Safe Ride Drives Students Away with Two-Hour Waits, Failures to Arrive
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4 CULTURE 9 OPINION Bread Club Plans to Unite Students Stand With LS Professors, Even if Through Common Grain NYU Won’t 6 ARTS 10 SPORTS Somehow, Tisch New Theatre Rein- Battling Rain and Wind, NYU Quid- vents Elle Woods in ‘Legally Blonde’ ditch Crowned Regional Champs VOLUME LIII | ISSUE 11 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2019 Safe Ride Drives Students Away With Two-Hour Waits, Failures to Arrive By LISA COCHRAN Students report long wait times Deputy News Editor — some as long as two hours — CAS sophomore Liz Marquis and two of her friends were leaving and poor communication when a party near Broome Street Resi- dence Hall at 1 a.m. last month. using Safe Ride, NYU’s ride- They were bound for University sharing service meant to provide Residence Hall — a 23-minute walk that should translate to a nine-min- safe transportation for students ute drive. Factoring in the distance and late hour, the trio decided to out late at night. call a Safe Ride — NYU’s late-night rideshare service — with hopes of arriving at their destination shortly. But by the time the vehicle dropped them off at U-Hall, more than three hours had passed. After Marquis called the Safe Ride that night, she was told by the dispatcher that the vehicle would arrive in 45 minutes. When she and her friends boarded the Safe Ride — which came in double the promised time — the vehicle drove around for two hours, taking what Marquis said was an unusual route. “They stopped at Brittany, and I thought, ‘Okay, U-Hall should be next,’ but then it went back to Wein- stein and to Bobst,” Marquis said. She added that even though her dorm is far from most NYU facili- ties, she no longer sees Safe Ride as a viable option after this occurrence. VERONICA LIOW | WSN CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NYU Safe Ride cars outside Third Avenue North Residence Hall. NYU Students Conquer New York City Marathon By BELA KIRPALANI miles a week [earlier on] and the highest “Everything that you do, you need to along the East River, extending it further Reitzas’ dad flew in from California to Sports Editor mileage was on Sunday when 14 weeks remember that you do your run,” Reit- and further until he reached the 20-mile watch him run on Sunday — something into the training program, I’d run 20 zas said. “So some days, when I would marker. Each time, he would bring $5 that means a lot to the SPS junior. Franklin Reitzas was supposed to run miles in one sitting,” Reitzas said. have a full day of school and work and I with him on his run to buy two bottles “For him to spend over $500 on a ticket the New York City marathon in his first Reitzas ran cross country competitive- wouldn’t finish my day until 10 p.m. and of Powerade from the halal cart he always just to come watch me run for three hours year at NYU, but he forgot to sign up for ly in high school and even contemplated I’m exhausted. I get home, I take off my passed — one for the run to his target and or just to support me at the finish line and the race before the deadline. walking on to NYU’s cross country team backpack, I sit on my couch and I think, one for the journey home. say, ‘You did a good job,’ It just makes me This time, the SPS junior planned ev- before deciding against it in order to en- ‘OK, I just want to go to bed.’ But then “And then when I go home, all I have really happy to think that he’s proud of erything out far in advance and started joy a more robust college experience that you think, ‘No, I have to run.’” is a carton of eggs,” Reitzas said, detailing me and that he really wants to see me ac- training over the summer. He ran almost wasn’t tied to running. However, he “All I do is think about food and sleep,” his somewhat unusual eating habits. “I’ll complish my goals,” Reitzas said. every single day for 16 weeks, only taking continued running in his free time and, he later added. “When’s my run? If I eat crack it open, crack six eggs, boil it up a On Sunday, Reitzas finished with a days off on Fridays. when it came to preparing for the mara- now, can I run later?” little bit, put some vinegar and then eat it. time of 3:34:31. “I was running probably around 30 thon, he was all-in. He would run the same route each day It’s some good protein.