Study seeks to improve campus transportation
By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor 217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu
How would you improve the campus bike path system? If you need to bring your car to campus occasionally, but not often enough to justify buying an annual permit, would you consider buying a voucher that allowed you to park on campus sporadically? Those were a couple of the issues that were presented for feedback at a public input session about campus transportation that was held Nov. 1 at the Illini Union. More than 200 people participated in the open house, which was led by the consulting firm Martin/Alexiou/Bryson and is part of the Multi-modal Transportation Study being conducted by the Office of the Chancellor and the Multi-modal Transportation Steering Committee. The committee – which comprises UI faculty and staff members, UI police, students and representatives from the cities of Urbana and Champaign – is examining long-term, strategic issues such as transportation needs on campus and ways to reduce congestion. Participants were invited to give their feedback about nine topics that were displayed on concept boards in the Pine Lounge. Participants were given sticky notes and pens to use for comments and suggestions, with students using pink notes, faculty members green notes, staff members yellow notes and people who didn’t belong to any of those groups using purple notes. The barrage of notes fluttering on some of the boards drew attention to a few hot-button issues, such as problems with the current bike-path system and impediments to pedestrian safety. Notes complained about pedestrians who walk in the street, about bicyclists who ride on the sidewalks (“You can get killed by a speeding cyclist hitting you on the sidewalk! From the rear yet!” one purple note said), and about motorists who disobey yield signs and speed limits. A staff member wrote that the bike path on Wright Street conflicts with people with disabilities when they’re boarding and disembarking from buses. A faculty member wrote that drivers’ compliance with the crosswalk markings on Lincoln Avenue “is minimal, so crossing there becomes a scary negotiation every time. Give fines to drivers who don’t stop.” “Drivers on phones are annoying,” a student commented. “I have almost been run over multiple times at the crosswalk between the Digital Computing Lab and Grainger Engineering Library.” Participants offered suggestions such as closing Green Street and other streets in the campus core to vehicular traffic, installing more crosswalks on Lincoln Avenue and providing a streetcar for travel along Green Street. “It was a steady stream of people all afternoon,” said Pam Voitik, director of campus services and a member of the Multi-modal Transportation Steering Committee. “We got lots of good input. People who couldn’t attend, but wanted to, e-mailed their input. Some people came in with input already written up or brought comments from co-workers. There were so many notes posted that there were multiple pages for each of the boards: When one page filled up with notes, another page was put up.” Participants learned about programs that aim to reduce the demand for parking and the traffic congestion through alternatives such as ride-matching services, selling parking vouchers for people who drive only occasionally, and incentives, such as paying people not to drive to campus. One board presented information about the costs of providing parking and alternatives that are used at other universities to reduce the demand for parking, such as pay-by-the-hour rates instead of annual fees, offering reserved spaces for students at higher rates than regular permits, and requiring resident students to park in secure, off-campus lots and ride to campus on shuttles. Other options included creating transit/parking hubs on the campus periphery where commuters could park, and where resident students could store cars, and catch shuttles to the campus core; and offering Zipcars, a short-term, car-rental program, that is available at 19 universities, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of North Carolina. Members reserve cars over the phone or online. According to the company’s Web site, each Zipcar eases congestion by taking seven to 10 private vehicles off the streets. One board asked participants how long they were willing to walk – less than 10 minutes or more than 10 minutes – from bus stops to their destinations, feedback that will be helpful if the committee and the MTD decide to reduce the number of bus stops on campus, Voitik said. Martin/Alexiou/Bryson is consolidating the feedback received at the open house into their report, a draft of which will be provided to the steering committee in December. Their final report is expected in January. Within the next few weeks, the committee also will release the results of a pedestrian crosswalk study that was recently completed by Rahim Benekohal, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. Benekohal analyzed about 25 crosswalks on campus and recommended safety improvements. As a member of the MTD’s Mobility Implementation Committee, the UI is helping develop miPLAN, a long-range transportation plan intended to boost economic development while offering mobility choices that fit the community’s needs. The committee comprises officials from the municipalities of Champaign, Urbana and Savoy as well as Urbana Public Schools, Parkland College and the Illinois Department of Transportation. Other studies in progress include Champaign Moving Forward, a study of multi-modal transportation issues by the city of Champaign as part of updating its Transportation Master Plan, which is scheduled for completion in May 2007. Additionally, the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission is conducting big.small.all, a dialogue about transportation and other social issues affecting the county’s citizens, such as the economy, the environment and education.
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