SafeRide Work MIT maintains a set of four vans that transport students from main campus to their homes. As a regular patron of this fine service, I have some thoughts on how it could become a more useful and altogether more reasonable service to the MIT community. Perhaps my biggest complaint about SafeRide is its blatant ignorance of standard safety rules.
Most passengers pay no attention to the seat belts, for one thing.
This often makes no difference because the seat belts don't work, or, more frequently, there are more SafeRide passengers than seat belts. The SafeRide drivers exhibit some of the worst aspects of Boston driving , and seem to think that achieving maximum speed whenever possible is a desirable goal. MIT should make sure that the SafeRide vans always have working seat belts. Passengers should be encouraged, though not necessarily required, to take advantage of these safety features. The SafeRide drivers, in turn, should limit the number of passengers in the van to the number of working seat belts.