The Blue Line, the U of M’s shuttle program, will take students to the Target on Colonial Road at 4 p.m. on Thursday’s. The shuttle to Kroger Poplar Plaza will pick students up at the Carpenter stop at 2 p.m. with continuous trips until 4:45 p.m.
The University of Memphis will begin to offer rides to Target and Kroger starting later this month.
The Blue Line, the U of M’s shuttle program, will take students to the Target on Colonial Road at 4 p.m. on Thursday’s starting Jan. 28. Students can shop for around an hour and a half and take the bus back at 6 p.m. There is only one round trip to Target, so students must be mindful to not miss the shuttle back to campus.
The shuttle to the Kroger in Poplar Plaza will pick students up at the Carpenter stop at 2 p.m. with continuous trips until 4:45 p.m.
These routes were added due to popular demand, said Tommy Miller assistant director of Parking & Transportation Services on campus.
“Two years ago we did a campus wide survey and the second most requested spot was Target beside Kroger Poplar Plaza (the number one requested spot),†Miller said.
International students were also considered when deciding to add the route since Kroger has many of the items they may need when they first arrive on campus.
Thanks to minor rescheduling of the bus routes, these added trips do not cost the students extra money.
“The route does not cost us,†Miller said. “We re-directed a regular route bus on Friday because the ridership on Friday is dead. So we thought it would be much better suited to use it to take students who do not have vehicles. We found a lot of people in the dorms do not have a car on campus.â€
One student who does not have a car on campus is South Carolina native Brian Florence, a education senior at the U of M.
“I have gone to both Target and Kroger on the Blue Line,†Florence said. “Me and my roommate needed groceries and we needed to go to Target. We caught the Blue Line, and it was very speedy. They picked up at the time they said they would.â€
