Lafayette College has seen a major transit overhaul this semester, cutting multiple campus shuttle routes and launching a new pilot Uber program.
The program, spearheaded by Director of Procurement Tom Iannelli, provides rides to students for select locations and medical transports. The program represents a joint effort between the college’s business services and Public Safety.
“You get an email, you click on it and it downloads the voucher right into your Uber wallet,” Sandra Rogers, the assistant director of Public Safety, said of the new program.
Rogers added that if a student is in a medical emergency, Public Safety can directly send the voucher while on dispatch.
In previous years, the LCAT, the college’s student shuttle service, ran routes to the Arts Campus, Metzgar Fields and LaFarm – in addition to a Saturday shuttle service to the Lehigh Valley Mall and Walmart. Additionally, shuttles were provided for off-campus volunteering programs, medical transports and trips to the Lehigh Valley International Airport.
However, some of the shuttles were often left empty. According to Public Safety data, the Metzgar shuttle, which ran five days a week, saw just 92 riders in the Spring 2024 semester. Only 22 riders rode in total for the weekend shuttle service.
College Public Safety findings revealed that shuttles were often late and vans struggled to transport students if there was not a volunteer driver.
“We weren’t really meeting as much of the needs of the students that we wanted,” Rogers said. “Moving to a pilot program for Uber gave us more of an on-demand type of atmosphere.”
Rogers worked with a small committee of students, faculty and administrators in the summer of 2023. The committee aimed to update plans for campus transit before the college’s contract with Easton Coach Company – a charter transportation company – ended in May 2024.
The result: the new Uber Program. Public Safety hopes the program will replace all LCAT services except for the Arts Campus route, which remains the only continuous shuttle to and from campus. The college still provides free annual passes to the LANta bus service in partnership with the city of Easton, Pennsylvania.
Public Safety will also utilize the Uber program for transportation to and from Metzgar Fields. According to an email to coaches from Senior Associate Athletic Director Andrew Foster, this program will be available exclusively to student-athletes.
Jim Denora, a manager from Easton Coach, said the contract with the college was originally a three-year deal, but it was extended to last another two. According to him, Easton Coach has little control over what routes are provided on campus.
Denora said the college “tells us what routes they want to run, the stops, the times and that’s all.”
An announcement from Lafayette Today on Aug. 28 explained that the changes were based on “student feedback and analysis of transportation usage from prior academic years.”
Before the changes, one frequent LCAT rider was Martin Familetti ‘25, who relied on the program to attend and view Lafayette soccer games. He was unaware that the Metzgar route had been cut until he tried to take the shuttle in late August.
“I think it’s ridiculous that the semester started and the RideSystems app still said that a Metzgar shuttle existed when it didn’t, especially if they knew what the changes were going to be,” Familetti wrote in an email.
The RideSystems app previously tracked the LCAT at various locations.
According to Familetti, he now has to take the LANta bus or pay for a personal Uber if he wants to attend a game.
America Reads Coordinator Christine Cohen, who leads one of Landis’ community outreach programs, believes the Uber Program will be a more “efficient and cost-effective” form of transportation.
“While we have not actually started utilizing the Ubers yet, our tutors have been very positive, flexible, and understanding about this shift in our protocols,” Cohen wrote in an email. “They are excited about the flexibility and lower wait times for transportation to our sites.”
According to Rogers, the college’s new contract with Easton Coach lasts only one year. The Uber program is an “agreement” between the college and Uber but not an official contract.
“I will be honest – at the end of this semester if it doesn’t work at all and we have to add a shuttle back in, I’m sure Easton Coach would allow us to do that,” Rogers said.
