By: Kelly Chia, Staff Writer
This summer semester, SFU is running a community shuttle going from Fraser International College (FIC) to Residences.
With construction ongoing at SFU Burnaby, this shuttle is meant to make up for the resulting disruptions to the campus’s usual transit routes, letting anyone board from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. The shuttle route starts outside of the Dining Hall and ends at the Discovery 1 building, making stops at Cornerstone and the CentreBlock building.
According to David Agouti, the director of Parking and Sustainable Mobility Services at SFU, the idea of a campus shuttle has been discussed for a few years, but it wasn’t implemented until now.
“With the Corix District Energy project, and how road closures related to that project impacted transit service on campus, [Parking & Sustainable Mobility Services] suddenly had an opportunity to act.”
When asked about ridership, Agouti commented that throughout the last week of exams, nearly 400 students were using the shuttle. This amount has dropped below 100 per week during the break, though David expects it to pick back up when the semester begins.
In a follow-up email, Agnoti wrote: “As it is a new project, the Parking and Sustainable Mobility Services will be conducting “intercept surveys” — in-person surveys with shuttle riders — to get feedback on the service. Additionally, [I advise] that if people have comments or suggestions, they can either contact mobility@sfu.ca or speak to someone on the shuttle conducting intercept surveys.”
This project is not expected to run past August, which is when transit routes are projected to return to their usual run.
