New Seminole Express Bus Routes Beginning August 20, 2014

Colleges and Universities A-Z Florida State University
1

<p>FSU Transportation has announced a number of changes to the bus system, including the implementation of "FAST" routes. <a href="http://transportation.fsu.edu/announcements"&gt;http://transportation.fsu.edu/announcements&lt;/a>

[quote]
FSU Transportation & Parking Services and StarMetro have teamed up to introduce the new Seminole Express FAST Routes bus service. The revised routes will deliver Fast Accessible Simple Transit, aimed to make the rider’s experience enjoyable and efficient. Take advantage of the newly refreshed Seminole Express routes beginning Wednesday, August 20th, 2014.</p>

<p>What’s new?
Highlights of the changes include consolidation of off-campus routes and bus stops for increased frequency, a dedicated Renegade route with more buses circulating the campus loop (decreasing wait times to only five minutes), a new Gold route – taking riders to popular off-campus destinations (including Cascades Park and Governor’s Square Mall), and more!</p>

<p>Why the change?
To increase ridership by delivering the most efficient and easiest way to travel on and off the FSU campus. Many changes stem from rider feedback, while others are proactive, based on the continued development of our university and the Tallahassee community.</p>

<p>How do I ride?
All FSU Students, Faculty, Staff and campus visitors can ride the Seminole Express free of charge. To reach any destination on campus, catch the Renegade bus which will start and end at University Center A. For all off campus locations, catch the Garnet, Tomahawk, Innovation or Gold routes which will start and end at University Center C. On August 20th, Seminole Express (also known as TransLoc) will join the myFSU Mobile app, creating one central place to track your bus in real time and much more!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>For anyone that used the bus routes to go from campus to Publix, the new routes in my opinion make that more difficult. Whereas it was pretty simple to get from the west side dorms (Kellum, Smith, Rogers, McCollum, even Salley) to Heritage Grove and back just by riding the Heritage Grove route, it looks like now everyone would have to take two different buses to get from Publix to those same buildings, and would have to walk from University Center C to A. </p>

<p>The new dedicated routes to Walmart and Governor's Square Mall also make no sense to me, since StarMetro already had those routes and all FSU students could ride them for free. </p>

<p>Overall this just makes no sense to me. They claim that it's to be efficient and to have easy travel... but this isn't easier than the routes that already existed, except that Renegade will now run every 5 minutes. </p>

<p>Here's a (very small) map of the new routes: <a href="http://transportation.fsu.edu/sites/default/files/media/map.png"&gt;http://transportation.fsu.edu/sites/default/files/media/map.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>Wow this is the stupidest thing FSU could have done with these bus routes. Thanks a lot FSU for fixing what was not broken.</p>

3

<p>Yeah, these changes certainly don’t seem to be making things easier for riders. I’d actually argue that no matter whether you lived on campus or just used the bus system to get to/from an off-campus residence, no one really wins unless they live along the new Gold route. </p>

<p>I can’t imagine how many people are going to be absolutely thrilled to find out that they have to take multiple buses now to get to class. Renegade will be even more tightly packed than it was before, even with extra routes. The new Garnet route is going to be packed too, going to both Heritage Grove and all of the apartment complexes along Ocala and High AND Call streets. It’s basically going to be hell to ride Garnet now.</p>

<p>To make things worse, it appears that Zipcar on campus isn’t really a viable alternative. It’s $7.50 an hour at minimum to rent the car, and since Publix is normally packed, you’re probably going to be renting the car for 2 hours- so you’re looking at $15 or so just to go to the grocery store. Unless you split it with a couple friends that makes no sense to do, but utilizing the bus routes would now be a huge hassle too. </p>

<p>It looks like your best bet to go to/from the Publix complex with any frequency is to find a friend with a car and carpool or to have your own car. Add in that the Publix parking lot is always a zoo and more cars just doesn’t sound like a good idea. Heck, not having to deal with these new bus routes and stuff is almost enough of a reason to bring your own car to campus now. </p>

<p>This really looks like a bad idea from top to bottom from FSU. I wonder how long it’ll last before the backlash really sets in and they make a change. I don’t see this lasting all year. </p>

4

<p>So just a quick update, but last week FSU altered the bus routes yet again. Basically, they instituted a modified Heritage Grove route (goes onto campus on Call street and down Chieftain, instead of onto campus on Spirit Way and then up Chieftain), and instituted a second Renegade route that runs the opposite direction around campus. </p>

<p>They’ve also held town hall meetings this week to gauge feedback. </p>

<p>While I haven’t personally tested any of the recent changes, I have heard from my roommate and others that apparently some of the stops of the new Heritage bus route aren’t yet functional (?) and the TransLoc app is yet to be updated, at least on Android, to include the newest route changes.</p>