More financial support is being sought for the Otago Polytechnic Students Association's $3 taxi scheme, after eager students snapped up subsidy vouchers in the first week.
The vouchers allow students to travel on weeknights for a maximum of $3 during Orientation, with the association and other funders paying the remainder of the fare to a maximum of $17 a trip.
More than 100 vouchers were handed out last week, chewing through the original $1200 budget far more quickly than had been anticipated, student co-presidents Meegan Cloughley and Ryan Ward said yesterday.
The association stopped handing out vouchers on Friday morning when the first week's allocation was reached, but began again on Monday.
It was still planned to offer the vouchers through to Friday, March 6, but the budget needed a boost so the scheme could run effectively, they said.
The original backers - OPSA, the polytechnic's management and Arrow International - had contributed extra funds totalling $800, and Ms Cloughley said she was also approaching local businesses and trusts.
This year's scheme was a trial run, and the co-presidents said they had not been sure how students would respond.
Ms Cloughley described the response as "phenomenal" and the feedback from students as "fantastic".
She said she would know within a month how much money had been spent on the scheme, which would allow her to try and secure funding early for next year.
Both Ms Cloughley and Mr Ward said the scheme was doing what it was designed to do - give students who would otherwise have walked a cheap and safe ride home.
"No students have been put in dangerous situations so far as we know of, and that's what it is all about," Mr Ward said.
The Otago University Students Association does not offer a travel subsidy during Orientation. Both student organisations support a "No Means No" team of volunteers who watch out for students at Orientation events where alcohol is available and offer them free rides home if required.