Washington University West Campus Shuttle - It actually works well!

Danforth Campus West Campus Shuttle stops - August 2017

For the past several months, one of the most favorite pasttimes here on the Danforth Campus of Washington University has been grumbling about parking and all the construction on campus. One of the solutions the "powers that be" came up with was the new ParkSmart option where a bunch of people park over at West Campus and then take the Metrolink or the new West Campus shuttle to get between their cars and their work on the Danforth campus. Many of the people who had their parking displaced when the lots in front of Brookings closed were the people who work on the east end of campus, namely in Sam Fox, the Brown School, Engineering, Brookings, and those of us in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Physics too. So to appease us "Easterners" they placed a stop on the east end of campus, first on the northeast corner of Forsyth and Hoyt. They had a test run in April, and I tried it out and it actually worked pretty well. So I thought I would sign up for the ParkSmart permit as well as my Metro U-Pass since it was only $8 per month to park there.

Once the service officially started on July 1, all went pretty well until they changed the pick up spot on the east end from the north side of Forsyth to the south side. This meant every evening all of us would have to jaywalk across Forsyth during rush hour and try to find a place to wait on the south side of Forsyth. Note that the grassy area between Forsyth and sidewalk there tends to be lumpy and has some holes in it too, so you cannot just run across the street without worrying about where your foot might land. From there the shuttle then had to make a large loop down to Wydown and back up Big Bend to get back to Forsyth and continue on to West Campus. That added a few extra minutes to the full loop and the timing of the shuttles varied quite a bit from day to day.

However, I will have to say that starting this week the shuttle service has drastically improved with a new change they made moving the east end shuttle stop from Forsyth and Hoyt to the crosswalk in front of Goldfarb Hall. It is only a couple hundred feet or so west of Hoyt, but since it is still on the north side of Forsyth and right near one of buildings it is much more convenient for most people. Even better, now the shuttle can just turn right onto Forsyth after picking us up and go straight back to West Campus, avoiding turning onto Skinker and taking the loop around Wydown and Big Bend. I have noticed the interval between shuttles is now about 6-7 minutes, making the pickup interval twice the rate of the Metrolink trains during peak times. People can even wait just inside the doors of Goldfarb for the shuttle, enjoying the air conditioning now (and the heat come winter) and also use the campus wifi so we can track the shuttles on the WUSTL Mobile App without using cellular data.

My route from Scott Rudolph Hall is actually slightly shorter now, since I can cut through the courtyard between Hillman and Goldfarb, and then through Goldfarb to go down to the door where the shuttle picks up everyone. That is actually a better pick up spot than the old location on the north side of Forsyth by Hoyt.

So now I can say I am glad I not only park , but I ParkSmart! With the new east end construction now making the Richmond Heights Metrolink parking lot fill up earlier in the mornings, this has become the most convenient and economic way for me to park and get to work in the mornings. I prefer parking on the fourth floor of the West Campus garage to the fifth floor of the Brentwood Metrolink garage, where the spots are tighter and exiting the garage is tougher. There is also less walking involved with the West Campus shuttle which is good for saving time, but not so good if I want more walking for the exercise. I could be like my co-worker, Bob, and walk from the West Campus to Danforth Campus every morning and back again in the evening, but I am not that crazy!