A seat on the Mocs Express—the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s shuttle system—is always free.
The shuttle system, run in partnership with the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA), has been serving UTC for more than a decade and is free to all students, faculty and staff with a Mocs ID.
Brandon Meredith, CARTA’s director of communications and external relations—and a parent of a current UTC student—acknowledged how often students overlook the service.
“When my daughter started at UTC three years ago, she had a bus stop right in front of her house,” Meredith said. “I asked her, ‘Do you ever take the bus?’ She said she had no idea the bus even went there.
“I asked if any of the students take it. She’s like, ‘They just drive everywhere.’ But then she complains about parking.”
Meredith explained that the Mocs Express runs Monday through Saturday during the school year, with buses that are fully wheelchair accessible.
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Click here for more information, including Mocs Express shuttle stops and routes.
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If parking is hard to find on campus, Lot 45 near Engel Stadium is usually open, and a Mocs Express stop is conveniently nearby at Mocs Alumni Drive and O’Neal Street.
Braden Stillwell, a 2024 UTC graduate and CARTA transportation planning intern, said that it’s a great option for students who don’t want to circle around campus looking for a parking spot.
“If you want to ensure that you’re going to get a spot, I think Engel Stadium is a perfect place to park,” said Stillwell, who served as UTC’s student body vice president. “You can just take the shuttle, and it will always get you to where you need to go.”
He encouraged students to not feel too intimidated even if they have never ridden on public transportation before.
“There are students who have been raised with a negative perception of public transportation,” he said, “but after they try it, they say that the bus driver was sweet and helpful.”
Meredith attested to this. Drivers are happy to help.
“With the shuttle system, if someone asks the bus driver to stop at a certain place on their route and it’s a safe area, they’ll stop,” Meredith said.
The Mocs Express shuttle connects UTC students to key spots on campus and, with new routes, to popular Chattanooga destinations. Photo by Angela Foster.
This fall, a fourth shuttle will reduce weekday wait times from seven minutes to just four, making the ride even more convenient. And the Mocs Express isn’t the only option; all CARTA buses are free for UTC students.
“The good thing about UTC is its location in proximity to our routes,” Meredith said. “UTC students are within walking distance from most of our main routes.”
To make the system easier to use, he recommended bookmarking the CARTA Bus Tracker on a mobile device.
“Let’s say someone wanted to track the 14 route Mocs Express bus,” Meredith explained. “They could just put in ‘route 14,’ and that is a real-time bus tracker so they can follow the bus and figure out when it’s going to be at their stop.”
While onboard the Mocs Express, a few students shared their perspectives of what it’s like to ride the shuttle.
“It’s way faster than walking and I don’t have to worry about how much time I need between classes to walk,” said sophomore biology major Danae Hopkins, a Chattanooga native. “When I found out there was a bus I was excited.
“It’s really easy once you learn all the stops and everything.”
For physics major Belle White, a junior from Cleveland, Tennessee, the Mocs Express provides an added sense of security.
“Especially during the evening, I feel safer riding the bus than when I am walking home,” White said. “Part of it is because some of my classes are a long walk to get there, so the buses take me there quicker than I could walk there.”
Nathanial Bumpers, a sophomore entrepreneurship major from Birmingham, Alabama, said the shuttle helps him get to class comfortably.
“My classes are pretty scattered across campus and sometimes it’s just a lot easier to take the bus rather than get to class out of breath,” Bumpers said.
Meredith had a word of advice to students who are still nervous about the campus shuttle.
“My recommendation would be just to try it one time,” he said. “I think you’ll find how easy it is. The Mocs Express buses are some of our newest and cleanest buses on the routes. I think if you ride it one time, you’re going to be like, ‘Wow, this is so easy.’”
Mocs Express weekday and weekend routes.
Another addition to the Mocs Express service coming this fall is an updated weekend route.
“The route that I completely redesigned is the route 14 weekend route,” Stillwell said. “Previously, the weekend route was one of our lowest ridden routes, almost to the point where it was almost cut, but I kind of saw hope in it.”
The new Friday and Saturday evening route, running from 6 p.m. to midnight, connects campus to Main Street, Central Avenue, Broad Street and more.
This will allow students transportation to places like Food City, Warehouse Row, Stir, Niedlov’s Bakery and Southside Pizza.
“Why I think this route is so important is because it is moving student accessibility to places in Chattanooga where students want to go,” Stillwell said. “We also thought it would be a great idea in the realm of student safety.”
Stillwell said the redesign reflects student life.
“When you think about what students are going to be doing on the weekends, they’re going to be wanting to go out and do something with friends,” he said. “Restaurants and nightlife places around Chattanooga are places that students visit frequently.”
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