Transportation Committee Meeting

Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 3:30 pm; Colusa 116

Present: Lesley Curry, UPD Parking; Benn Davenport, AS Environmental Affairs; Beverly Gentry, Strategic Planning; Jim Jessee, APO; Suzy Littrell, Cashiering; Amy Miller, AS Sustainability Coordinator; Joel Trenalone, Facilities Planning; Marvin Pratt, EH&S.

Students from the College of Business, Managing for Sustainability class, were invited to the meeting but were unable to attend. Bev Gentry will invite them to the next Alternative Transportation (ad-hoc) meeting. Bev commented on how positive it will be having students involved in many of the transportation sustainability efforts because they will be able to assist with much of the work (e.g. surveys) for their class projects.

Review of new TAPS webpage content ideas – Bev Gentry passed out a draft of the new Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) website. She suggested the new title (TAPS); set up so left side of webpage shows all forms of transportation and right side shows topics related to parking. Each “topic” will link to either an existing page somewhere else, or some will need to be created. The group discussed various topics at length, including things like bus parking (where DO they park? Answer: campus is not set up for bus parking; they are referred to large parking lots in town such as Wal-Mart or K-Mart). Other discussion included who to go to for maps (Karen Gilmet of FMS) and that “Transportation” should refer to all modes, not just driving a car.

Review Orientation handout regarding ways to get to campus (geared for students) – Bev Gentry handed out a draft of a flyer her ad-hoc committee has worked on that is geared for students; it is a quick guide to campus transportation options. The group discussed the content and many suggestions and corrections were presented. Marvin reported that the Public Safety committee is working on a flyer depicting well-lit areas for walking on campus at night; however, it won’t be completed in time to be incorporated with this flyer, since this flyer needs to be ready for new student packets in two weeks.

Jim Jessee stated he still believes the heading should be Transportation ALTERNATIVES and not Transportation OPTIONS. Some suggested to take the word off altogether, and call it CAMPUS TRANSPORTATION.

Bike Signage – Deborah Furgason presented signs developed by Chief Eric Reichel, Glennda Morse, and Alan Rellaford, which have been approved by the Traffic Commissioner (for enforcement purposes) and which will be presented to the cabinet. These signs portray a pedestrian friendly message and if approved, will be posted around the core of campus, warning bicyclists and skateboarders to walk their bikes and carry their boards.

Parking Cost Analysis Examples - Jim Jessee handed out various documents related to Transportation Demand Management studies, describing programs geared toward solving campus parking shortages and examples of where specific programs are in place and working. The group discussed various aspects of this, such as the number of parking spaces vs. number of students - Bev Gentry said she did a headcount (included students, faculty, staff) and the ratio was 10:1. The group talked about the realities of building a new parking structure and that the bottom line is, it costs much more to build a parking lot/structure than it does to promote alternative transportation. It was discussed that our campus does a good job of promoting other means of transportation and we are trying to get better all the time. Probably the only thing we don’t promote is park & ride (or remote parking).

Benn Davenport suggested parking fees be increased (to discourage folks from driving to campus) and that we can still do a better job with creating and promoting alternatives. Jim said he has been favoring a parking structure; but after reading this article he realizes we could be doing a lot of “other” things. A suggestion was made to promote residential permit parking which might prevent the campus from having to build another structure.

Benn commented that if the campus does support the building of a new parking structure, he hopes they would entertain the idea of it being more environmentally friendly (solar panels, grass & trees, etc.)

Discussion moved to the existing parking structure and problems with larger vehicles and speeding vehicles creating hazardous situations. Speed bumps were discussed at a previous meeting and FMS was looking into the logistics of incorporating them into the existing structure. There was some discussion on whether or not they would be too high for the larger vehicles to go over (vertical clearance). At this meeting, Lesley suggested a warning strip for the existing parking structure to help slow down the vehicles, such as the bumps used on highways to warn drivers of an upcoming speed change and/or stop sign. Discussed the oversize vehicle issue again.

Meeting Adjourned 4:23 pm