The Student Services Finance Committee removed the SAFEcab service from its Student Transportation Budget Monday.
According to UW’s Transportation Services website, SAFEcab “provides emergency nighttime transportation to individuals who are outside the SAFEwalk boundary or who are not serviced by a SAFEride Bus route.”
SSFC Vice Chair Chase Wilson said students do not use the program on a regular basis.
“You can only use SAFEcab six times, so no one is using it as a standard form of transportation because you can’t depend on it,” Wilson said.
Wilson said students have used the program significantly less in the past two fiscal years.
Between 2009 and 2010, student use decreased by 70 percent, and between 2010 and 2011 it dropped an additional 30 percent.
“SAFEcab was first created when students originally did not have access to cell phones or debit cards,” Wilson said. “It’s a redundant service now given that SAFEwalk and SAFEbus already operate.”
SSFC Rep. Cale Plamann suggested students who do use SAFEcab should look to other cab companies for late night transportation.
“You’re going to have to tip anyway even if you use SAFEcab,” Plamann said. “As someone who regularly uses [cab companies], it’s actually cheaper for me to call and pay them.”
While acknowledging SAFEcab’s problems, SSFC Rep. Ellie Bruecker was hesitant to completely remove the service from the budget.
“We’ve been seeing more reports of assaults on campus,” Bruecker said. “That concerns me for us to be cutting the SAFEcab service at the same time. I’m just not sure that if we’re looking to cut costs this should be the area to look in.”
Wilson said although students typically pay for the service through their segregated fees, the service could still be funded through other means.
“In the past couple of years, it’s just been a poorly run service,” Wilson said.
