The Worst College Shuttle
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- čas přidán 27. 12. 2022
- 20 minutes of Jeremy and me going crazy riding the entirety of the Rutgers Shuttle...happy holidays.
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As someone who originally started at Rutgers in 2015, the bus system and the traffic have gotten worse. The Traffic in and around College Ave is absolutely stupid and cars should be banned from a few roads around there. The Bus system is fine but needs more bus lanes and needs more articulated buses for capacity. And as you pointed out First Transit makes no attempt at scheduling the buses to have decent frequency and they'll constantly bunch up. I hope it improves soon, cause goddamn does Rutgers need it.
Jeremy mentioned that the system used to use artics, and it's ridiculous that they don't anymore! Agreed that cars should be banned from that College Ave loop...or at least make the "bus lane" actually wide enough for a bus!
Those sound like the same issues from 25 years ago…so I wouldn’t hold out much hope! Yes, there have been some minor tweaks to the routes, and the bus lane on College Ave was added after I graduated, but the system is pretty much unchanged, to the point where you could drop me anywhere on any of the campuses and I could get anywhere else strictly from memory.
There were plans to turn College Av into a busway, but it got BRT-creeped into the too-small bus lane we have now.
Rutgers, especially the College Av campus, desperately needs to do what UBC did in the last 10 years and go aggro with pedestrianizing most of its campus and tear down its surface parking lots to build more housing/classrooms.
I rode the buses starting in 2008. You had the EE going to College Ave starting at the Train Station and then going to Scott Hall and the Student Center before going back to Douglass. Academy did their best to run the buses including the bendy buses. Then First Transit got the contract and the first 2 years they ran the buses on time and still kept the bendy’s. Then I graduated and the only time I take the bus now is for Rutgers Day but yikes the buses haven’t changed at all (I also don’t remember unmarked buses looking like rejected airport shuttles). They even have stickers promoting the old Rutgers app with an iPhone 4/4S (which I had in college). Also a shame they got rid of the New BrunsQuick shuttle routes. They were infrequent but when you took it, it was a lifesaver.
@@blackman7437 New Brunswick is getting clogged-up to a standstill and that’s not just Rutgers fault. College Avenue and George Street should be buses only but there’s the pressure from the businesses along George St who want the cars because people won’t walk. So there’s a vicious circle.
I find it ironically amusing that Rutgers has the Bloustein School of Urban Planning. They could use their expertise to improve New Brunswick but they don’t!!
As a Rutgers student I'm delighted to see our great university finally get the recognition it deserves. Never been more proud to be a Scarlet Knight!
Nice! Your noble steeds might need some optimization, though.
Ironic comment right ? 😂
This is just his form of coping
Hey!!!! I'm at Rutgers too!!!!! Let's meet up :)
@@collagen1738 this is so penis
By the way, if any Rutgers students come across this (or anyone, really - you don't need an ID to ride the shuttles), take this as a challenge: if you can beat our time to ride an ENTIRE LOOP on each of the weekday Rutgers routes, I'll post it in this pinned comment!
SPOILERS:
The time to beat is 6 hours, 15 minutes, and 51 seconds - that's the time on the stopwatch plus the 10-ish seconds from us fumbling to start it on the first trip.
That's just about how long it would take to get from Boston to Newark on the Interstates lol
@@kespeth2New-erk (NJ) or New-arc (DE)?
@@nathanjiang100 The one Rutgers is at, i.e. the Shuttle. So New-erk.
@@kespeth2 this video is based on Rutgers New Brunswick though. So add another hour
@@k7g10 I'd probably say the time from Boston to the NJ campus (not the NB campus as you say the vid is about) would be about half way between our two estimates then. Wait, I think you mean New Brunswick, NJ (after looking it up). Still comparable to your estimate, then.
"Why is it a truck minibus?!" and "I don't know that I've ever stood on a minibus before" is the experience of a rush hour jitney in Hudson County, as someone who lived in JC! Not all of them are truck minibuses, mostly just the usual minibus and they don't have schedules like these Rutgers shuttles, but they don't need them because they're extremely frequent, which makes them really popular, connecting NYC with Journal Square, Newport, running on the Bergenline Ave, Palisade Ave, and Kennedy Blvd corridors. There are also jitneys that connect NYC with Paterson! They not only have the advantage of frequency over NJT routes, but the drivers speak Spanish to appeal to the majority Latino population of Hudson County!
