Walking around campus is the primary mode of transportation for students.

While walking is a great form of exercise, it poses a problem for students at night. Fortunately, Late Night Ride Service comes in handy. Late Night Ride will transport students at night if they feel unsafe, no questions asked.

“I think Late Night Ride is a dependable service because it is run by the university. However, it’s sometimes not dependable because too many people are using it, so you can’t get a hold of them,” said Sarah Rhein, freshman visual communication major.

Because of the service’s popularity, some calls to Late Night Ride Service have received busy signals. Late Night Ride only has one phone number with three operators running it. With rising demand, service should increase as well.

“The calls should be received in the order they call, and we try to get through them as quickly as possible,” said Lt. Todd Henert of the NIU Police Department.

Henert, however, was unaware that students were receiving busy signals when they called.

Receiving constant busy signals discourages people from using this service.

“The problem is when they call last minute and cannot get ahold of Late Night Ride, they might try to walk home by themselves and it’s either too far, or dangerous, if someone is intoxicated,” Rhein said.

If students rely on this service to get them home safely, for whatever reason, they should be able to reach the phone operator at the very least.

Henert seemed very determined to fix the problem once aware of the situation.

“I’m going to check the system because students should not be getting a busy signal,” Henert said.

Henert also mentioned that the NIU Police Department is working to decrease the wait time for people using late night ride.

“We are trying to get the wait time down to close to five minutes,” Henert said. “We just replaced four of our minivans with regular vans.”

Decreasing the wait time is a plus, especially since we will reach winter months soon.

“The main advantage of the Late Night Ride is safety,” said Andy Jordan, kinesiology and physical education major.

Jordan said he knows he will arrive at a destination safely because Late Night Ride Service is staffed by police officers and said the officers care about getting people home safely. Late night ride is a great idea with students’ interests in mind.

Now the program needs to expand and improve the service, which has grown exceedingly popular.