When I first heard about a free evening escort service at the University of Colorado called Nightride, I was truly impressed.

It was such a simple but ingenious idea: to help out a person who is alone at a party with no ride home or to help out someone who has maybe had too much to drink.

Yet this "great idea" does not seem to work.

The first time I tried to call Nightride, it was about 2 a.m. or so, and my roommate and I were on campus trying to get back to our dorm in Williams Village. A recorded operator informed me that Nightride was closed.

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During the regular term of the school year, Nightride runs until 12:15 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday and until 1:15 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

In my opinion, Nightride could be a much more useful service if it started running around 3 a.m. and ended around 7 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays, and if it ran from midnight to 7 a.m. during the other days of the week, as the buses stop running during this time, leaving students without a free ride home.

Another time I tried to call Nightride, I was even more disappointed.

It was a Saturday night, and I was on the Hill with a friend. We wanted a ride to our friends' house because we had gotten lost and did not know where the nearest bus stop was. I called Nightride and was on hold for approximately a half hour.

When I was finally taken off hold, I was informed that it would take another half hour before someone would be able to come pick me up.

It is my belief that there should either be more cars, or that cars should transport multiple parties to condense waiting times. Also, there should be more operating lines so that nobody is kept on hold for so long.

Nightride's purpose is to provide a service that can help ease the worry of someone who finds him or herself in a bad situation. By that standard, Nightride fails to provide this service due to its constricting hours and low number of operators and vehicles.

Even though students always have the option to call a cab, they may not always have money on them. I also understand that this is a free service provided for the students, but as this service is paid for with our tuition money, we should get as much out of it as possible.

I believe that there is currently a shortage of work-study jobs at CU, and the university could employ Nightride operators and drivers to satiate this shortage.

Although Boulder is a safe town, it does have its share of violence. In 2008, 622 assaults (including 128 aggravated assaults) and 40 rapes were reported to the Boulder Police Department.

If Nightride became a more practical service, it could possibly help prevent crimes like these from happening to students.

Action and change should be made as soon as possible, because right now, any student who finds him or herself in a sketchy situation late at night is pretty much S.O.L if they try to call Nightride.

Stephanie Barker is a student at the University of Colorado.