The fare is more on them than it was to take the NJT 84 or 87 from where I lived in Jersey City to Journal Square, but of course they showed up more. Especially the ones to Newport over the NJT 86. Take a guess how often they run the 86…EVERY HOUR! What a great idea, an hourly run to the county’s major mall…smh. And not all of those even turn into the Journal Square Transportation Center!
Seeing my daily RexB commute was absolutely surreal… also currently mindblown at the A and H meanings, makes for a great conversation starter
Someone else commented that the A and H meanings were retroactively applied and it's stuck, but it still makes sense to me!
@@MilesinTransit We used these references in the late 1990s; I don’t know the original history but it’s been around for 25+ years.
Ah, noted
Looks like the mini bus needs to be a mega bus
Ah yes, Rutgers New Brunswick, aka Anthpo Land. When they create a bus lane that's not even useful for buses...they a little confused but they got the spirit. Little did those bus drivers know, the American Gordon Ramsay was about to board and rip the system to shreds. An extra cheesy Cheez-It sounds like you just ate the entirety of Wisconsin in one go. Don't get me wrong, I do like cheese, but not to the point it's overwhelming.
I'm the American Gordon Ramsay?? I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult! ;)
Not only that, if the buses used the lanes, their mirrors would fall off from hitting all of the signs that are next to the "bus lanes".
These videos where you pull crazy stunts with Jeremy are my favorite, keep it up guys! Same stuff as going through NJ on only local routes lol
Thanks!
If you think this is the worst college transit system, you couldn't be more wrong. You should try coming to Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland, or Towson University in Towson, Maryland both shuttle systems are grossly ineffective. I will even show you in person if you are willing to come down to either place.
A lot of why I call this one the worst is because so many people are forced to rely on it, so its problems are inconveniencing a greater share of people!
Lol you should've gone back on a weekend to do the all campuses loop. Also love that they're still teaching the A academic H housing thing which is a retcon and not an actual acronym.
Hahaha, whoa, noted on the A/H thing, that's HILARIOUS! So where did the letters ACTUALLY come from?
The All Campuses Loop looks so bad...
I thought for a minute this was the legend that is Kenneth B Cop
@@MilesinTransit I *think* at one point, they were just going in alphabetic order. Not 100% certain but I know at some point, there were routes for all of the letters A-H. There used to be a site called "The Terminal" that detailed this history but it looks like it may be gone. I'm not sure when the doubling up of the letters (EE, GG) occurred and using L for Livingston. The REXB/REXL are express reincarnations of the G/GG busses and started shortly before I started at Rutgers. The EE and F most obviously are not acronyms.
Also, was funny seeing things have changed -- the B used to go to the Busch/Livingston Health Center but people rarely used that stop so my last year (2012) they created the B/He that followed the exact same route as the B, but serviced it.
A funny thing from my time there was the L LX LXc insanity... Rutgers ended the L bus suddenly right before a semester began, but there was off campus housing on Cedar Lane in Highland Park that was otherwise inaccessible without that route as the LX didn't go near that area. ( czcams.com/video/E_bWp-dDiIA/video.html&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE ) The compromise was they added an LXc bus route for one year that would divert there every few trips. Also, the normal LX was always threatened to not serve the Quads because it is "Express". I think they finally made good on that when the Livingston Apartments opened, but from your video, I am guessing the students finally persuaded them to bring it back as it is very inconvenient (not impossible) to walk from the Quads to the student center to catch a bus.
Lots of funny things about the Rutgers bus system from my time there. It will always serve as a form of amusement as well as utility for the campus. I wonder if Jeremy was around for the color bus lines that replaced all of the routes for exactly one year.
Man, the L seems like a saga! And that video is absolutely hilarious, thank you for unearthing that! This is seriously incredible history.
Doesn't Rutgers have one of the best Urban Planning departments in the country?
I believe so, yes!
Yes, Blaustein. However New Brunswick conspicuously fails to use any of its ideas.
This made me appreciate how comparatively good the Virginia Tech bus system is
Aw it’s that bad?
As a University of Michigan student, we love seeing Rutgers get roasted lol.
But we also have a bus system too, I'd say its not nearly as complicated as Rutgers'. But we've had our own shenanigans- my first semester (Fall 2021), the university made major changes to the system, our two campuses were only connected by one route. This caused so much overcrowding within the first *week* of class that they reverted all the changes the next week!
