Want a personal bus to take you directly from your dorm to class? That’s not among the transportation changes for this school year, but there are other adjustments afoot with Duke parking and transportation.
The on-campus bus routes remain the same as in the 2017-18 academic year, but the University launched a downtown pilot shuttle in July to connect Duke’s campus to downtown Durham. A number of roads and parking areas also underwent repairs, and visitors to the University may now park in certain lots using the PayByPhone app.
“We introduced the downtown shuttle pilot during the summer so we could get a better idea of how the service and stops would work before the fall semester began,” wrote Carl DePinto, director of parking and transportation services, in an email to The Chronicle.
The shuttle service runs on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is open to faculty, students and staff with a valid DukeCard, DePinto wrote. The two Carolina Livery buses—offering complimentary Wi-Fi—make stops near Research Drive, Duke Hospital and the Chesterfield Building, according to the Duke Parking website.
He added that the bus route had been “slightly” modified since the shuttle’s first trip in July and that the buses will be visible on the TransLoc Rider app.
DePinto wrote that the shuttles will service the more than 4,000 employees working downtown in addition to students taking classes in the Chesterfield Building. The building’s renovation was completed in December 2017, with two biomedical engineering labs held there during the Spring 2018 semester.
The public, fare-free Bull City Connector runs along Main Street to connect Duke and Durham. Duke cut its contribution to the shuttle’s funding in half for 2017 and stopped it entirely in 2018.
The summer also offered time to repair some of Duke’s parking infrastructure, DePinto added.
“We resurfaced a number of parking lots and improved numerous roadways during the summer, including the Graduate Center lot, the H lot and a portion of Science Drive,” he wrote. “We also made road improvements to areas such as the East Campus bus loop and applied asphalt patches to numerous areas in the Blue Zone.”
A new way to pay for parking in 12 non-gated visitor parking lots—an app called PayByPhone—has also been introduced to campus. DePinto wrote that the Bryan Center, Nasher Museum and Duke Gardens lots are all open for drivers looking to pay via the new app.
Furthermore, he wrote that Duke’s bus fleet has added new buses and that bus schedules resumed a week earlier this year to accommodate international students arriving on campus.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.