Park and Ride honors 20,000th rider early this year as shuttle service popularity grows

Judy Langworthy, interim associate vice president for administration, at right, presents a gift certificate to Hannah Catalano, a student who became the 20,000th rider of the Park and Ride service.

Two days before the Thanksgiving break began, SUNY Fredonia students showed that the Park and Ride buses are no turkeys.

The campus shuttle service reached the academic year's 20,000th rider mark Wednesday afternoon – the earliest that’s ever happened -- when Hannah Catalano, a Childhood Inclusive Education major with a concentration in Art, climbed aboard bus no.1.

She’s a regular on the Maytum Hall transport, which picks her up in the Park & Ride lot and drops her off at Thompson Hall. Behind the wheel that day was Gill Uhlendorff.

“This year ridership is up 53 percent over last year and this is the earliest that we have hit the 20,000 mark in the history of the Park & Ride service,” said Terry Tzitzis, director of University Services. That mark wasn’t reached last year until March.

Park and Ride commemorated the milestone by presenting Catalano, who’s also a work study student in the dean’s office at the College of Education, a $20 gift card to the bookstore.