First Transit has an interesting history. For a long time it was owned by the British company FirstGroup, which is a privatised descendent of the Aberdeen Scotland city owned bus company and is one of Britains larger bus companies. FirstGroup decided a couple of years ago to get rid of its US services, which included Greyhound, and sold the transit section to a private equity group and Greyhound to Flixbus. Just recently, First Transit was sold to Transdev, a French company owned by the Caisse de Depot, the investment arm of the French government and the brand was retired. Here in the Phoenix AZ area, Transdev operates about 2/3 of the local bus service, with First Transit the other 1/3 of it. Now I guess Transdev operates all of it.
No way; I got motion sickness/car sick from watching this. Wow, y’all are legends. For whatever reason, this was entertaining to watch; you both are lovely and amusing!!! 💛
Yes, I go to Rutgers. 😭
I am now satisfied knowing that by choosing NJIT over Rutgers, I saved myself four years of hair pulling trying to get between five different campuses. I remember their open house when they were very clear on the fact that you will not make 10 minute gaps between classes.
watching your chanel inspired me to do my own transit adventure so later next week I am going to every rail station in south Florida as fast as possible (tri rail, bright line, metrorail, and I count metromover)
Whoa, that's awesome! Good luck with that!
It seems to me like they already have a decent little network, there's just some serious lapses in execution that really hold the system back. They could absolutely build a reasonable schedule and establish an termination point for a line - then drivers can get a built-in break instead of taking it halfway through. They need to get those minibuses out of there, they have to start acting like a real transit system if they have any intention of providing better service.
When HAML Corp and Academy ran Rutgers' University's shuttle buses, they used not only full sized transit buses, they even had articulated buses being utilized. The thought of using minibuses didn't enter anyone's minds back then. To see them reduced to using mostly El Dorados and minibuses, with some New Flyers is an example of what happens when you go cheap with these shuttle contracts. It's a shame and I've seen a lot of pictures of what it use to be like, I even spoke with someone who dispatched the buses under the HAML Corp era of Rutgers. With that said, great video.
My college (UBC) is very walkable, and thus most people walk, bike or skate to class. The local transit operates a shuttle bus route which is a loop around campus which is useful from going to one end to the other, but most of my classes tend to be far from the main roads the shuttle takes. The shuttle comes every 20 minutes usually. A few of the usual bus routes (with traditional or articulated busses) go across campus on their way into the city which helps you get north to south, but not east/west. I defiantly appreciate having a walkable campus more after watching this video, but it's interesting seeing the various routes college shuttles can have
I'm surprised that despite the jankiness of this bus system, at LEAST you have a way to check when the next bus is arriving.
Although if the LX map error is any indication, it's not entirely accurate either! It's also really sad to see all those Nextbus screens lying around...
It's a miracle the system was working when they filmed this, it often stops working for select bus lines or working completely
it might be dated & bad, but there're actual cities with a worse bus system though...
I don't think anyone's denying that!
@@MilesinTransit So the issue with the Quads not showing up is that first transit got rid of the stop in 2021 but enough students protested it that it was brought back. It took a while for the app to show it though.
With everyone returning from Covid in 2021 Rutgers/First Tranist decided it would be a great idea to get rid of a bunch of stops and reduce the number of routes. Busch was only going to have the A (I think, it might have been the H) and the stops were reduced. There were stops between the sciences building and student center and a stop between the student center and Werblin. They did the same thing on Livi with the quads bus stop. The student body decided that it was a really garbage idea to remove a whole bunch of stops that we found useful so there was a petition to put everything back. First Tranist I guess kinda compromised and put the quads back eventually but the busch stops never returned (I have lived on busch every year I have been at Rutgers so I miss those stops).
lmao I went to Rutgers 2012-2016 and I see no distinguishable changes in the intervening years
That’s looks like so much fun, the fact the campus has a whole bus system is like also funny to me & yah homie makes the videos more dope , y’all stay safe and keep up the content always dude ‼️
Thank you!
Me looking at the shuttle map: "WHAT IS THE MESS" LMAO. So many lines... no wonder it took you guys so long to ride them all lol.
As a Rutgers alum, I can tell you that they've made dramatic improvements since I was there. But, I challenge anyone to run the world's largest campus bus system and not have issues.
