Land use, travel patterns, density, and centralized policy control found in college and university settings often result in university communities demonstrating innovative solutions to provide transit and other non-auto solutions to address contemporary mobility issues. Many campus communities, both in traditional "college towns" and in large urban areas, have implemented or are studying policies to manage parking, provide transit, and shift mode choice. Some have established discounted transit fare programs and others have implemented unlimited access programs. A survey of 30 campus communities provided information on campus transit systems, including insights into the lessons learned and issues related to planning, implementing, and operating campus transit systems. Topics of interest include: organizational issues, including ownership and operation of the system, student and university roles in governance of the system, and the special case of multiple providers in the same community; financing campus transit, including sources of funds, with special emphasis on the use of student fee and parking revenue; the parking-transit connection, which is the use of parking revenue to fund transit and the use of parking rates and policy to encourage transit use; transit as part of transportation demand management programs designed to reduce the difficulty in "selling" university expansion plans. Transit is included in these strategy-driven plans that have replaced facilities-driven ones; application of advanced technologies to campus transportation systems; university community approaches to meeting the mobility needs of persons with disabilities; transit's role in promoting safety and security on campus; students' role, especially as drivers for campus transit systems. The synthesis particularly focuses on and documents the recent trend toward unlimited access funding systems for campus transit systems whereby students, faculty, staff, and in some cases, nonuniversity affiliated residents of a campus community are afforded unlimited use of the transit system without paying a fare. These transit systems are funded through a combination of mandatory student fees, parking revenue, government transit grant programs, and university funds. Such programs have been successfully implemented in both "college town" settings and large urban areas and result in vastly increased mobility options and community benefits, especially traffic and parking relief. (A)
Samenvatting