Expanding bus service should be top of the list for safety
Have you ever had a few too many drinks to drive? Need a way to get home that doesn’t involve walking through darkened streets and alleys? Nite Ride is the solution to your problems.
There’s just one catch: There might not be enough space for you.
Many females students climb into the van and sit practically on top of one another, packed inside the vehicle tighter than last season’s jeans. Others are being turned away from the service because of the lack of seating. This leaves many young women either scavenging the bar for a ride home or wandering through the streets late at night.
Next year, Nite Ride will offer a bigger van, but women will still likely be turned away or forced to wait for the van’s return. The bigger van is an improvement, to be sure, but the university community can do more to ensure the safety of our students. The service is all but wasted when there are still students being told there isn’t enough room inside the van for them.
It’s a shame that, not only does Nite Ride have inadequate accommodations for all the female students who wish to take advantage of the service, but the service also discriminates against males. Male students are not welcome in the relative safety of the vans. Male students, especially in light of the assaults that have been occurring downtown late at night, could benefit from Nite Ride’s services. Other universities, such as Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Ill., offer services similar to Nite Ride. Southern Illinois University’s service, Night Safety Transit, formerly Women’s Night Safety Transit, has expanded to cover all students, not just female students.
There is no doubt whether women are at risk when out wandering around outside the bars by themselves, or even with a small group of friends, especially since many of these women are often intoxicated. In many cases, these young women are targets of sexual assault. Just last year, it seemed that a least once a week, another woman was being assaulted walking home late at night.
But, as we have seen in the past few months, males are at equal risk of being attacked. In order to give male students a safe way home, Nite Ride should expand its services to include male students. The idea that men should be able to protect themselves and find their own way home safety at night is a tired, sexist assumption. Even if the service doesn’t prove to be as successful with males as with females, Nite Ride should at least exist as an option men should be allowed to consider.
Much of the recent UISG campaign has revolved around student safety. The victorious Go Party campaigned to offer students a safe ride home at night and to improve lighting around campus to bolster safety. Because safety is a priority for the newly elected student government, perhaps pressing Nite Ride to provide more vans and adequate seating for student riders, both male and female, should be the first student-government priority. This is certainly the issue that needs to be given the most urgent attention. And if this issue is out of UISG’s hands — or, more likely, its budget — higher-ups at the university should step up to provide funding to expand the service.
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