Largest bus operator in the state after NJT 🙌🙌
I mean, it's one thing to "have issues" and another thing to experience horrific bunching without active dispatching to fix it, retire all articulated buses and replace them with cutaways, keep bizarre routing decisions like the B-he and the EE serving a bunch of unique places, replace functional shelters with ones that by design don't shelter anyone, and change bus tracking systems but leave the old screens up only to sit there nonfunctionally...like, of course any large bus system is going to "have issues", but the Rutgers system has deep-rooted problems in both planning and operations.
Cant wait for boring company rutgers loop 🙌🙌
The real problem is how spread-out Rutgers is. The New Brunswick campus extends into portions of New Brunswick, North Brunswick, East Brunswick, Highland Park, Edison, and Piscataway. They really need to consolidate.
My fantasy would be a light rail system linking them all up. There's honestly the ridership for it, and you've got old Right of way from the Raritan River railroad that could feed a lot of commuters into New Brunswick with a bit of work. Might not be able to justify going all the way to South Amboy on the old tracks, but could replace people who currently drive in on 18.
I’ve always wondered why so many students come to University of Maryland from New Jersey. Now I know, it was to escape this mess! Shuttle-UM > Rutgers campus busses
I'm glad someone finally did a video on this
I see the bus system has not improved in the 29 years since I graduated from this fine institution.
This video was absolutely hilarious to watch! Great video!
Thank you!
I remember they used to have bendy buses in their system but it seems like they've taken all of them out of service (they usually ran on the B route). Also that thing about broken signs is way too common, I swear at least half the buses just had the route name on some printed paper taped to the windshield
The bendy buses used to be on the EE when the route ran to the Student Center via College Ave going north and on the F after the EE was rerouted. The H also had the bendy buses as well.
Quality video, if you ever find yourself in college park, md; you should ride their shuttle service. Keep up the bangers
Thank you! College Park actually has a very comprehensive and good shuttle system, right?
@@MilesinTransit Yes, I used to be student driver when I was there. They also have shuttles that go to nearby towns and some of the routes can get packed on weekend nights
I notice their website actually makes a note of which routes require ID! On the one hand, that's amazing organization, but on the other hand, that sucks that I by default wouldn't get to ride them all :(
@@cameron_o pause rq, students can get jobs as drivers at they're college if they have bus systems?
@@843Reboot Mine offered it. They paid me while I trained for my CDL class B. I still have it lol
I'll be moving to the New Brunswick area in 2023 and look forward to seeing these buses around while fondly remembering the torture of your experience 😅
Love that little map insert you got going there!
Thanks!
Good video and entertaining.
Random note , I’m in a city north or Houston and our “buses” are just mini truck bus vans that go around town. I guess it’s something.
Thank you! And oof, that sounds like a pretty bad bus system...
Weirdly glad to see that shitty bus service is not limited to where I go to school (UVA), even complete with the shitty stop placement and random idle times. At least y'all seem to have SOME shelters.
I last attended Rutgers over 10 years ago, but there was only one problem with the bus system that I remember, and I had to double check where it was. It's getting from Cook/Douglass campus to anything north of it, or vice versa. And it all comes down, in my mind, to one terrible intersection: George St. and Paul Robeson Blvd. I'm pretty sure that intersection was responsible for all of the traffic of New Brunswick by itself. Anyway, who knows if that's a solved problem by now, but those buses were free, got me where I needed to go, and they were my first taste of public transit.
I know what you’re talking about. The bottleneck it created during rush hour but then you enter Cook/Douglass
Nope, that intersection is still miserable (and as I have eschewed the buses for an e bike, it's awful to navigate on bike too at Neilson and Paul Robeson)
Have been waiting for a video like this for a little while now- so glad this is here! Absolutely love your content!!
- Recent RU Alum here who definitely still misses college
Thank you so much!
I know this is somewhat unrelated to this video, but I would love to see you to "review" the Philly tour busses as if they were actual busses or something of the sort. (Also by the way they sometimes don't check for your ticket and I've taken one to work like 3 or 4 times for free. It just took a fair bit longer than it should since it's giving the tour 💀)
I'd be far too nervous to try getting on one of those without a ticket! That is a fun idea though!
loved the action shot!
Whenever you're in Chicago next you should do this at IIT but the joke is that theres a single road with buses (state street) with the 29 and 31 running through campus. The campus is literally 1 block long.
