Web Story Project
SEO Headline: UCF teams up with Lynx, safe-ride program launches Friday
KATIE KUSTURA
A partnership between UCF and Lynx has resulted in UCF’s first-ever safe-ride program shifting from neutral to drive on Friday.
From 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, students can use their student IDs to access KnightLYNX, the free service for safe transportation to and from various stops in the UCF and Waterford Lakes areas.
Each bus will have 28 seats with a maximum capacity of 42 people. The service will have two routes for students to choose from: the Green Line and the Blue Line. The Green Line will stop at apartment complexes and shopping centers located off McCulloch Road and Alafaya Trail and will not go past Central Florida Boulevard. The Blue Line will stop at apartment complexes and shopping centers off Alafaya Trail, Colonial Drive and Waterford Lakes Parkway.
Recognizing a necessity
“We come from a community where our primary source of transportation is taking your own car,” said the program’s director Adam Brock, who thinks the service will help teach students about public transportation. “[Students] might have to go to a city where they rely on public transportation and they do have the experience with KnightLYNX to know exactly what a transfer point is, how to get from one route to another and how to stop at a stop that’s not part of the same route.”
SGA President Michael Kilbride said the service will especially benefit students who don’t have cars.
“We have a lot of students who live in local apartment complexes who rely on the shuttle system during the day to get to class because they don’t have a car,” Kilbride said. “This is really a connection to the community for the UCF students as well as a safe ride alternative late at night.”
High hopes
Community relations supervisor Sgt. Troy Williamson is hoping it will reduce the number of driving under the influence incidents.
“I want to see it work,” Williamson said. “If it stops at every apartment complex and people don’t drive off, that would be an ideal solution.”
Williamson said if everything works out, it will allow the police department to devote more of their concentration to other areas.
Determining the program’s future
For the next couple of weekends, Brock will be concentrating on getting feedback from students who use the service.
“Once this semester ends, we’re going to evaluate the program, see if there are any problems with those days, see if we can maybe expand to another day or create a different route,” said Brock.
Monitoring the program for the next month or so will help determine whether or not the $105,000 requested Activity and Service Fee budget for the next fiscal year is approved.
“Student government has been working for the past several years to work on a program to provide safe transportation for students in the local area at night,” said Kilbride. “Hopefully the next administration will be able to continue this and make it a successful program year round.”
Lynx CEO John Lewis, who worked for the GRTC Transit System in Virginia before coming to Orlando about eight weeks ago, said Virginia’s system had a partnership with the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University.
“I expect nothing less with our service with UCF,” said Lewis. “We’re really looking forward to introducing the next generation of public transit riders to our service.”
Internal links
A safe ride for late nights
Safe ride program nears completion
External links
List of KnightLYNX stops
The University of Florida’s Later Gator and Goodnight Gator
Visual/Multimedia idea
I have e-mailed you (Professor Speere) a copy of the PDF of the routes the buses will be taking. I think an animated version of this with buses that cruise around the routes would make for a great visual. If possible, I also think real-time video of the buses would be useful. Students could see where exactly the buses are driving and where they’re stopped at whenever they want.
