Though Brown recently added seven buildings to its holdings in the Jewelry District, there are no immediate plans to expand SafeRIDE service into the area, University officials say.
Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, "The decision to add service is a function of how many Brown community members need to travel along the 'corridor' in question - in this case, how many people are working and/or studying in the Jewelry District?"
Rider said the number of people working in the area is too low to merit an expansion of SafeRIDE service.
"These are occupied commercial office buildings, and Brown's intent is to maintain them as such in the medium term," Rider wrote. "Any change in the 'net numbers' will be quite slow, so it is not likely to have an effect on SafeRIDE very soon."
SafeRIDE Transportation Manager Carleia Lighty said students and employees can take advantage of existing SafeRIDE routes to get to the Jewelry District.
"The BrownMed/Downcity Express services the area in a daytime route, and the onCall service is available to students and employees who work in these buildings at night," she said.
There are no plans to expand SafeRIDE in the near future, though routes may be altered down the road, Rider said.
"As the number of Brown community members located in the Jewelry District grows, we will change the types and levels of service in order to serve them," she wrote.
Lighty predicted that if expansion does take place, "we will probably not create a separate route, but add more stops or more shuttles to the Brown Med/Downcity Express."