Back in 2008 the Cape Liberty Cruise Port used Rutgers shuttle buses to transport people to the cruise ships from a satellite dropoff area. [It felt like a long ride - and that doesn't even include the ride to this area from Newark airport.]
love it, we had a cameo of a jughandle, of a "Taking a QUIIIIIIIICK FIVE" ! What more can we ask for???? Ofc a Rutgers Campus.... DINER
There actually was a shot of a diner originally but I didn't think it was funny enough to make the cut :(
Oh the Rutgers buses, how many stories I have riding the buses for 5 years from being packed like sardines when classes end to seeing someone in a red bandana trying to hump a fire hydrant while flipping the bird to everyone on the bus. Freshman year, I lived in New Gibbons and when the EE or F enters Douglass, the bus would go all over the Cook/Douglass campus while taking a small break on Red Oak Lane before it continues and loops until New Gibbons. It was so annoying be close to home but the bus had to loop around before it could stop. I got off at Jameson and walked to my dorm which was faster than staying on the bus. Then I moved to Busch Campus for 2 years and enjoyed the wonders thats the A/H bus and then Easton Ave where I could take any bus to get me across campus/home, but the bars and restaurants were within walking distance and so was the train and bus to NYC.
BTW, Take the drunk bus on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night; you’ll have the best ride of your life lol.
Red bandana kid! That guy was a legend while he was there.
I really like Jeremy.
I went to Rutgers-New Brunswick from 2015-19. The routes seem to be different. Normally the F took the same routes through Cook/Douglass as the EE, and the EE took George Street past the train station. I was a music student so most of my classes were on Cook.
My uni just funnels a bunch of county busses with 15-30 minute headways through campus and lets us ride them for free. There are a bunch of weird one way peak period only routes that seem to come when they feel like it though!
They used to have some ex-OC Transpo D60LF's in the fleet. I caught a few of those on video the first or second of the three times I videoed buses on this system.
My only college with a bus just did a big loop around the whole campus (College of Staten Island). It was dumb because the stops were not really near anything useful aside from two of the three admin buildings (and even those the stops were near the side of the building, not the front doors). So much walking was needed after getting off.
I see the NYU buses all over the place (since NYU is slowly eating up as much of the city as they can), but I think you do need an ID to ride them.
For what it's worth, I think some of Rutgers's buses are actually inherited from the College of Staten Island system!
@@MilesinTransit yes, we got 4050-4053 from CSI at Rutgers. 4053 came first in 2019 and 4050-4052 came in 2021.
There are academic buildings and dorms on Cook campus that are full 15 minute walks from the nearest bus stops. There used to be closer stops but they removed them. Super fun walking 15 minutes to the bus then waiting 15 minutes for a bus to arrive and then the bus taking its sweet time to take you to class. Super fun in the freezing cold and rain, too.
A "Well There's Your Problem" shoutout!
You should try the Stony Brook shuttles at some point - way less useful for most people except those that use the commuter lot, and they use cursed school buses converted into transit buses, if you can call them that. But hey, at least we have an LIRR station
Oh no, converted school buses? That sounds AWFUL!
we have a njt station :)
I'm sorry Miles, I just can't reconcile that title. The Miles in Transit Award for "Worst College Shuttle" rightfully belongs to UMass Lowell, which reminds me: you still have unfinished business in Rowdy's Nest
Ohhhhh shoot, I forgot about UMass Lowell...but in fairness, the diesel stench on these buses was ALSO pretty bad, plus these ones are much more heavily relied on so their problems are compounded!
I agree, UML's shuttles suck!!
@@nickhwx531 I wrote a scathing review of them awhile back: milesintransit.com/2018/02/28/umass-lowell-shuttle-yellow-north-line/
@@MilesinTransit I've said it before and I'll say it again: you got the worst of the worst. Give it another shot and I'll show you the mediocre highs of the system lol
@@MilesinTransit imma go read it now
I go to Rutgers and have to agree, we have like the worst transit system lol. All our buses are aging, ElDorado sucks and we just got 12 Freightliner cutaways from Auburn. We are supposed to get brand new Axess soon, I heard two of them are already on the property so I’m staying optimistic for the future.
Aw man, more El Dorado though??
