By Whittney Allen

Cats Cruiser, a late night transportation service developed by Student Government in partnership with LexTran, is seeing success during its first month of service.

“In the first three weekends, LexTran reported over 1,500 riders — roughly 500 each weekend,” SG Deputy Chief of Staff Max Stefka said.

The service was implemented  to provide safe and reliable transportation on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. until 3 a.m., hours that are considered most high-risk for crime, Stefka said.

UK students can use the service for free by simply showing their UK student IDs, while non-students can use the service for $1, the normal LexTran fare.

“I really like what UK is doing with the program,” integrated strategic communication sophomore Amanda Goff said. “The drivers are friendly and are always helpful about getting you on the correct route closest to your destination.”

The program has been helpful in getting students from points A to B in the safest manner possible.

“I just recently found out about the program, and I would love to use it, but I can never find out the exact routes that the bus takes,” journalism freshman Rachel Lolli said.

The biggest question surrounding the new program seems to be how to use it. The Cats Cruiser buses circulate every 20 to 30 minutes without a specific route schedule, similar to the Colt Trolley in downtown Lexington.

“From ideation to implementation, constant evaluation of the pilot program has been and will continue to be a key component of the service,” Stefka said. “We will continue to use feedback from many sources — e-mails, meetings, (Third District) Councilwoman (Diane) Lawless, Town and Gown — to make changes to improve the service as time goes on.”

A full schedule and route map are available on the Cats Cruiser website, http://uksga.org/catscruiser.