When classes started back this semester, Student Government enacted one of its biggest projects this year: Cats Cruiser.

This service provides free transportation for UK students on four set routes Thursday through Saturday 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. The service costs $1 for non-students.

SG started working at the beginning of the school year to get this program rolling, and it had to overcome several obstacles including some pushback from a few members of the surrounding community.

For the program, SG teamed up with LexTran to use four 17-passenger vans. These vans pick up students from locations that students actually travel, to including apartment complexes and other off-campus locations.

According to a Feb. 14 Kernel article, Cats Cruiser had 1,500 people ride its vans during the first three weeks of operation. This is a substantial turnout for the first three weekends, and hopefully this number shows that students are being responsible if they are out on the weekends partying.

Other Southeastern Conference schools have a service like this, so Cats Cruiser was a needed addition to UK’s campus.

Though it was costly — the program costs $172,000, according to a Jan. 11, 2011 article — the Kernel supports Cats Cruiser because it provides students with safe, reliable transportation on nights when they need it.