That Automated voice on the EE reminded me of my UNC Charlotte busses 😂
Since my brother and his friends went here the only buses to goes Express on Route 18 are Douglas's Campus to Livingston and Busch Campus/Stadium while Cook/Douglas Campus to College Ave uses George St all the way or RT-18. All college buses do stop at the train station weekend service is infrequent during the late nights it start to operate like a Uber
Meanwhile the college I went to here in NJ was just one location, but also conveniently 2 blocks from an NJT train station.
Kean? I like going there (I run swim meets at D'Angola). Union station is neat with the guantlet tracks for the freight, but the RV line frequency could be better.
Wow... The Rutgers system wasn't so bad when Coach USA/Suburban had the NJT leased Novas (and even the old-school Flxibles. This is the kind of crap you'd see at a third-tier state college in the midwest, not the flagship school of New Jersey.
First Transit would only run truck buses at my school on the routes to the major dorms with predictable massive overcrowding and 5+ minute dwell times. When they finally put HIGH FLOOR eldorados on it they only put them on the circulator which no one used.
They do, actually, have a schedule. If they get to a time point early, they wait. Hence, the bunch of busses ar Passion Puddle and your driver's break.
Seems like that would be a useful thing to publish...
19:11 the sheer cheeziness turned his skin yellow
i wonder if its as bad as the Temple University one, or at least the two that go on the main campus (for context, I'm pretty sure Temple also has a shuttle between main and Ambler)
It's...actually probably better than the Temple shuttle. But I've heard you need an ID to ride that one :(
Also you do get into the discussion of "Well, maybe the Rutgers one IS worse because more people have to rely on it, whereas the Temple one is just buses circling campus all night"...eh, if I ever did get to ride the Temple Shuttle, I'd probably still call THAT the worst one, but a clickbait title is a clickbait title.
@@MilesinTransit I go to temple, its not really supposed to be rode in full at all, and when used in full its just not good from what I know. I'll ride it with a few friends one day since I go to Temple
oh lord why would you torture yourself with this
Long, long ago, when considering colleges, applied to Rutgers... got rejected. Because of High School agriculture activities, had occasion to come into town to competitions at Cook, (out by the Roundhouse, if you know where that is) Doesn't look like any of the routes go there. College Ave. was a mess back then and that was 50 years ago
Nice urban planning Easter eggs you slipped in there!
On the topic of lovely campus shuttles, RIT has 15 shuttle services, including to the crazy-far-away RIT Inn and Conference Center. When _I_ was there, I don't think there were 15 routes, but RTS stopped servicing campus right after I left, so now RIT has to get students to places where they would have taken regional transit.
My understanding is that RIT used to contract with RTS to run those routes, so RTS stopped servicing campus when RIT ended the contract
I was sure it would be the Penn mini buses whose main function seems to be give people who have never driven anything a chance to drive a large vehicle and try to knock me off my bike
Always cool to see Jersey youtubers. When did you guys complete this tour?
This was on October 10, 2022.
Jeremy is such a star 🌟
Oh buddy. Fastest Denver RTD rider here… It takes roughly 18 hours, if not more to ride all lines that are on our system map.
Calling this the worst college shuttle just tells you of Miles’s inexperience with college shuttles - they can get way worse
*Shivers in Shuttle-UM*
For sure! As someone used to the University of Michigan’s relatively good campus bus service, I was quite underwhelmed by Shuttle-UM when I started working at UMD remotely and had to visit every so often. Infrequent non-clock face headways, and the College Park Metro route annoyingly passes near The Hotel on campus without stopping.
This seems to be contentious - some other commenters have said good things about Shuttle-UM! I'd go down to check it out myself, but I'm turned off by the fact that the majority of the routes require an ID to ride...
hey it has two big things going for it: buses meet the metro trains at least at peak times and ITS AN ALL GILLIG SYSTEM WOOO GILLIG!!
its operations are worse than ever though because so much of campus is closed with purple line construction
Living in New Brunswick, I see those buses all the time.
My alma mater (UCLA) didn’t even have a college shuttle (there was a service for students with disabilities or who were injured)
More campus and other obscure transit!
Hey no dots in the first two buses
The bit about the signs being out of service reminds me a lot of my current university (UC Santa Cruz)'s busses. I'm pretty sure that the signs at UCSC DO work, but some of the drivers just don't seem to bother and just stick with the paper. The busses aren't falling apart as much as these ones seem to, but since they're early-90s Gillig Phantoms, there's a ceiling to how good they can be. Great for bus-geeks like myself though! And if you're ever in town and want someone to guide you through the system, just shoot me a message!
