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Friday, March 29, 2024
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In this Dec. 6, 2006 file photo, shuttles idle in the South Side area of American University in Washington. (Kelly Barrett/Eagle File Photo)

AU cuts back Super Loop route

AU will be making changes to the shuttle routes next Monday, including an increased number of shuttle runs between the Tenleytown-AU Metro stop and main campus on weekends and an almost complete elimination of the Super Loop.

AU shuttle buses will run directly between main campus and the Metro after 8 p.m. on weeknights and weekends, according to Mark Feist, assistant director of Facilities Management. The Super Loop will now only run after 6:30 p.m. on holidays and when school is not in session.

Only one bus will run directly to and from the Washington College of Law and the Metro after 10:30 p.m. on night and weekends. Two buses will run directly from the Washington College of Law to main campus until 10:30 p.m. during the week, according to Feist.

These changes to the AU shuttle system were implemented in response to student feedback about the shuttle system and the Super Loop in particular, he said.

“We heard from students that the Super Loop was an inconvenience late in the evening when they were trying to get to main campus — the shuttle bus would drop them off in front of Katzen,” Feist said. “The Super Loop is really most useful when ridership is at its lowest.”

Student Government President Andy MacCracken held town hall-style meetings last October to address student concerns about the shuttle changes implemented at the beginning of last semester.

MacCracken told The Eagle he is pleased with the new AU shuttle route changes, but he would have liked to have seen these changes sooner.

“I wish this would have been able to happen sooner — and that was the plan — but obviously there were complications with the snowstorm that Facilities Management had to deal with,” MacCracken said. “But [these changes] address the concerns that we brought up during the town hall meetings last October. Better late than never.”

There are many more projects being developed to make improvements to the shuttle system. In the near future the AU shuttles will be outfitted with a GPS system to help students locate shuttle buses, Feist said.

Students will be able to log on to a Web site to see where AU shuttles are and see estimates of what times shuttles will be arriving at each stop.

The GPS project is still in its beginning stages, and Facilities Management has not yet determined when the system would be in place, Feist said.

Facilities Management will also be working to make more visible signs to designate every shuttle stop along the shuttle routes, MacCracken said. These signs would not only benefit the AU community but also prospective AU students, he said.

“I have talked to prospective students and parents, and they have had difficulty with getting off the Metro and knowing where the shuttle stop is,” MacCracken said. “They know it’s supposed to be there but unless the shuttle is sitting there with the AU logo on it, they’re not going to know that it picks up right there because there’s no sign there.”

Facilities Management will be working with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the D.C. city government in the coming months to address the signage issues and implement new changes, MacCracken said.

You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.


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