“It never shows up on time,” said Montclair State junior Stephanie Ardila. “I can’t rely on it, especially when I’m running late. The shuttle makes me later.”
Time and time again, these online services are proven to be completely ineffective.
Another problem with the shuttle bus service at Montclair State is the time periods in which the shuttles run and do not run.
The University Hall stop is basically an ant hill between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. from Monday to Friday. At that time, many students leave class and stand outside the building, becoming a pack of ants on a sidewalk spilling into the road. This is also the time period in which many shuttles are not available and become out of service and return to Lot 60, which causes the waiting time for the next bus to be extended noticeably.
The solution to better shuttle service at Montclair State is as simple as boiling water: careful distribution of shuttles throughout campus at the busiest times of the day. Five or six out of service shuttles out of about eight shuttles running on campus between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. is unacceptable.
Montclair State has over 20,000 students commuting to and living on campus every day. Students at Montclair State need a reliable campus transportation service.