Gillig Phantoms?? Okay, it's not quite "College Station still running RTS's" levels of awesome, but that is REALLY awesome.
@@MilesinTransit Yup! Old SamTrans diesel busses that the school bought.
Comparing this to my university (University of Minnesota) it’s wild how much worse this is! For also being operated by first transit the quality is so much higher. The buses actually have decent frequency and never really get slowed down.
I've ridden that U of M busway, it's very high quality!!
@@MilesinTransit yeah it’s great, it’s also funny that the closest route to true BRT in the twin cities isn’t the routes called BRT but a university shuttle route (the campus connector, which is the one that uses the transit way between the two TC campuses).
This why I just walked during college lol
Rutgers has three centers: Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick, the last shown here. There are several campuses in the New Brunswick area, each with dorms and classrooms, but some students living in one campus have courses on other campuses. Thus the need for these wacky buses.
I saw Rutgers buses picking up/ dropping off at Newark railroad station. Maybe they are going to New Brunswick railroad station?
They have separate shuttle systems in Camden and Newark, so the bus you saw at Newark Penn would've been for the Newark campus!
You should come to College Station and ride the entirety of Texas A&M's bus system on our magnificent NovaBuses and Millenium RTS before they replace them all with new Gilligs. We even have a route that goes to the local airport!
DO YOU STILL HAVE RTS'S THERE?? I knew College Station was pretty much the last bastion of them but I didn't know they were still around!
@@MilesinTransit I know they've been selling the oldest ones off but I believe they're still running a few. I saw some when I was up there recently.
Whoa...very duly noted
This video should've been titled, "Oops all cheese Cheez It Review."
Today, I rode the bus home, it was crowded, it was slow, and someone tripped the back door alarm so we were stopped for 5 minutes. Then I watched this video and realized I was comparatively lucky, but I thought harder and realized that there wasn't much difference between a 2006 D40lf filled with high schoolers stuck in traffic an a 2010 el dorado stuck in traffic filled with college students.
There's a lot wrong with it but calling it a "college shuttle" is a bit of a disservice, it's a University Bus System. Rutgers is a research university not a college and the system has a lot more than 2 stops across the 5 campuses. It's nice that at least it a functional well used system for getting around as opposed to some smaller college/university bus services that get no ridership because their campus is tiny and their buses are infrequent
You're splitting hairs, man
@@MilesinTransit I don't think so. calling it a shuttle makes it sound like a bus between the middle of campus and the airport or just one loop around a small campus, which doesn't reflect the scale of the misery first transit inflicted on my life for 3 years. The countless hours stuck in traffic wondering how some idiot bureaucrat didn't realize how wide the buses actually are
I love the videos with jeremy
🤔don’t think I’ve seen you mention them before but what are your thoughts on catabus?
Up in State College? I'm not sure, I've never been on them! I feel like the system isn't interesting enough to justify the pain of a trip it is to get up there, but I could be wrong.
Such a great system, yep definitely.
At least Rutgers students actually know how to take the bus. You and I both know, Miles, that Penn students have no idea how to take the PennBus and would rather spend 30+ minutes on an on-demand shuttle, even when the bus is in walking distance!
In fairness, the PennBus has such a limited schedule and is so unreliable that I don't ENTIRELY blame them? The one thing I wish I had done before graduating was doing a video about the PennBus system.
@@MilesinTransit The surreptitious frequency decrease from 15 to 20 minutes didn't help! I let the managers hear it during the Penn Transit Advisory committee meeting that just reconvened after 2 years.
At least it seems like there are constantly busses arriving on the route between the dorms and campus. That's honestly the most important thing.
In a sense, yes! Although it's often five buses all bunched together...
How is it that every time you upload a video, I'm in the middle of a Scott the Woz video? Be 5pm or 9pm, I'm watching Scott and I have to leave for Miles.
Wow, I can't believe I preempt Scott!
@@MilesinTransit Miles, Scott, you're both the same you both hate pokemon.
I don't hate Pokemon! I've just never played it or gotten into it!
Exactly like Scotty lol
I'm strangely addicted to your travels ... I find myself wondering where you will end up next
Thank you! Lots of interesting travels to come in the future...
all the places I studied at had pretty good systems of campus commuter services
however, my cousin went to Maryland State, & their bus was so slow, Pokémon-Go would consider you to be walking.....
