Jessie Thomas has a medical condition that makes it difficult to walk to far-away classes, so she relies on LSU’s bus system, Tiger Trails, to get to her classes at the Journalism building and to pick up mail from the Union. She also has to take a Park and Geaux shuttle to get between bus routes, since the route by her apartment does not stop at the Union.

Normally, time is the biggest inconvenience, but during Tropical Storm Nicholas last month she was in for far worse. It began to pour down rain as she was taking the shuttle back to the commuter lot, and soon campus was flooded. After her umbrella broke, she told other riders she had to walk from the parking lot to her home. If not for the kindness of a stranger who offered her a ride, she would have either been stranded or had to make the long trek home in the cold, pouring rain.

“If LSU cared about its students, the school would make the bus system more reliable by limiting the number of breaks drivers take and adding more buses to the routes, because one isn’t enough,” Thomas said.

She often has to walk to class despite her condition because she can’t rely on the bus. 

Transportation Demand Manager for Parking and Transportation Services Josh Galasso said in an email that Parking and Transportation Services is not seeing a noticeable increase in ridership of Tiger Trails. Galasso said the ridership levels this year are below average, with 20,314 passengers per month in comparison to the 2018 and 2019 monthly average of 76,487 passengers. Galasso also said COVID-19 has also been a factor in the decrease of transit usage.

Meeting demand levels is not a current issue according to Galasso, as there are 32 busses in the Tiger Trails system that can accommodate 64 passengers each. He also noted there is no plan at this time to add more busses because they are not struggling to reach demand levels.

LSU’s public transportation was previously handled by the Capital Area Transit System until 2009. After Student Government and the Office of Transportation Services pushed the university to hold CATS to higher standards that were not met, LSU severed business with CATS and started a new bus system as a partnership with First Transit. After a student vote, the new service was named Tiger Trails.

Tiger Trails added another bus on the Purple route during its busiest hours prior to the pandemic. Since in-person learning has come back in full swing, they have yet to see demand to justify adding more buses to any routes.

History senior Matthew Dreher says he only uses Tiger Trails when he cannot use his bike due to injury or unsafe weather and thinks the service is unreliable in terms of getting to places on time. 

Dreher says bus drivers will skip stops if no one is there. There have been instances where the busses will just drive past him because they didn’t see him. 

“If you do get there, you better hope that bus driver sees you, because if they do not see you for whatever reason they will just blow right past you,” Dreher said. “Even if they do see you, I’ve made eye contact with bus drivers at a bus stop and they went right past.”

Riders can use the TransLoc mobile app on their phone to track where the buses are in real time and see the routes. However, some report that although the app is convenient, it isn’t always reliable. 

Biology teaching associate Rafael Marcondes said that sometimes the app will indicate that the busses are stopped at one location. He’ll walk there only for there to be no bus. Dreher says that sometimes the app displays the bus at the wrong locations and refreshing the app to see if the busses have moved could be the difference between making the bus or being stranded. He believes the app should only be supplemental and riders should not have to watch the busses “like an Uber” because there is a schedule that should be followed.

There have also been reports of bus drivers taking long breaks. Marcondes says the app will show busses stopped in one location for a long period of time with no explanation. He believes there should be some sort of indication on the app that says when bus drivers take breaks or why a bus is stopped at one location.

“What’s the point of having an app that shows you where the bus is if the bus is just stopped for 30 minutes with no justification or no warning?” Marcondes said.

Dreher said there are a lot of points where busses are just sitting at different locations, and it’s unclear if it is due to bus drivers taking breaks.

“I’m of course hesitant to blame the bus drivers for this one because I think it’s obvious there’s not nearly enough buses to handle the volume of traffic on LSU’s campus,” Dreher said. “If it is the case that the system is understaffed and the bus drivers are overworked, I can’t really blame them for taking breaks when they can.”

Coastal environmental science sophomore Abby Roche said she likes to use public transport to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions, but her commute time greatly depends on the driver. Though she’s had problems with the same driver stopping and getting out to send texts, and she has had to get out and ask why he isn’t driving.

“Buses being on time is a very important thing for students who have to rely on public transportation,” Roche said. “I hope this problem can be fixed because it is quite ridiculous.”

She has also had issues with drivers skipping stops and said some drivers take double her usual commute time to get to campus. 

Galasso said First Transit Operators receive an hour-long break when driving more than eight hours and the operator is relieved from duty by a Break Operator. The process is designed to not affect the schedule.

There is no set time or frequency limits for restroom breaks, but if there is a situation where a break lasts longer than ten minutes they make an effort to check the Operator status. Galasso also said Parking and Transportation Services is currently working with First Transit to create a policy to handle this going forward.

In regard to the TransLoc app displaying the wrong location of busses or busses stopped for a long period of time, Galasso said there are very broad reasons why a bus may be stopped or stray from the normal route including traffic, construction and accidents along the road, but the app normally displays accurate location.

Parking and Transportation is working with First Transit on a policy to address the need for communication about breaks in advance, but at this time First Transit does not require that a bus driver announce to passengers when they need to take emergency restroom breaks and in many instances advanced notice about breaks is not possible, according to Galasso.

Petroleum engineering sophomore Patrick Stapleton said he’s had mostly good experiences with the Burbank Ben-Hur and Nicholson Burbank routes, though the bus is usually very packed early in the day. 

“The buses are super efficient,” Stapleton said. “When my car was in the shop I had no problem getting to school and back.”

His commute never took longer than a half hour, and usually took about 15 minutes. He also said one of the bus drivers was always very friendly.