A Defeat for Central Planning

Their hearts were in the right place, but unfortunately some members of House committees and the Undergraduate Council ended up missing the bus.

That's right, Quadlings. The new shuttle schedule advocated by these groups shows little forethought concerning our daily migration patterns. Unlike in the previous schedule, where the frequency of shuttles varied with passenger volume, one shuttle is now supposed to leave the Quad every 10 minutes between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., rain or shine, 10 a.m. class pending or middle-of-the-hour lull.

Even before the snow and cold set in, it has become clear that the 9:50 and 10:00 a.m. shuttles are unable to service the student rush that used to be met by a fleet of five. Buses fill up so quickly during high-volume times that they often end up leaving over five minutes ahead of schedule, stranding latecomers. Students jostle each other to get inside. Many are forced to stand, precariously balancing breakfast items and coffee cups over the laps of their seated neighbors.

But the crowded shuttles have had far more severe consequences than forcing many Quadlings to retire their khakis to the backs of their closets. The number of Quad residents arriving late to class is reaching epidemic numbers. Many have resorted to emergency measures, which inevitably involve exercise: Walking, biking and even scootering have all increased at troubling rates.

The only thing that the new shuttle schedule is easy on, besides the wallets of used-bike salesmen, is River friends' memories. It is no wonder that when Riverites only come up to visit once a year (and many would argue that you're lucky if it's that often) that they can only remember shuttle times that are multiples of ten. Quad residents, however, mentally fortified by counting the number of paces between the Yard and Quad the day after the housing lottery, considered juggling the odd times of the old schedule a rather juvenile task. Ironically, it is only now, when the shuttle times are so easy to memorize, that such a useful tool has arrived as ShuttleGirl, a shuttle-tracking system developed by Anthony Delvecchio '01 and Jason R. P. Karamchandani '02 and available at www.shuttlegirl.com.

It is time to realize that this Great Leap Quadward, with its glorious rationalization of society and shuttle times, has failed as miserably as backyard iron smelters. Although the schedule has fixed some mid-day shuttle droughts, Quadlings' convenience would best be served by reverting to the greater number of shuttles at hard-to-remember but useful times rather than maintaining the revised schedule. The next time (and hopefully it will be soon) that the council and House Committees lobby to change the shuttle schedule, we hope that it will consult more of the actual students affected. After all, the Quad and its residents are only a short shuttle ride away.