Due to poor ridership, Wolfline’s Route 4 Westgrove, as well as the Westgrove Park-and-Ride parking lot closed May 8, at the end of last semester.
Kim Paylor, transit manager, said the primary goal of NC State’s transportation office is to be as effective with the students’ dollars as possible, and the Westgrove route was not meeting this goal.
“It really hasn’t been a high-performing ridership route,” Paylor said. “We’d love to adhere to every student’s request, but we can’t. We have to go with ridership majority, and we have to do what’s best economically.”
Currently, the Westgrove route makes stops at the JC Raulston Arboretum, Brickhaven Drive, the Westgrove Towers apartment complex and the Westgrove Park-and-Ride parking lot, located just north of the Blue Ridge Road and Western Boulevard intersection.
Paylor said that Route 2, the Hillsborough Shuttle, will adopt the stops at the arboretum and Brickhaven Drive beginning this summer. In addition, Route 6, Carter Finley, will also serve these areas over the summer.
Students looking to park in park-and-ride lots will still have plenty of options, according to Paylor.
“It was kind of like we were being redundant with the Westgrove lot because it’s so close to the Carter Finley Park-and-Ride lot,” Paylor said. “The two lots are probably about three minutes by car from one another.”
The Carter Finley Park-and-Ride lot is currently accessible by Route 6. However, during the summer, stops will not be made at the Carter Finley Park-and-Ride lot. They will resume at the beginning of the fall semester, according to Paylor.
In addition to the Carter Finley Park-and-Ride lot, students have the option of parking at the Food Lion on Avent Ferry Road, and a new park-and-ride lot is being constructed near the Farmer’s Market off of Centennial Parkway, according to Paylor.
“We’ve covered a huge area at Carter Finley with the park-and-ride over in that area, and we are going to have this new park-and-ride on the other side of campus,” Paylor said. “This way, we are able to sufficiently serve the east and west side of campus.”
As for the students living in the Westgrove Towers apartment complex, Paylor said the Westgrove area will continue to be served by Wolfline with the addition of a stop near Pylon Drive and Blue Ridge Road.
“We know that there are students that live out there, and we don’t want to just leave them,” Paylor said. “This is also why we are partnered with GoPass. It is free to the students, and you are able to use Capital Area Transit and Triangle Transit. They are both out there in that area and they serve”.
Mikayla Gray, a senior studying English and film, said that the Westgrove route is the only bus that runs to her apartment.
“It’s not going to affect me since I’m graduating, but it seems pretty bad for the people who still wanted to take this,” Gray said.
Paylor said student feedback like this is important to the transportation office.
“We want the students to know that their feedback is vital to us, and that we’re not making these decisions on our own merit,” Paylor said. “On our website, there is a feedback form that they can voice their opinions through. We also would encourage students to complete our occasional surveys.
As far as the 2015-16 route information, Paylor said the schedules are not yet set in stone and that further decisions should be made come late May.
