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NEWS

At your service

Cassidy Pazyniak

The Miami bubble, the comfort of Oxford, and "it couldn't happen here." These clichés are among the excuses Miami University students use to explain why they don't worry about walking home alone at night.

This feeling of safety, however, is not a consistent element of life in this small town. Twenty-two years ago, female students at Miami vocalized a need for better campus security. The result was the creation of the Nighttime Door-to-Door (NDD) service.

NDD is a transportation service for individuals that don't feel comfortable or safe walking home alone at night. With a phone call, students can use the service from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. Thursday through Sunday.

The evolution of NDD

In response to concerns about sexual assault and personal safety, the Association of Women Students started up the Nighttime Door to Door (NDD) service in 1986.

Instead of using First Student, the company that current operates the Miami Metro bus service, a university motor pool vehicle was used. A schedule of student volunteers took turns driving the vehicle. The drivers were also trained in first aid.

While the volunteer system worked temporarily, Perry Gordon, director of parking and transportation services, said the hectic schedules of college students made it increasingly difficult to find volunteers.

In the early days of NDD, Gordon said the largest difference was the restriction on the type of students that could use the service. Only female students were authorized to call for a ride, yet due to the need to apply Title IX laws to the service, men were also allowed to use NDD.

Title IX, enacted in 1972, states that educational programs receiving federal financial assistance can not discriminate based on sex.

According to Gordon, other rules have also since changed.

"The rules (for using the service) were a lot stricter, too," Gordon said. "The van wouldn't take dates to locations. And well, Brick Street (Bar) didn't exist, but it wouldn't transport students to any establishment that served alcohol."

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Terms of use

A few simple rules are currently in place when it comes to riding the NDD van.

Students must present a Miami ID to board the van. Gordon said this procedure is to ensure that students, who pay for the service through student fees, are the ones using it. Gordon said this process is also for security reasons.

Another important regulation, Gordon said, is that the service only transports one to two individuals-not groups. According to Gordon, providing rides for groups of students has been a consistent problem through the years. When more than one or two people are transported, Gordon said the van becomes overcrowded, which then causes a delay in delivering students to their locations in time.

As Gordon said, the entire function of the van is for smaller groups while the Miami Metro bus route provides transportation for larger groups who may not be in as much danger traveling alone at night.

"The Nighttime Door service uses the blue route (of the Miami Metro) as a supplement," Gordon said. "Lots of students call for a ride that is on a bus route. It creates tension when someone calls for one to two people, then when we get there and there's more (students), and we try to explain we can't take them all and to ride the metro. It's a service provided for the safety of individuals."

These rules, however, aren't always set in stone.

Sophomore Elyse Purbaugh said she was an exception to this rule. Purbaugh, who said she has only used the service once, said she did so with three of her friends. Purbaugh said it was a weekday night and they had parked their car at the Ditmer parking lot after returning from a Dave Matthews Band concert in Cincinnati.

Despite not using the service consistently, Purbaugh said she still appreciates its presence.

"Yes, (I feel safer having the NDD offered on campus,) because if I was to walk home by myself, it's nice to know that there's somewhere to call," Purbaugh said.

As time goes by

When students are waiting in the dark for the van, it's easy to see why the time it takes the van to arrive is important.

In a review of van logs from both 2007-08 and the previous year, Gordon said the wait range is between 15-16 minutes. According to Gordon, the time that it takes the van to

complete the service for an individual's ride begins from the minute someone calls to minutes the van drops off the person.

According to Gordon the timing of the van can depend on a variety of factors, such as the time of night and the weather. Additionally, Gordon said weeknights are less busy than weekends.

Gordon said that the van service occasionally receives complaints about wait times close to an hour, but Gordon said this occurrence happens about one out of every 200 calls.

Jens Sutmöller, student body president, said he has heard positive feedback about the running time.

"The response I've sometimes heard is it's a little slow," Sutmöller said. "But, I've sat down with Perry Gordon and he went over the numbers with me and (parking services) seems to be very responsive. They have a large amount of people requesting the service and you have to take conditions into factor-it's going to be a little slow. I've always heard good things, though."

Julianna Gosky, a sophomore who has used the service more than 25 times this year, said that she normally waits about 10 minutes. Gosky added that the van arrives more quickly for a pick up during the day rather than later at night.

The key players

One of the most important factors when making sure NDD runs like a well-oiled machine is communicating with the drivers.

Gordon said conversations frequently occur between the drivers and the university.

"We talk with the drivers to take a pulse to find out what's going on," Gordon said. "Students can get belligerent and give them a hard time, or use language that they wouldn't even use with their best friends or mom."

Chris Taylor, associate director of the office of ethics and student conflict resolutions, said he could not recall any complaints received recently about a student's behavior on the van.

"What could happen potentially (is that) somebody might be intoxicated and get sick on the bus or get in a fight with the driver, physically or verbally, (so that) the drivers feel threatened," Taylor said. "Those are things they might report to us."

According to Gordon, the biggest issue that students complain about is normally when a larger group of students are denied a ride.

"The vast majorities, about 99.9 percent of the students, appreciate the value of the service and use it wisely," Gordon said. "When I look in the newspaper and read the police blotter it's easy to think that all students are like that, but they are only five to six out of 17,000 students. You can't judge a whole by its small parts."

Gordon said that the drivers recognize their regulars, such as someone who rides every Tuesday night to King Library.

Gosky, a regular, said the drivers have always been nice and polite. Gosky said she now considers the woman who answers the NDD calls to be a friend.

"The driver's are very friendly and the lady who takes the numbers is even more friendly," Gosky said.

Off-campus expansion

In spring 2007, after 12-13 years of strictly on-campus service, it was decided by parking services that the van would serve off-campus students as well.

"Most our passengers were first-year students," Gordon said as to why this feature hadn't been implemented originally.

A determining factor for expanding service to off-campus locations was changing ridership.

Gordon explained that parking services will study the newly-added features, including the blue metro route supplement and the o ff-campus service, during the summer to determine whether the changes will be permanent. This will include an in-depth analysis of the department's statistics to examine how often the new off-campus routes have been used.

"We'll do an analysis over summer, looking at if we can continue this, if we have to modify it or add more limitations or more accommodations," Gordon said.

Sutmöller said he has noticed the van more off-campus recently, pointing out that more people seem to be using it in these locations.

Despite the increased route options, not all students take advantage of the service.

Sophomore Mark Loudenslagel said that he has never used the NDD service.

"I don't feel the need to," Loudenslagel said. "I walk everywhere and our campus isn't really that big. Or, I'm usually with a group of people when (walking home.)"

However, Gordon pointed out that bus usage has also dropped during the past two years, attributing these changes to an increase in student drivers and the tendency people have of traveling together.

According to Gordon, whether the students feel safe, what crime alerts have been issued and the weather all affect ridership.

Gordon said the NDD service will pick up students almost anywhere.

"It could be argued that we're providing transportation to places uptown where there is underage drinking (and) to say the (underage passengers) are not consuming alcohol may be na've," Gordon said. "Students of any age could be drinking, but do we want them walking home by themselves, in that state? Sure there is the enabling argument but we're still focused on (student's) personal safety."


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