FLIGHT will shift from a request-based service and now have more than 40 stops at almost every intersection in Campus Safety Service’s patrol zone.

Temple University is reintroducing FLIGHT, the university’s nighttime shuttle service, as a fixed-route system after students and parents expressed concerns about the shuttle’s unreliable and request-based service, wrote Ken Kaiser, chief operating officer, in an announcement to Temple students. 

“Over the past year, we have found that the current on-demand ride request service was simply inefficient in a highly dense urban environment where there is high demand like Temple’s campus,” Kaiser wrote. 

Since the service launched in 2016, the shuttle has operated on an on-demand basis with students using an app to request the bus. The new system will pick up and drop off students at more than 40 stops at almost every intersection within Campus Safety Service’s patrol zone every 15 minutes between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m daily.

Temple will soft-launch the new system on August 8, with plans for the service to take effect on August 20.

Daniel Hedberg, Thomas Demianovich and Therese Toczek, industrial and systems majors, outlined recommendations for improving FLIGHT for their senior design project. Temple used the students’ recommendations, as well as consultations with SEPTA’s Customized Community Transportation team and a national transit company to develop the new system. 

FLIGHT’s long wait times frustrated students, especially during late nights on weekends. Amid a rise in gun violence on and near Main Campus, Temple pledged to increase the availability of FLIGHT among other safety initiatives this past academic year. Campus Safety will aim to position patrols near designated FLIGHT stops.

“With consistent and predictable shuttle intervals in place, the hope is that fewer students will be inclined to walk to their destinations,” Kaiser wrote. 

Fallon can be reached at fallon.roth@temple.edu. Follow Fallon on Twitter at @fallonroth_.

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