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 2 Washington Square News MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2019 [email protected] NEWS Edited by VICTOR PORCELLI Safe Ride Drives Students Away With Two-Hour Waits, Failures to Arrive CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 portation Services Greg Rivas. we can do that’ but then we waited for and my friend just ordered a cab back Rory Meyers first-year Taylor Rob- “I almost started crying on the Safe The document also indicated that the two hours and it still wasn’t there,” home,” Tan said. ben said her Safe Ride, despite multiple Ride out of frustration,” Marquis said. Safe Ride service includes a dispatcher Chace said. “We literally would’ve Tan said that once, after a late-night phone calls and multiple requests on- “I would rather pay for an Uber than who closely monitors routes. walked if we’d known it would have study session at Bobst Library, the Safe line and on the app, never arrived. Like take [another] Safe Ride.” “[The] live dispatcher is able to taken two hours.” Ride she requested went all the way to Marquis and Chace, she was dissuaded Safe Ride is a free overnight transpor- quickly see trips that are experiencing CAS sophomore Daniel Cienava re- Tandon School of Engineering’s cam- from using the service again. tation service available during academic sub-optimal experiences, such as longer counted waiting for nearly an hour the pus in Brooklyn before it dropped Similarly, CAS sophomore Ivan terms through which NYU community than usual wait times, and move these first time he used Safe Ride as a first-year. her off near her home in Manhattan’s Benitez attempted to request Safe Ride members can request rides to and from trips to the top of the priority list,” the “It was a Saturday night going into Stuyvesant Town neighborhood. six different times in the past without NYU facilities from midnight to 7 a.m. document reads. Sunday morning, I called the Safe Ride The NYU Department of Public it ever arriving. When a Safe Ride he The service is intended to provide a safe Rivas did not respond to a request for at 4 a.m. because I didn’t want to walk Safety piloted a Brooklyn overnight called this Halloween did arrive, it was mode of transportation for students comment by time of publication. back from Rubin to U-Hall, because shuttle last Spring — operating on a nearly two hours late. who are out late at night and may be Twenty-two students interviewed by that’s not fun,” he said. fixed route, transporting students from “Halloween was the first time I’d intoxicated. Its vehicles are operated by WSN found fault in these statements, Cienava attributed the long NYU buildings in Manhattan to Brook- ever gotten one that actually arrived,” the Academy Bus line. The only mecha- citing wait times of 45 minutes or lon- wait time to high usage during late lyn every half-hour starting at 12:30 Benitez said. “It fluctuated between two nism for reporting complaints is an on- ger, illogical routes and inconsistent hours on weekends. a.m. — which runs concurrently with stops and five stops and one stop and line Google form. communication between constituents “I even called them up because I was Safe Ride, currently only operating on then six stops, you kinda never knew Rides can be requested via the Safe and the Safe Ride system. very confused about when it was getting a point-to-point system in Manhattan. when it was gonna get there.” NYU Mobile App, the Safe Ride web “It always takes so long,” Marquis there and they said, ‘Yeah, be patient, Stern first-year Grace Zhu said that Safe Rides not arriving at all is part portal or the Department of Pub- said. “Sometimes the Safe Ride people there are a lot of kids like you requesting during one of her Safe Ride experienc- of a larger issue students said was due lic Safety’s hotline and are processed will hang up on you, it takes so long to us,’” Cienava said. “One of the times [it es going from Third North Residence to a general lack of communication through an algorithm which considers get to the destination to pick you up and wasn’t late] was a Sunday night, the oth- Hall to Lipton Residence Hall, the between Safe Ride’s operations and the vehicles on the road, passengers’ then it’ll go in order of who called it and er was a weeknight.” driver’s GPS stopped working and a Safe Ride users. destinations and the number of requests not what’s closest.” CAS senior Paggie Tan has used Safe student passenger was forced to nav- “My biggest issue with Safe Ride is being processed. Like Marquis, CAS first-year Amina Ride over 50 times on both weekends igate the route.