The New and Improved Shuttle and Trolley Service

By: Sarah Merriman

Across campus you see a purple and white trolley slowly making its way past Roberts Hall. Suddenly, you see a student ahead of you pick up the pace, and then another student from across the promenade is running full speed toward the Slane shuttle stop.

This sight is all too common at High Point University. The university’s new transportation service has students expressing mixed feelings.

HPU junior, Emily Galloway voices her appreciation and frustration, “I mean I definitely appreciate it, but I have experienced being about five feet away from the doors only to have them close on me and then proceed to wait 20 minutes for the next one to come around."

Other students like senior, Holly Smoot, try to avoid the service.“It gets to the point where I just want to ask some student I don’t know for a ride, just so I won’t be late to class.”

However, sophomore, Christina Wills, compliments the service saying, “I think it has gotten a lot better and as long as you’re out there waiting at least ten minutes before the last one just left, you’re usually fine. “

What's the deal with the shuttle and trolley?

After going through many revisions, the shuttle and trolley service at HPU has finally reached a point that seems to be working for all.

Students can rest assured that the Transportation Department is on their side, working to make the system as efficient and organized as possible.

Depending on students needs, the wait time between the shuttles or trolleys may be longer or shorter. The drivers do their best to communicate with each other via radios.

High Point University Chief and Transportation Director, Jeff Karpovich says that the shuttle service first came to HPU in August 2008. At this time, the shuttle stopped at seven places: The Village, U-Ville, Slane, York, Congdon, the Chapel, and Norcross.

Using what is known as a,“ridership study”, Karpovich says," I started to have the drivers keep daily logs of the times they arrived at each designated stop as well as keeping track of how many students they picked up and how many students got off at each stop."

From analyzing the ridership studies, the Transportation Department decided to remove the Congdon and York stops from the shuttle and trolley schedule. Their reasoning was based on the fact that the ridership logs said that only a select number of students got off at these stops and the delay they were causing the other students was neither efficient nor necessary.

After further ridership logs were examined, the Norcross and Chapel stops were also removed from the shuttle and trolley schedule. The transportation services underwent changes around three or four times in total.

Now, the shuttles and trolleys are still using the ridership logs and use radios to communicate with each of the drivers when they arrive at a stop to ensure that they are about 7 minutes apart.

Meet Linda Sawyer

Students may recognize Linda Sawyer as the woman who drives the trolley on weekends. What they don’t know is

that she also works Monday through Friday for High Point’s own transportation service, Hi- Tran. She then races to the campus of HPU to work her Friday and Saturday nighttime shifts.

Sawyer admits that although the drivers are supposed to make rounds every 15 minutes,“It’s more like 18 minutes.”

She also says that she tries to look around for students so as not to miss anyone who may be running to catch the shuttle or trolley. “That’s what I’m here for so I will look around to make sure I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

Sawyer loves driving the trolley.“Nobody’s really happy on the city bus…they’re usually going to work or looking for a job.” Though she confesses at 11:30 p.m. on weekends, the students can get pretty,“nasty with the mouth.”

She says that HPU is extremely lenient on dealing with the issue but if a serious problem arises, the drivers can always call security.

Sawyer says that she doesn’t think there is a written policy for alcohol consumption or intoxicated students for the transportation vehicles but she’d,“Love to have a policy and have it enforced.”

Her most amusing story came when she was driving the trolley one weekend, and in between laughs, she shares that, “It was sad but funny because it happened to four or five students. The trolley took a turn and they wer

en’t paying attention and all of them, one after the other, fell right off their seats. I asked them if they were okay but I couldn’t help laughing at the same time.”

Employment process

According to Jeff Karpovich, In order to be employed as a shuttle driver, HPU requires their

employees to have a Commercial Driving License (CDL).

Trolley drivers must have a P-Endorsement along with additional licensing. Also, all drivers must have a criminal background check and a drug screening.

The story of the Transportation Department

Jeffrey Karpovich came to HPU in June of 2008. He found that the university had a security office but no Transportation Department. He was mainly in charge of parking and safety.

As for transportation, security vehicles were being used to shuttle students around as they needed. Karpovich says,"As soon as I came here, I recognized very quickly that the growing campus would need a separate department for transportation, and so I proposed the addition of one."

Until January, the security department had two-thirds of their less than a dozen employees set at part time.

With the new funding from the university and under the directory of Jeff Karpovich, the Transportation Department now has over 50 employees who are not contractors but full time employees of the university, receiving benefits such a workman’s compensation.

The result is what you see every day on campus. A new Transportation Department, branded security cars, new uniforms, and of course the shuttles and the trolleys.

Any complaints from students?

Jeff Karpovich says not really. “Most of the calls we get are from intoxicated students.”

Karpovich recalls one particular experience.“It was 1 a.m, Friday night and a female student had called our Transportation Department and was being boisterous and obscene, shouting that she had been waiting at the Slane shuttle stop for 30 minutes, and ‘where the eff was it?' ”

Karpovich said that, he had just been at the Slane shuttle stop and the shuttle had just left. He went out to search for the caller and found her on West College Street with her intoxicated friend.

Apparently, the girl had never been at the shuttle stop, she had simply tried to flag down a shuttle. Karpovich says, “It’s not safe for our shuttles to just stop and pick up students that flag them down. The city bus wouldn’t do that and neither will we.”

Trolley Service since 1924?

If you've been to the Slane shuttle stop in the past three months, you may have realized a new and controversial addition.

A sign over the Slane shuttle stop enclosure reads: "High Point University Trolley Transit Company since 1924."

HPU was indeed founded in 1924 but confused students are wondering why it is on the trolley sign. Galloway, Smoot, and Wills all agreed on this saying,“It doesn’t make sense. The school may have been founded in 1924 but they didn’t have the trolley or shuttle service back then, so why pretend like they did?”

In response Karpovich says,“Well I suppose we did take some poetic licensing.”

High Point University Department of Transportation

High Point University Shuttle Service