Gerald Sastra/The Cougar
In an email sent out Tuesday, the University announced that it will be restricting access to the Sugar Land Shuttle service.
The email, which was sent by Parking and Transportation Services Vice President Neil Hart, said that beginning Oct. 2 the shuttle service will be limited only to Technology Division students during peak hours.
“Only Technology Division students enrolled in classes at both UH and UH at Sugar Land will be able to ride the UH at Sugar Land Cougar Line shuttle buses during the peak periods of 7-11 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. Monday-Friday,” the email read. “Access for eligible students will be loaded automatically onto their digital Cougar Cards.”
The announcement came after a recent wave of complaints from students who said overcrowding and other issues have created problems getting to and from class.
These issues have stemmed from students using the shuttles as a park and ride service to get from Sugar Land to UH, according to the email. While the University said it added a fourth bus to help manage demand, capacity remains a concern.
“We have added a fourth shuttle to serve peak class times, and still have not been able to address demand. It is functioning as a park and ride service with peaks during the morning and evening rush hours, which was not the intent,” the email read.
Students who do not fall under the Technology Division are still eligible to ride during off hours. For those who have relied on the shuttle for transportation to campus, the University recommended students take the METRO bus or the Fort Bend Express Commuter Park and Ride.
Additionally, UH offers the Coogs on Alternative and Sustainable Transportation program which offers a METRO card incentive. COAST provides eligible students with a maximum of $27.50 a month towards their METRO fare.
Thank you so very much for comming up with a way to help this issue. I think this is a great idea that would help resolve this issue. Thank you so very much for addressing this issue.
This is by far a failure on UH’s part, and I think it needs to be said. Building a whole new campus at Sugarland was completely irresponsible and disrupted the lives of thousands of students who planned to get their degree’s at UH at the college of technology. Merging the COT and Cullen made no sense to me as degrees like “consumer science”, “digital media”, and “SCLT” are NOT engineering disciplines. I get the rationale by the president to make UH a “Top 50” school but we don’t have to follow other schools’ ideas to be great. Now UH has created a situation in which people need a shuttle to get to class. Imagine living on campus just to be told you now have a 40-minute commute, RIP. It gets worse, now people who live in Sugarland but commute to UH want to use the shuttle to avoid driving far and save gas, and I don’t blame them given UH’s ridiculous parking fees. The school should have known that people will try to use the bus to avoid traffic and they should have made more busses to accommodate. 4 busses are a joke for literally hundreds of people trying to get from Sugarland to UH and back. At least build a bus stop and add 8 busses if need be. This all could have been avoided if UH built nearby like they did the medical school. I think UH should make Sugarland its own university and build nearby. It’s not convenient for most students and clearly more people use it to avoid commutes than for taking classes at Sugarland. I don’t use the bus, but I have friends who needed a ride because they laterally can’t get to class or go home, and it is 110% unacceptable.
This shuttle facility makes our atudents to focus on their studies only.no hastle of traffic.
Can you please do other measures like preference line for eligible students and then allow other students.please consider other ways to continue this service.
UH has made a short sighted solution. There are no other direct shuttle routes from UHS to the main campus. Who wants to spend hours comutting daily. All other solutions are not environmentally friendly too. Plus main campus parking is almost full capacity.
Very stupid response..
I don’t get why they say it’s only during peak hours when they even did it in between peak hours??