After a one-and-a-half-hour ride on Topper Transit last weekend, four members of the Student Government Association say there may be room for improvement in the system.

Dana Lockhart, a member of the SGA Judicial Council who was one of the four passengers, said many students who don’t own cars use the shuttle during daytime hours for shopping, but the number drops at night, when most students can use the system as a ride home after an evening out.

Lockhart said last weekend that many of the stops Topper Transit made were found vacant, and some of the stops outside local bars were staked out by Bowling Green police.

“There were police officers waiting at four different locations near bars,” Lockhart said, indicating students may not have boarded because police were nearby.

Topper Transit is a consolidation of Provide-A-Ride and the Shopping Shuttle.

The new system runs Thursday through Saturday at night and stops at points around Bowling Green, including Wal-Mart and Greenwood Mall.

While SGA members had concerns about the nighttime runs, many students are taking advantage of the shuttle, Lockhart said.

“When you get on the early shuttle to go to Wal-Mart, it’s packed,” he said.

SGA members have yet to decide on a way to increase use of the nighttime runs. SGA Vice President of Administration Brandon Copeland said more students used Provide-A-Ride and the Shopping Shuttle when they were separate systems last year.

An average of about 70 to 100 students rode the two different shuttle systems on Thursday nights.

Separating into two systems again may be a possible solution, Copeland said.

SGA sent a list of pros and cons about the shuttle system to Gene Tice, vice president of Student Affairs and Campus Services. Copeland said he and Lockhart plan to have an ongoing discussion with Tice about Topper Transit.

Reach Cassie Riley at [email protected].