Transportation Office continues to push alternate modes

Improving an already good plan

By Steve Hill
University Week

Officials in the UW Transportation Office are planning to improve on an already effective program during the course of the 2002-2012 planning period.

For at least a decade now the office has been highly successful at getting faculty, staff and students to use alternative modes of transportation rather than driving alone on their daily commutes to campus. The payoff has been less traffic congestion throughout the region and especially in Seattle's busy University District.

 
The U-Pass, introduced in 1991, allows University faculty, staff and students to ride buses throughout the region at a significant discount. With more than 50 routes in King and Snohomish counties serving the University District, busing is the transportation mode of choice for many campus commuters.

Photo by Dan Fallon

The ultimate goal remains to keep peak hour motor vehicle travel of students, staff and faculty at or below 1990 levels. And despite the burgeoning campus population, it's a goal that has been met for the last 10 years. But rather than relax, Peter Dewey, the manager of the transportation office, maintains a strong sense of purpose.

"We have a fabulously successful program," he said. "It really is a model for the country and for the world. There aren't too many programs that do what we do. We've done the radical things, now we're tweaking on the margins."

The radical step was the implementation of the U-Pass program and the simultaneous spike in costs for parking on campus. In 1990 it cost $24 a month to park at the UW, about the same as a one-zone peak-rate bus pass. In 1991 the U-Pass allowed employees to bus to work for just $9 per month and at the same time parking prices on campus were ramped up to first $36 and shortly thereafter $40 a month.

The number of people applying for single occupancy parking permits plummeted almost immediately. In 1990, prior to implementation of the U-Pass, 6,440 of the permits were issued to faculty and staff. The next year that number dropped 15 percent to just more than 5,500. The number of student permits issued dropped 18 percent from 1,027 to 840.

Faculty and staff permits finally bottomed out at just more than 5,000 in 1998 and have been gradually rising ever since. In 2000 there were almost 5,200 single occupancy permits issued to faculty and staff. The student permits dropped to just 607 in 1999.

The same pricing incentives remain in effect today. It's a straightforward approach: There's a cost incentive to use alternative modes for commuting to campus; there's a cost disincentive to driving alone and parking on campus.

But Dewey thinks the Transportation Management Plan for 2002-2012 can increase the use of alternative commuting modes even further. The immediate plans for improvement outlined in the master plan are:

  • Continue to increase the price of parking at a rate faster than alternatives. A single occupancy parking permit costs faculty and staff $59.22 per month and will increase to $65.44 in September 2002. But the price of a U-Pass is just $15.50. Bus commuters, then, are paying less today than they did in 1990.

  • Create a disincentive for driving every day. Perhaps the best way to do this, according to Dewey is to charge commuters for every time they drive to and park on campus. Most faculty and staff who drive alone to campus currently pay a flat fee for a permit and can use it as often or as little as they want. By charging commuters to park on every trip to campus, there would be incentive not to drive. Dewey says consideration is also being given to a plan that would make commuters pay at a higher rate the more often they drove to campus.

     

  • Develop a better understanding of pedestrian and bicycle commuting. Roughly 1,300 people who live within two miles of campus drive alone to get to work and classes. Those are people who Dewey would rather see walking or riding their bikes to the UW. He says a better understanding of pedestrian and bike commuting the challenges of and benefits to will help develop strategies for getting these members of the campus community out of their cars. For people living within 1.5 miles of campus, biking is as fast as driving and is more reliable. And for shorter distances, walking is the most reliable travel mode, Dewey said.

  • A more sophisticated marketing approach. Dewey envisions a marketing approach that is geographically driven. "Traditionally we've just shown people all the options," he said. "But it doesn't make a lot of sense to tell people in Renton about walking to campus." Likewise, he said, telling people who live within a mile of campus about busing might be counterproductive.

  • Get realistic about transit. Dewey said that expecting people in the far reaches of the region to bus isn't always realistic. "A 90-minute bus commute is asking too much of most people," he said. In some areas, he said, the transportation office needs to identify and encourage people to look at other commuting options, including vanpooling and carpooling, rather than using public transit.

    Something Dewey isn't planning for in the near future is the Sound Transit light rail.

    "In the long term, assuming the region continues to grow and become more congested, it would be hard to get along without light rail," Dewey said. "But with improvements to other commuting options we can accomplish our goals without light rail through at least 2012."

    Dewey said that while light rail remains in limbo, his office would continue working with Sound Transit and the area's regional planners on other more immediate means of easing the traffic crunch.

    Among those projects is an analysis of the state route 520 bridge. The bridge that connects Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond is nearing its expected life span and is over capacity, according to Dewey. How the region decides to cope with the looming problem of replacing or improving the stretch of highway will have a major influence on commuters to the UW.

    Another work in progress is the Flexcar, car-sharing program. The UW partnered with Flexcar in March for a pilot program that Dewey said will help officials understand if car sharing is a useful mode for the campus community.

    The program allows UW employees and students to join at a significant discount if they have a U-Pass. Their monthly fee buys them use of a car. They pay an hourly and per mile use fee, but no gas, maintenance or insurance. Three of the shared vehicles are located on campus, but Dewey said it's too early to tell how effective the program will be in meeting the University's goals.



    University Week
    The faculty and staff publication of the University of Washington
    uweek@u.washington.edu
    October 19, 2000