Wondering where the shuttles are may be a thing of the past. New TransLoc software will allow students to track all shuttle routes and locations in real time, according to Public Safety Officer Shanon Grasso.
“There will no longer be the big mystery of, ‘where are the shuttles?’” Grasso said. “They can’t hide.”
Public Safety has not decided on a date for the launch of the apps, but Grasso said she hopes TransLoc will go live soon.
With a deadline of Jan. 20, Grasso said TransLoc is currently in its preview stage and Public Safety officers will soon be trained to use the software.
“With this software, we are able to collect a lot of data,” Grasso said. “For example, if somebody were to call and say ‘I’m on a shuttle, it’s unsafe, it’s speeding,’ we can actually go and look at a period of time and see they’re being truthful and we can be reactive.”
Student Government Association and Public Safety collaborated to bring two TransLoc apps to Quinnipiac, according to Vice President for Student Concerns Evan Milas.
The TransLoc app will allow students to look at a map, ranging all the way through New Haven, to see where the shuttles are, according to Grasso. Another affiliated app enables students to put in the shuttle they want to take and their location to receive an estimation of when the shuttle will arrive, Milas said.
“When you look at the app it has the routes kind of highlighted in a certain color,” Milas said. “Every route has its own color and the bus gets tracked from that route.”
SGA has been advocating to improve the shuttle system for the past three years, which Milas said has been “one of the big issues on campus.”
“I kind of took that on as one of my main initiatives,” he said. “I met with Public Safety consistently and we kind of went into: what are the problems and the issues that the shuttle systems are having.”
Junior John Edward said it is a “hassle” to take the shuttles to and from the York Hill and Mount Carmel campuses.
“I believe [the app will] definitely benefit,” he said. “Hopefully they fix it and just hopefully the whole transportation system gets better.”
Milas said the TransLoc app system, which other nearby colleges such as Yale University and Boston College use, will alleviate the problem with the shuttles.
“It’ll just make everything a lot easier for the students,” he said. “The app is pretty seamless and it works really well.”
Freshman Ariana Vecchiarino said she will download the app.
“That’d be really useful,” she said. “I can see where the bus is and how much time I have until it’s where I need it to be.”
Since September, Public Safety has been working to coordinate all transportation information with TransLoc, according to Grasso.
“What I had to do was figure out [for the Whitney Village shuttle] how it left the campus, what road did it turn on, where does it stop and when does it go, and then supply the latitude and longitude of those stops,” Grasso said.
Junior Angela Rizzo said she does not have an issue with the shuttle system, but will probably download the app.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Rizzo said. “Just in case if I’m running late or something I’ll know when the next [shuttle is] coming.”
Grasso said this software is definitely something that needed to happen.
“I think it’s going to improve everything, all the way around ,” Grasso said. “[Dattco] really is making steps to improve things on their end, and we’re all working together to remedy any issues that we’ve had.”
