Some further details of the 2014 security bus service operated at LaTrobe Uni can be found here -
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=au
PaxInfo wrote:Do these services aid safety? They do provide reassurance and comfort to people who feel vulnurable. And they may be seen as satisfying 'duty of care' obligations. Which makes the university feel good and reduces exposure to potential litigation.
But using buses to substitute for an easy 10 min walk denormalises the practice of people walking at night. Ie if the bus takes walkers away fewer people are seen walking, which increases the perception that it's unsafe, so fewer do it, increasing risk further in a vicious spiral. Even worse is the advice from well-meaning police and safety campaigners etc who warn people against walking alone at night - a measure that reduces personal liberties, lowers perception of safety and 'blames the victim' if something does go wrong. All this is on-topic here since the willingness of people to walk at night directly affects the patronage and viability of after dark bus, train and tram services.
The need for these after dark buses is an unfortunate bi-product of sprawling suburban campuses that were originally designed in the 1960s to cater for students arriving/departing by car rather than using more sustainable modes or for the influx of international students who now reside near-by.
For instance, at Monash Clayton & La Trobe much of the on campus accommodation is over a kilometre from the main campus buildings, past empty sporting ovals, feature lakes etc. If someone was to be approached by an unsavoury character on the walk back to their car or dorm, there are few ways to attract the attention of a good samaritan - compare this to suburban areas, there is usually a lit-up house you can run to, or flag down a passing motorist. This makes students more vulnerable, and when they are likely to be carrying valuable laptops and recent model phones, makes them a potential target.
In the case of VU, and the former Swinburne Lilydale campus, these buses are the result of building campuses just a little bit too far from train stations. Again, students are faced with 10 - 15 min walk through carparks and parkland perceived as unsafe after dark .
Other than wanting to be seen as proactive in their duty of care to existing students, no doubt universities want to protect their reputation as a safe place to study to ensure they continue to attract future students and retain government funding and the lucrative full-paying students.
I am not quite convinced that running these buses is necessarily restricting 'personal liberties' - all it would take is a student to hear about an incident on a campus somewhere else in Australia to think twice before deciding if they wanted to risk walking alone across an empty campus at night or not. They then might decide not to utilise the library/computer labs after dark or even skip some night classes. The security bus option gives them the opportunity to continue to conduct their normal activities in a way that gives the students piece of mind.
Kind Regards
Craig
Bundoora is a fairly safe area and has comparatively little crime so plenty of people walk around the campus at night, and as PaxInfo noted, this makes it safer as a result thus inducing a positive spiral of both real security and perception.