Going out downtown on Saturday nights just got a bit easier for University of Illinois Springfield students with the return of a free shuttle bus to and from campus.
The service, sponsored by the UIS Student Government Association, will begin Sept. 7 and run nonstop between the UIS Student Union and downtown every Saturday night from 11 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.The plan is to have the shuttle run through mid-November, ending just before Thanksgiving.
“We have other transportation in order right now ... but we didn’t have transportation for students to go downtown on the weekend,”Ben Paoletti said. “So there was an apparent need for this. And what I saw often was that students would go downtown and would have to pay for Uber or Lyft or, even worse, they would drink and drive.”
“So, as president SGA, I saw that there was a need for there to be a shuttle for students, free of charge, so that they could go downtown, they could enjoy downtown, but also be able to get there back and forth safely,” he said.
The 16-person shuttle, provided by Springfield-based Gracious Cab Company, will cost the student association about $1,500 for the semester, Paoletti said.
As a pilot program, the shuttle is only guaranteed through this semester, with the student organization seeking sponsorships from downtown bars and restaurants to ensure that it continues beyond.
This article appeared in The State Journal-Register on August 30, 2019.
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