This Fall, many of Duke’s buses will run on different routes as the University seeks to cut costs and better integrate students living on Central Campus.
Changes implemented by Duke Parking and Transportation Services include an alternative C-1 bus route—the C-1 Class Change bus, which will replace the C-3 and C-6 routes—and an extended C-2 route will run in place of the C-4.
Additionally, DuTrack.com is a new website created to track University buses online, said Sam Veraldi, director of parking and transportation. The website, originally developed by Matt Ball, Pratt’10, is currently being revised and updated by members of the Duke Smart Home Program and will be launched within the next few weeks, said junior Dean Chen, chief operating officer of the Smart Home, who also serves as managing director of online operations for The Chronicle.
The new Bull City Connector, which provides transportation between Duke and downtown Durham, is also up and running, Veraldi said.
The C-1 buses will continue to run between East and West campuses, and some buses will include a stop at Smith Warehouse, which was primarily serviced by the C-6 last year. The C-1 Class Change bus will also travel to Towerview Drive and Science Drive six times a day between Monday and Friday, replacing the C-3 route that previously ran every 15 minutes. In place of the C-4, the C-2 will extend its hours.
Duke employees will also experience some changes. The H-3 bus, which travels between Duke Hospital and Hillsborough Road, no longer operates midday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Furthermore, the H-5, which runs from Broad Street to Hock Plaza on Erwin Road, will now stop at the West Campus bus stop.
The condensed schedule, which was finalized during the summer, will reduce the department’s work by 7,500 hours and results in $500,000 in savings this year, Veraldi said. The new plan serves to better accommodate students traveling to Central Campus and Smith Warehouse and reduce transportation-related carbon emissions, he added. The new stipulations coincide with Duke’s commitment to its Climate Action Plan, which pledges to achieve climate neutrality in the University by 2024.
Students who designed their class schedules factoring in the old bus routes should not find themselves scrambling for rides, Veraldi added.
“When you look at the schedule in total, the adjustments students would have to make... are extremely minimal,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a lot of people whose classes have to change because there are not enough buses.”
The University will continue to have drivers on standby and adjust the schedule if needed, Veraldi said. The preliminary version of DuTrack.com, the GPS-based bus tracking site, will also serve to gather information that the department can use.
“We can look at the data and decide which stops to nix and which need more boarding time,” he added. “We can adjust some of those routes if needed.”
The bus-tracking system uses prepaid Motorola phones installed onto each bus and provides real-time updates on all routes, including the Robertson buses.
Duke Student Government awarded a $5,000 Student Development Directive grant to fund the project, said DSG President Mike Lefevre, a senior. Parking and Transportation supplemented the grant with $10,000.
Senior Andrew Brown, who also serves as co-head of mobile development for The Chronicle, also collaborated on the project. He said he plans to alter the program to improve mobile functionality. Brown said in the long-term students should be able to receive text updates about the buses. Eventually, Brown added that he would like to create an algorithm to predict bus arrival times.
“It will make it so much more convenient to take the bus, especially for those who live off campus and take the bus less frequently,” he said. “Right now, [DuTrack] is already a huge improvement.”
Veraldi said the changes are part of a larger plan to transform the transportation system at Duke.
“We’re changing the entire structure of our transit system,” he said. “This is a story that is going to continue. We’re just at the beginning.”
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