Friday November 2, 2001

Free emergency taxi service would run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if implemented

A new ride service will be one step closer to being a viable option for the UA if members of RHA are supportive of the proposal.

The Residence Hall Association's approval of the service would make the Associated Students of the University of Arizona more likely to allocate funding to the emergency ride service.

ASUA will vote whether to approve the service at its meeting Wednesday.

The service would allow any member of the UA campus community carrying a ride card to get up to $100 in cab fares for emergency transportation to their homes, a hospital or a police station.

The ride service is scheduled to go into effect by the first week of February, if passed, and would be in effect until May 2003.

Ride cards the size of a driver's license would be passed out to students and departments in classes, and through clubs and dorms. Advertisements for local businesses would be attached to the cards and would pay for the service.

Selling the advertising is the only expense related to the service.

The New York-based company that provides the service - Student Lifeline Inc. - wants $3,500 to cover hotel and related expenses of sending a sales representative to Tucson for three weeks to sell the advertising to local businesses.

ASUA Sen. Josh Maxwell said getting $1,500 of the total from a business or organization such as RHA would be the crucial factor in whether ASUA would decide to fund the service and have it operating by January.

Maxwell asked RHA for $1,500 for Student Lifeline Inc. last night at the RHA meeting. Though the association did not vote on funding, many of the voting and non-voting members of RHA said they liked the idea of the service and would vote to fund it.

Christopher L. Gaunt, an RHA residence hall representative, said that he thinks the service would improve safety on and around campus.

"College students like to party," Gaunt said. "Someone doesn't want to drive home after being at a party for two hours if the driver has been drinking, and girls don't like to walk back to their dorms at night and take the chance of getting mugged or something."

Gaunt said he will vote to fund the service at the next meeting.

Resident assistant James Importante said he would also vote to approve the service.

"If it improves general safety around campus, and reaches out to more people, sure I'd approve it," he said.

However, others questioned whether the service would really be used for emergencies, since it would be up to those using the service to determine what an "emergency" actually is.

"I just think it's going to be misused by drunk people," said political science freshman Amy Ulibarri.

Another student echoed Ulibarri's sentiments.

"There would always be people that would abuse it," said molecular and cellular biology freshman Chris Wie.