Students who have utilized “the purple line,” don’t need to worry – the Student Government Association’s Safe Rides service is back for the spring semester.

Fall semester 2012 was the first year that SGA provided a fixed-route transportation service.

Smithland senior Cory Dodds, president of SGA, said Safe Rides has been extremely successful so far.

“Safe Rides meets the needs of students on campus,” Dodds said. “It’s something that we’ve needed for a long time.”

With the Safe Rides service, students can be picked up at a set location at set times, and Dodds thinks that the consistency of the service is a key factor to its success.

“Safe Rides provides students with consistency when they’re out on the town,” Dodds said.

In the past, SGA had the Provide-A-Ride service, which, unlike the purple line, was expensive and inefficient.

Lewisport sophomore Cain Alvey, administrative vice president of SGA, believes that Safe Rides has been a much greater success than the Provide-A-Ride service because it is more dependable.

“Safe Rides is an actual planned route, whereas Provide-A-Ride was a taxi service that was extremely unreliable,” Alvey said.

Stephen Rowland, manager of Parking and Transportation Services, was at SGA’s meeting on Tuesday and said that Safe Rides allows for students to participate in safer forms of transportation.

“It is truly a safe ride home,” Rowland said.

Rowland said there are plans of adding another bus to the route. The cost to add another bus to the service would be $20,000.

There have been minimal problems with “the purple line” so far: only one fight and two complaints about the bus being late.

If problems do occur on the Safe Rides bus, Rowland said the Bowling Green Police Department is contacted right away.

On average, there were about 22 passengers per hour to ride “the purple line.” The most popular pick-up locations were at the corner of College and 13th, right outside Hilligans, and College Suites.

Due to College Suites being the second most popular pick-up sight, it is clear that Safe Rides is also successful in reaching out to off-campus students.

The entire route of “the purple line” takes about 45 minutes to complete, and according to Rowland, the goal is to cut that down to 30 minutes for the spring semester.