K-State's SafeRide program switched from a taxi service to a bus service with fixed routes this semester.

SafeRide is a free service intended to prevent the potential dangers of drunken drivers, and to offer a safe way for students to get home late at night.

The SafeRide buses run from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday during the school year and are available to K-State students and their friends, so long as one person in a group of four has a valid K-State ID.

The SafeRide program started in 2003, said Victoria Hatch, program director and junior in criminology and psychology. From 2003 until this semester, the program functioned as a taxi service. Students could call and request a ride, and a taxi van would pick them up from that location and give them a ride home.

Hatch said since the program's beginning, they hoped to have a bus service with fixed routes. However, funding shortages, combined with the limited availability of transportation services in Manhattan, had made this goal unattainable until now.

Hatch said earlier this year SafeRide was approached by aTa Bus, a local transportation company, that indicated it would be interested in helping enact a SafeRide bus route service.

The new bus route system includes two separate routes: one circles Aggieville, the neighborhoods on the east side of campus and the Derby Complex; a second route covers the neighborhoods west of campus, the Jardine Apartments and the residence halls near the Kramer Dining Center.

Hatch said the routes were determined based on data obtained from the company that had run the taxi system, and stops had been selected close to where people most frequently requested to be dropped off.

Hatch said she feels one of the greatest benefits the fixed route system offers is a significantly shorter waiting time. In previous years, it was not uncommon for students to have to wait as long as 45 minutes after calling before a taxi would arrive.

Brian Marshman, Manhattan resident who has driven one of the SafeRide taxis every weekend for the last six years, said he agreed it was not uncommon for people to have to wait long periods of time.

"We would get overloaded," Marshman said. "There were periods when there were enormously large groups of people waiting for a ride."

Hatch said students should expect far shorter waits under the new system.

"A bus should show up at the Union every 15 minutes, and should be at the next stop two minutes later, and the stop after that a few minutes after that," she said.

Hatch said the larger size of the buses - the taxis were only seven-seat vans - should also decrease the amount of time students must wait.

Taylor Katz, junior in apparrel marketing, said she used the old SafeRide taxi service and the new SafeRide bus service, and definitely preferred the new service.

"The old SafeRide wasn't very reliable; you'd have to call them and they didn't always pick up your calls, so it would be really frustrating," Katz said.

She said once or twice she arranged for a ride and the taxi never showed up.

"The bus service has scheduled times and stops, so it's a lot more efficient," she said.

Katz said she felt the bus service would also be more effective at preventing people from driving under the influence.

Marshman said one concern he had about the new route system was it might be less safe in some instances. Marshman said he felt that the old system in which riders were delivered directly to their home offered more security.

"If it was a single female, we would wait until she had opened the door, and that all seems to have gone," he said.

Hatch said this issue had been discussed when choosing to change the program, and it could be a potential downfall of the new system.

However, she said since waits were so long with the taxi service, people were forced to walk long distances rather than wait for a taxi. Therefore, she said it is far safer for someone to have to walk only a block or two from the bus stop, rather than all the way across town.

As the semester progresses, SafeRide intends to change routes if necessary to get people closer to their homes, Hatch said.

Hatch said she hopes students will be patient as SafeRide adjusts to the new system and encouraged students to send the program feedback.

"Everything will be considered," she said. "We just hope people will be patient and that they won't give up on us as we make our changes."