Temple students,

Based on the feedback from a College of Engineering senior design project, conversations with SEPTA’s Customized Community Transportation team and the consultation of a national transit company, Temple University has decided to relaunch Flight as a fixed-route service beginning this fall. The service had previously operated as an on-demand, door-to-door ride request service since its inception in 2016. The new service will go into effect beginning Saturday, Aug. 20, with a soft launch scheduled for Aug. 8.

Over the past year, we have found that the current on-demand ride request service was simply inefficient in a highly dense urban environment where there is high demand like Temple’s campus. That has led to frustration among both students and parents, and we have been determined to find a solution that satisfies all parties while also helping to make campus and the surrounding areas as safe as possible.

The new Flight service will pick up and drop off passengers at more than 40 stops located at nearly every intersection within Campus Safety Services’ patrol zone. Service hours for Flight will be seven days a week between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., and a shuttle is expected to reach each drop-off and pickup location every 15 minutes. With consistent and predictable shuttle intervals in place, the hope is that fewer students will be inclined to walk to their destinations.

Having designated stops will also be beneficial when it comes to improving security patrols, as Campus Safety Services will know exactly when and where students will be picked up and dropped off. This will allow them to focus their patrols in those areas as well as the block immediately surrounding the designated drop-off and pickup locations.

I invite you to learn more about Flight’s transition to a fixed-route service in this news story or via the service’s website. Thank you for your patience as we implement this new change, and we look forward to having you back on campus very soon.

Sincerely,

Ken Kaiser
Chief Operating Officer