User:Jumpin Minnow/LSU Tiger Trails

LSU Tiger Trails is the alternative transportation system providing bus service for students, faculty, staff, and visitors, both on and off the campus of Louisiana State University. The LSU transit system is operated by First Transit, under contract with LSU's Office of Parking, Traffic & Transportation. The motion to create LSU Tiger Trails arose in 2008 in result to poor bus service offered by Baton Rouge's Capital Area Transit System (CATS). However, students and faculty of Louisiana State University may use CATS free of charge with the presentation of a valid LSU ID card. On any given day, during daytime operating hours, the transit system is capable of operating up to 18 buses to effectively and efficiently traffic passengers while in peak hours. There is a total of 23 buses in the Tiger Trails fleet; if a bus experiences any mechanical difficulty or failure it will be pulled off the line and replaced by one of the five back-up buses.

History
From 1974 to 2009, Louisiana State University used Baton Rouge's Capital Area Transit System to transport it's students, faculty and visitors on and off campus. It became apparent in the last few years that LSU used CATS that they were not fulfilling their requirements. The Student Government of LSU, along with the Office of Parking, Traffic & Transportation, receive an enormous amount of complaints filed against both the service and drivers of CATS. After several requests by LSU asking for CATS to improve on their shortcomings, followed by no actions taken by CATS, the student body of LSU pushed the issue further. The Student Government responsible for bringing the initiative of Tiger Trails was during the office of Colorado Robertson, president, and his staff. LSU was taking the initial steps of breaking away from the CATS contract and starting their own transit system.

Beginnings
In September 2008, the president and senior consultant of Solstice Transportation Consulting, Mitch Skyer came to meet with "Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic & Transportation," along "with administration, Student Government, transportation officials and passenger representatives" to initiate contact and being to evaluate the transit system. The Solstice Transportation Group held public forums, generated questionnaires, and researched the surrounding area of LSU for population of the LSU community. With the findings of the Solstice Transportation Group, they then mapped projections of routes which the buses should take to maximize usage and reduce route completion time. Solstice Transportation Group presented their projections to the committee in charge of deciding the matter, and the committee was in favor of the outcome of Solstice's projections. LSU put the projections of their new system up for bid to multiple transportation companies. Out of the several companies who submitted their own proposals, First Transit won the bid because they were well priced and and responsible.

Before Tiger Trails became 'Tiger Trails,' the LSU student body, facility and staff voted on an appropriate name. The top three most popular names were Tiger Trails, Easy Tiger, and Geaux Tiger, respectively. Tiger Trails took the majority of the vote with 47.3 percent, followed by Easy Tiger commanding 33.4 percent and Geaux Tiger with 19.3 percent. LSU's first and only director of Parking, Traffic, and Transportation, of 29.5 years, announced shortly after the new system got its name that the public relations department could get started on the system's logo.

Current news
Today, LSU Tiger Trails is 23 buses strong. Of the 23, there are two types of buses. The majority of the fleet consists of the 'Eldorado' buses; these are the bigger of the two with flat fronts. The other type is the 'International' which is much like a modern version of the old grade school buses widely used across America. The Eldorado's cost roughly $300,000 and the International costs nearly half that at $150,000. Contrary to belief, the transit system was not created because of a limited amount of parking spaces for students, facility, staff and visitors. LSU offers this alternate form of transportation as a service to it's Fightin' Tigers and to increase it's steps of going green. At any given time, there is ample parking for anyone going to LSU's campus. There are roughly 23,000 parking spaces available and at peak hours the Office of Parking, Traffic & Transportation estimate that only 85 percent of those 23,000 spots are used; unless of course, it's game day.

TransLoc
Every Tiger Trail's bus is equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, controlled and maintained by TransLoc Inc., that gives Louisiana State University's transit users a helping hand. TransLoc: Transit Visualization System is a company that allows users to see the real-time arrival information of a bus while it is on route. The TransLoc system made its debuted on August 1, 2009. The Student Government at the time made it known that this was a critical part of the new transit system. Up to the minute announcements about situations that impact buses can also be viewed. TransLoc offers the real-time data over three different mediums: their website, each specific for any one of the Universities they support, such as LSU TransLoc. The necessary information can also be found on their TransLoc app, which is available for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android users. On the app, the routes will change according to the time of day they run. For example, if its midnight the regular hour routes will not appear, only the Night Buses that are running. A user can also obtain desired information through SMS text messaging. To use the text messaging service the user would have to first find the stop code to their desired stop. This can be found by going to the main map and clicking on the stop for which the code is needed. When the code is obtained, the user must text lsu and the stop code to 41411 and they will receive real-time arrival times via text.

The GPS of TransLoc also serves as a helpful tool for the Office of Parking, Traffic & Transportation of LSU. With real-time information on each bus, LSU has the ability to time each bus on its route and make corrections on their route times. For example, if there are three buses on the same route and the first one leaves late, the second one leaves on-time, and the third leaves early, they will all be bunched up into a cluster decreasing the effectiveness of the routing schedule at that particular time. It can also point out infractions in the drivers actions. Since it can display where the bus is at any particular time, if a bus is off route the Office of Parking, Traffic & Transportation will be aware of this instance. If need be, they will be able to go through with necessary procedures and consequences to target the problem.

TransLoc Inc. also does its transit visualization services for the following: Atlantic Station FREE RIDE, Auburn University, Boston College, Boston University, Chapel Hill Transit, Chicago Transit Authority, Children's Hospital Boston, Columbia University, Eastern CT, Emory University, Harvard University, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville University, La Salle University, MASCO, Mountain Link, NC State University, NRTA Wave, New York University, Northern Arizona University, Princeton University, SCAD Atlanta, SCAD Savannah, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Texas Christian University, UMBC, University of Alabama, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Kentucky, University of New Haven, University of North Florida, and Yale University.

Routes
====Garden District ====

====Perkins-Stanford ====

====Downtown/Vet Trail ====

====Purple & Gold  ====

====Tigerland A & Tigerland B ====

====Highland-Burbank ====

====Burbank-Ben Hur ====

====Night A & Football Route ====

Night C
====Sunday Shuttle ====

====Farmer's Market ====