5. Intercampus Public Transportation
Students may take classes through the Tri-College system of NDSU, Concordia, and MSUM. This section contains questions to determine if there is demand for public transportation among the three colleges. The first question addresses whether or not students plan on taking Tri-College courses with 98 out of 1,380 indicating they planned on doing so. Nearly 44 percent of students reporting that they would be taking Tri-College courses indicated that they would consider taking the MAT bus. Only 18 percent of respondents indicated that they would not consider taking the MAT bus, and 38 percent responded maybe (Figure 19).
Figure 19. Tri-College Students Who Would Consider Taking the MAT Bus (n=98)
5.1 MSUM-Concordia College Circulator
For students at the Moorhead campuses, the next question asked if they would use a MAT circulator bus routed around the MSUM and Concordia campus neighborhoods with approximately 15 minute intervals (Figure 20). Seventeen percent of the participating students at the two institutions responded yes while 36 percent stated that they would consider it. MSUM students were slightly less inclined to use the service, with about 16 percent responding yes.
Figure 20. MSUM-Concordia Circulator Use (n=664)
The periods when survey respondents felt that they would likely make use of circulator service are presented in Figure 21. This figure mirrors the times when students are on campus. Six percent of respondents said they would use the circulator several times a day, 23 percent once per day, and 57 percent once per week. Fourteen percent replied that they would never use the service.
MSUM students reported stronger interest in daily trips than Concordia students with 33 percent positively replying compared to nineteen percent. Concordia student were more interested in occasional trips.
Figure 21. Time of Use of the MSUM-Concordia Circulator
5.2 Knowledge and Use of NDSU Campus Circulators
Fifty-three percent of NDSU respondents, 335 students, stated that they had knowledge of the campus circulators. Twenty-two percent said that they use them. Seven and a half percent of respondents indicated additional desirable locations for service. Common locations were the Bison Sports Arena, the Wellness Center, and the Living and Learning Center.
5.3 Wait for NDSU Circulator
Twenty-four percent of respondents said they would wait up to 7 minutes for a circulator, 16 would wait 10 minutes, 8 percent would wait 15 minutes, while 48 percent would not wait at all.
5.4 Deuce Use
Of all NDSU respondents, 228 students, 32 percent, indicated that they use The Deuce taxi service in the evening. Less than 5 percent of the 228 students use the service before 10 p.m. Ten percent of the respondents indicated that they had considered taking the MAT bus to go out at night and then use The Deuce to get home. Only 11 percent indicated that they were shifting rides away from MAT by using the taxi service.
5.5 Dragon Drive
About a third of MSUM survey respondents use the Dragon Drive taxi service, one-sixth of whom use it before 10 p.m. Ten percent stated that their use of Dragon Drive replaced rides previously taken on MAT. Fifteen individuals surveyed had considered taking MAT for the first leg of a trip and Dragon Drive to return home.
5.6 Doyle Taxi
About 28 percent of the Concordia respondents use the Doyle taxi service, one-forth of whom use it before 10 p.m. Eleven percent stated that their use of Doyle replaced rides previously taken on MAT. Sixteen percent of respondents had considered taking MAT for the first leg of a trip and Doyle to return home.
5.7 MAT Evening Service
Twenty-eight percent of the MSUM respondents knew about MAT's evening service provided by Routes 7 and 8. However, 17 percent of those aware of the service did make use of the service. Thirty-three percent of Concordia students knew about evening service, 24 percent of whom had used it.
5.8 Guaranteed Ride Home Program
Thirty-one percent of NDSU students responded yes and 47 percent responded maybe to a question regarding willingness to participate in a Guaranteed Ride Home Program. Concordia students responded yes 29 percent and maybe 53 percent of the time. This is quite similar to the value of 28 and 53 percent provided by MSUM students.