Sacramento State students say they?ve experienced difficulty with the Hornet Express shuttle bus this semester during the peak morning and afternoon hours, where buses have sometimes run off-schedule.

Many students living close to university drive to campus instead of using alternative modes of transportation, stating that some of the shuttle buses are consistently late.

“It really pisses me off when the shuttle is late,” said junior Nicole Grialou. “One morning I waited for 45 minutes to catch the early shuttle, and by the time it finally came I had already missed half of my class, so I turned around and caught the next shuttle home.

“I spent most of my time standing at the corner of Bicentennial (Circle) and Folsom (Boulevard), waiting and having perverted truck drivers honk at me.”

Shuttle routes can easily fall victim to heavy traffic, but the university consistently looks for ways to make the service run more efficiently, said University Transportation and Parking Services Manager Nancy Fox.

“The routes have a thirty minute time loop, so it really depends on the traffic on streets such as Folsom (Avenue) and Howe (Avenue), so sometimes it may take a bit longer,” Fox said. “We looked at our ridership and made some changes in the routes to make the service more efficient.”

By paying close attention to traffic patterns and ridership numbers, Fox said the service always make adjustments to better serve students.

“We are always looking at our ridership statistics,” Fox said. “This way we can make the Hornet Express more effective for the campus community, putting stops where students need them so our ridership can be efficient.”

Associated Students, Inc. Executive Vice President Eric Guerra said he frequently uses the shuttle service. He said it is “a great way to get to campus,” but added that it does become crowded during peak times.

“I believe we need to add more shuttles to the routes, especially during peak hours, Guerra said.

Fox and Guerra encourage students to find alternative forms of transportation such as the Hornet Express to get to campus, particularly due to the overcrowded parking lots resulting from this semester?s record enrollment. Brandon Kline, Sac State?s representative for the California State Student Association, said if more students used services such as the Hornet Shuttle or Regional Transit, the university?s parking problems might be eased.

“Parking is a problem on all the CSU campuses.” Kline said. “Using public transportation really helps out with the parking problem.”

ASI Chair of Student Relations Janus Norman said student government and UTAPS are working together to find solutions to the problem.

“We are in a data collecting stage with UTAPS,” Norman said. “We are in the process of putting together a campaign trying to encourage students to bike, or use Regional Transit.

“With this issue, our goal is to alleviate the strain and promote shuttle ridership in the nearby campus community.”

Norman believes changes could be seen as early as this semester.