The IU Safety Escort is making a few changes to make its service more efficient.
The program, which has been operating since 1994, currently has a fleet of four vans running on a nightly basis. Out of those four, just two used to operate outside the bounds of campus.
Now, the program is expanding its off-campus service, with all four vans making runs outside the perimeter of campus.
“There’s usually a lot of people who need to be picked up from Wells after a night of studying and just really want to go home,” said Phillip Steinmetz, an IU junior who has been an employee of the organization since September 2018.
The service runs every night, between 8 p.m. and nearly 2 a.m. To request a ride, students must log in to their IU account in the TapRide app.
A screenshot of the TapRide app shows a map of recommended pick-up and drop-off locations.
A yellow box on Kirkwood Avenue marks a forbidden drop-off location.
A screenshot of the TapRide app displays the app's logo.
The beginning of the spring semester is traditionally the busiest season for the Safety Escort. According to Steinmetz, it’s the cold and increased awareness of the program among freshmen that make the service more popular mid-school year.
Safety Escort operates seven days a week and sees an average of nearly 28,000 riders every year. The escort was created as a way to prevent students from walking home alone at night, but that doesn’t stop students from attempting to abuse the system.
“We have people who try to finesse our system. Like they’ll try to go somewhere that’s really close by or they’ll try to go to the bars and what not,” said Steinmetz. “Our whole point is we want people to get home safe.”
Safety Escort employee and IU junior Phillip Steinmetz explains how students request rides.
New training protocol has also been implemented for Safety Escort employees, such as new online modules in addition to the usual in-person training with experienced drivers. The goal is to get the roughly 30 student employees to follow the same protocol from the moment they receive a ride request from a student.
“We have to do these Canvas modules, just to make sure everyone’s kinda on the same page,” said Steinmetz. “Obviously your first few nights are kinda rocky because it is awkward talking to a random stranger, so I think the training helps.”
