By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
On Friday afternoon, driver Helen Joynes steered a TigerTransit bus along Elm Drive, through the Princeton University campus, before it stopped to discharge a passenger by the University Chapel.
The university bus service, responsible for moving more than 600,000 riders each year, might be the best kept secret in Princeton. The public can ride it at no charge to go to the hospital, stores off Route 1 and other stops along its 10 daily weekday routes and two weekend shopper routes.
Though TigerTransit is not in direct competition with New Jersey Transit for customers, the service is a no-cost alternative. The university says it welcomes the public to hop a ride, although drivers only pick up passengers at designated stops.
”We would love for the public to ride TigerTransit more,” said Kim Jackson, the director of parking and transportation for the university. “Anybody can get on the bus and ride the bus.”
She said she thinks more members of the public are riding TigerTransit and are able to get route and other information from the university website.
”When they call and say, ‘Can we ride the bus?’ we say yes.”
Drivers do not ask for identification from passengers, but there are rules of conduct for riders.
The service offers a high-tech feature, so riders can catch their bus without missing it. With the Princeton University app on their smart phones, they can follow the path of a particular bus as all vehicles in the fleet are equipped with a global positioning system.
TigerTransit, replacing the former shuttle bus service at the university, is fairly recent. Since its debut in January 2009, ridership has steadily gone up with the primary users graduate students who live farther away from the main campus.
The university contracts out the service with First Transit Bus Co., the parent company of Greyhound Bus.
Ms. Jackson came to Princeton in 2008, having spent 20 years in the transportation industry. She ran the transportation and parking department at Rutgers University, her alma mater, and then was executive director of the Virginia-based International Parking Institute. She works out of an office in the New South building, a stone’s throw from the Dinky Station.
TigerTransit is an element of the larger university plan to reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles on campus. Princeton provides students with a brochure, called “Car-Free Guide to Princeton University,” that lists a range of alternatives including a popular car-sharing program.
”A lot of students feel as though, in fact, that you don’t need a car here,” said Ms. Jackson.
”Once people got here, if for some reason you didn’t want to walk, you can catch a bus to get somewhere. It might not take you to the front door of the building you want to go to, but with all the routes we have, we’re getting you near where you want to go.”
For the public, TigerTransit can help residents get their weekend shopping done.
”Three Saturdays, we go to Nassau Park Boulevard. And one Saturday a month, we go to the Princeton Shopping Center. And then we run the bus along Nassau Street to service Palmer Square and some of the restaurants at the top of Nassau Street,” she said.
TigerTransit operates Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
To learn more, visit www.princeton.edu/transportation/tigertransit.