I didn’t care to time Rowan’s shuttle service as I didn’t even want to loop to the parking lot on the other side of the tracks. It was mostly about documenting history as they added a second stop on the other side of the rec center because of a student center expansion blocking the paito right next to the library so the “back door” for the library is the only way in. Then again I haven’t been to the library since COVID since I had no reason to
The shuttles at my school (UC Berkeley) are only every 30 minutes. Looks like the Rutgers shuttle have much higher frequency.
True, although they often bunch so badly that you GET 30-minute gaps!
You would expect a university located on the northeast corridor, in the densest state in the country, not too far from the most transit-friendly city in the country would have a better bus system than a conservative university (Texas A&M) located in a small city in one of the most car-centric states in the country, but apparently not.
Texas A&M has the added bonus of still running RTS buses, too!
So george st is no longer outdoor dining. Hopefully in the spring they'll have George St bus route back
Yeah, it looks like NJT routed itself back to George, but the EE hasn't done the same yet!
@@MilesinTransit I figured if it's gonna happen, they're gonna wait until the New Year, because why not? It's not like we could change bus routes mid semester...
Actually, for confusion, that might be the better choice.
Love the videos tho man. South Jersey native and Rutgers Student, so it's just crazy seeing all the trains I've explored on youtube
Yeah, good point - but also I wouldn't be surprised if they just left it because why not...I guess we'll see! And thank you so much!
Omg. I can’t believe you did BART quicker than this. 🎉
That's such a downgrade from when Academy used to run the Rutgers buses and would operate MCI cruisers on the A and H when they were short buses instead of cutaways/mini buses.
MCI's?!?!?!?!?!!? Man, I wish I could've been there to see that!
Indeed. Those of us who have been around Rutgers New Brunswick for a while know all about Jack Molenaar changing from Academy to First Bus. Yes we got some nice Nova buses to start with but when they started to “no va” they were replaced with the excrescence you see in the video. Save money with cheap buses until they fall apart after a few years.
Then they spent money on next bus indicators at the bus stops which don’t work any more since they changed the vendor for bus information. And, yes, there’s a new app, which isn’t nearly as good as the one it replaced.
Then we have the “shelters” at the Yard and College Avenue Gym. You can see them briefly in the videos as red canopies. They replaced perfectly serviceable shelters with sides with Jolly Jack decided weren’t necessary as there is no wind ever in New Brunswick so snow and rain always fall perfectly vertically. However the new ones “cast a pleasant red shadow” on the ground when it’s sunny as Jolly Jack condescendingly told a Cook Student council once.
The video talks about bunching, which is inevitable given the mix of buses. The repainted school buses have only one entrance/exit, which has a staircase, so the loading/unloading times are excessive for a hop-on, hop-off service. And while they are technically ADA compliant, I’m thankful that I have never had to see them deploy the lift, which requires the driver to exit the vehicle. The Academy buses were kneeling buses with built-in ramps which were very fast loading passengers needing assistance. (As were the Nova buses while they lasted, to be fair).
Then we get to the stops that are not now in use “because we want to speed service”. I once suggested to Jack the he could remove all the stops and the transit time would improve enormously. The sarcasm was wasted.
Finally, let’s not forget the L route, which used to serve Cedar Lane and opened up a large number of rental units to students without automobiles. Ditched. This from an organization that at one time was so short of housing that it rented hotel rooms in Somerset for students for at least a year.
This has been a long rant but there is so much that is dysfunctional in Rutgers parking and transportation services that it’s just not funny.
Thank you for all the historical information! Agreed on all your points, and I had no idea there used to be a regular L - that's terrible it's gone.
Much of the Boston University shuttle fleet - the D60LF's and the older NovaBus LFS's - began their life at Rutgers before they had a falling out with Academy.
@@Scrabbleship820 There’s something funny about the whole transition. According to the student newspaper reports at the time, it was going to save money. It might have for the transportation department, but it cost a lot in wasted student time.
Academy still has some buses painted in Rutgers livery. They are trotted out as shuttle buses for football games and I think the football team still has a couple of specially painted Academy buses for short trips to away games.
a) wild to me that universities in the US are so big they need shuttle bus systems, campuses here in the UK are so tiny everyone walks and b) I'm glad Americans also know the suffering that is relying on First, their largest bus company is in my city and my god it sucks
How I knew this was Rutgers 😂