For students living on Ben Hur Road, problematic drunken ride situations used to be as customary as the pungent taste someone receives when uttering the phrase, “Roll Tide.”

Being rideless was, Ben Hur, done tha—

But wait one second.

The LSU Student Government passed a bill Feb. 20, that added Ben Hur Road to the Tiger Trails bus route. This route will provide transportation home to students in that area from Thursday through Saturday, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

The highly anticipated move by the SG Senate has finally arrived in the form of a purple and gold bus, donning a welcoming invitation to the many students seeking the comforts of their homes after a night at the bars.

The move will most likely be the last hoorah of the current SG Senate as it gathers its belongings and head out the door, ushering in a new wave of students to fill the seats it left behind.

Regardless of any sort of ploy concocted behind politically based strategies, the consensus remains: This is a great thing for a select group of LSU students.

That is, after all, what matters, right?

Of course it is. And when it pertains to students living on Ben Hur Road, it’s for a good reason.

Baton Rouge is known for its notorious murder rate.

“Baton Rouge recorded 64 murders, 51 rapes, 893 robberies and 1,460 aggravated assaults in 2011,” According to past Reveille reports.

Considering that the most popular route to the Cottages and Woodlands of Baton Rouge is a straight shot down Nicholson Drive, a major road, there was no alternative for the drunken students who walk home other than making their way down the busy street.

The surrounding area and cross streets don’t help much either. Last semester, a student, was shot in the hand while walking on East Boyd Drive, a cross street just a block away.

Finance junior and Cottages resident Brian DeYoung attested to the danger, as he has made the trip a few times this year.

“You never know who could be following you late at night or what the drivers on the road near you are capable of doing,” he said.

Despite the danger, you could drive down Nicholson on a weekend night and see a herd of locals drunkenly parading their way down the road.

A bus wasn’t available, and drunken 20-year-olds aren’t exactly known for their ample decision-making while in an intoxicated stupor.

So I tip my hat to the Senate for seeing this bill through. Take note SG presidential contenders John Woodard and T Graham S. Howell  — every student at LSU matters, especially in a city like Baton Rouge.

Maybe next year Lake Beau Pre could get added to the route.

John Polivka is a 21-year-old creative writing junior from Houston.