‘Save Forbes’ draws attention to transportation issues

The new initiative, which will be named “On Demand,” will begin service each evening immediately following the last scheduled shuttle bus. The new system should be more efficient than the current P-Rides and will be able to pick up students within 10 to 15 minutes of a call, Jackson said.

Jackson’s appearance before the USG was prompted by Forbes resident Waqas Jawaid ’10’s launching of the “Save Forbes” campaign to lobby the University to provide better shuttle service to his residential college. Jawaid is also a former cartoonist for The Daily Princetonian.

“By next September, there will be a transit route that hopefully meets the need[s] of all Forbes students,” Jackson said.

The new “On-Demand” system will accompany changes to the campus shuttle system that have been planned in conjunction with an overhaul of the University shuttle system.

The new shuttle routes will create an “outer campus route,” Jackson said. This new route will begin at the Dinky, extend along University Place and Nassau Street to the E-Quad, and continue down Washington Road, eventually returning to Forbes.

Finally, to increase the sustainability of on-campus transit, the University plans to reduce the use of single-occupancy vehicles and increase bus use. Likewise, it will create a walking and biking map that shows pedestrian and bicycle routes and has calculations of the number of calories burned in traveling between points.

The University is also looking into the creation of a bike depot near the Dinky Station at which students can borrow bikes and have them repaired, Jackson said.

With the use of a website and dispatcher service to help students locate transportation, Jackson explained that she hopes “[the transit system] will be as efficient as it can be and [will serve] as many students as possible.”

USG president Josh Weinstein ’09 applauded Jawaid’s efforts.

“It’s pretty clear that there’s a lot of student interest in this issue,” Weinstein said, adding that the creation of a Forbes-Friend-Frist route has been an issue discussed by the USG for the past year and a half.

Joshi will now work with Building Services to enhance the quality of the one-ply toilet paper used on campus.

U-Council chair Sarah Langberg ’09 announced that this coming week the USG will distribute an undergraduate-wide survey on campus study spaces, after a survey conducted in February determined that study space is a student priority. The survey will assess students’ awareness of existing study spaces as well as how students use and are affected by the currently available study spaces, Weinstein explained.

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Campus and Community Affairs chair Cindy Hong ’09 is also working on a survey for the USG. She is working with the Pace Center to evaluate students’ off-campus civic engagement. The survey aims to assess what civic engagement students do, why they have done it and what they got out of it. The questions will be added to the mandatory survey seniors fill out before commencement. Hong is also a contributing columnist for The Daily Princetonian.