Trying to fit the same number of cars into one-third fewer parking spaces is a math problem without a solution.
Roughly 29,000 people drive to campus every day, and the Olympic preparations?which will occupy about one-third of spaces?may make it impossible for everyone to find parking, according to Alma Allred, director of the University of Utah’s Parking Services.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” said April Chamberlin, a U staff member who drives to the U from West Valley City.
“I could take TRAX, but that’s an hour I could better spend at work,” she said. But as parking shrinks, she’s considering light rail anyway. Either that or she’ll park off campus or have a family member drop her off.
“My only other option is not to come to campus, which is not an option,” she said.
On light rail, feet, buses or bikes, commuters will simply have to find other ways of getting to campus. One U marketing campaign hopes to help foster new habits to outlast the winter.
“This is not about the Olympics, this is about changing people’s behavior on a permanent basis,” said Ann Floor, who helped organize the Transit Now! campaign.
Accommodation is not the answer, she said. The U could never accommodate all of the people who drive to campus alone.
Busing Boon
Parking crunches are nothing new to the U. About a decade ago, similar pains provided an impetus for the bus pass program.
“We were out of spaces on campus. It was armageddon. We had to get as many people out of single cars as we could,” Allred said.
A contract with the Utah Transit Authority purchased bus passes for U faculty, staff and students with a transportation fee taken from employees’ checks and from student fees.
Since the program began, bus ridership from the U community has fluctuated around 6,000, Allred said.
About 6 percent of the trips going to and from the U are made via public transportation. Elsewhere, the same is true of less than 2 percent, according to Steve Swan, UTA service planner.
Jason Morgan, an engineering student, returned his parking pass after learning of the Olympics situation.
“At some point, the demand for parking will exceed supply. People will find they save more time waiting for a bus rather than trying to find a parking space,” Morgan said.
But bus service along South Temple, where he lives, is much better than elsewhere, he cautioned.
“More people could ride the bus, even if they just parked on a side street and took the bus up,” he said.
Park and Ride
Transit Now! has the same idea Morgan does.
Light rail offers multiple lots where commuters can leave their cars. Other UTA lots intended for bus riders are scattered throughout the valley.
Shopping centers, churches, side streets and other empty spaces along bus routes might also help commuters, according to Swan. But drivers should pay attention to postings that might prohibit them from parking in certain lots, he cautioned.
UTA is negotiating with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the hope of using church parking lots near the U for park-and ride, he said.
Sharing the Drive
Reducing the number of cars headed to campus does not necessarily mean turning to public transit.
But past attempts to encourage carpooling have been as much a rousing failure as the bus pass program has been successful.
In the mid-1990s, the U offered a parking pass for carpoolers. Three or more commuters who grouped together got what amounted to a reserved space at half the regular permit price, according to Allred.
About seven groups bought passes. A subsequent marketing campaign doubled that number.
“It was not worth the time that was involved to reduce the number of drivers on campus by 30 or 40,” Allred said. “The nature of the U is such that students have trouble finding someone who lives close to them and also has a similar schedule.”
Plus, schedules for students and faculty change every semester, he said.
Carpooling did work for a while for Timothy Smith, chairman of the psychology department.
Smith, who lives about 25 minutes away in Summit County, shared the drive with a colleague.
While he found car pooling convenient, erratic work hours could complicate the arrangement.
“This job is not 9 to 5. Some days it’s from 8 to 8, some days you do it all at home. It’s not entirely predictable,” he said.
If You Build It?
Advocates of public transit often point to light rail as the shining success in Utah’s public transit system.
Before TRAX opened, UTA anticipated seeing about 14,000 passengers per day. But since it opened, light rail ridership has rested around 19,000, according to Swan.
“Transit ridership is hard to predict,” he said. “It’s really a crapshoot.”
But Keith Bartholomew, associate director of the U’s Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment, has a theory.
“People respond to what’s provided to them,” he said. “If we provide them with a good quality pedestrian environment, they will respond by walking more?the same with transit. I’d say the same thing with the opening of TRAX.”
“I’m not driving during the Olympics, there’s no way,” said student Alisa Corey.
Normally, she drives from her home just west of the U. But when the U’s light rail extension opens, that will change.
Corey plans to walk one block to light rail and ride it up to the U, both during the Olympic parking takeover and after.
Olympic Opportunity
The Olympics may be just the push commuters need to leave their cars at home permanently, according to Carol Werner, psychology professor.
A person’s behavior matches their physical environment, and change can be painful. The parking shortage will make driving much less convenient and motivate people to make public transit work for them, she said.
“We’re a species that responds to convenience and pleasure. Right now, bicycling is not a convenient and pleasurable form of transport. You could make the same argument for the transit system,” Bartholomew said.
But the burden of change does not lie entirely on the shoulders of commuters.
Swan, from UTA, helped develop ways to interface the bus system with the U’s light rail line?making it more accessible for commuters.
He and others from the U and UTA coordinated bus and shuttle schedules with light rail and modified three bus routes. But efforts to increase the frequency of bus service to the U fell short due to a lack of both financial and vehicular resources, he said.
UTA also solicited input from Utah communities on how to improve transit over the next few years.
Devil in the Details
The keys to making the U more friendly to pedestrians are small ones, according to Bartholomew.
“Humans in general want to look at larger-scale systems and larger projects,” he said.
For instance, light rail planning focused on a regional scale.
“What can’t be lost in the process is small, pedestrian scale detail that gets a single individual from a house to the platform,” he said.
The central point of the U’s campus is the parking lot near the University Bookstore?an unfortunate symbol, he said, listing other points where the U could improve its pedestrian environment.
The sidewalks on either side of University Avenue provide a sharp contrast in walking environments. Pedestrians on the east side are sandwiched between a wall and traffic. Meanwhile, trees and on-street parking shelter pedestrians on the western sidewalk.
Wasatch Boulevard is another problem spot. The road has no sidewalks for most of its length and few crosswalks. And because the pedestrian bridge is out of the way, Bartholomew predicts it will remain underused by those headed to and from Fort Douglas.
Pedestrians like to travel in a straight line?creating both the dirt paths visible in the grass around campus and a jaywalking problem.
Dave Strayer, a
psychology professor, often walks nearly three miles to campus.
“I like the peace and quiet of walking,” he said. “I purposely choose a route where I don’t have to interact with cars.”
For the Roadies
Competition with cars also deters bicyclists.
“The real issue for bicyclists is not how do you get around campus, but how do you get to campus,” Bartholomew said.
Kevin Emerson, a U student, bikes or rides the bus from his place near Liberty Park.
The trip uphill doesn’t bother him too much, although cars have nearly hit him multiple times. He has heard others complain that the bike lanes are not as good as they could be.
But he does not regret his decision to sell his car and switch to alternative means of getting around.
“When I used to drive, I would get so frustrated?not road rage, but road frustration,” Emerson said. “I think [switching from car use] is 100 percent practical and feasible for most people.
“For me, it was a matter of how I felt about how convenient it was to drive and the environmental impacts.”
As with light rail, if more and better bike lanes are available, people will use them, according to Bartholomew.
Edward Whitney, a U student, participates in Critical Mass, a monthly ride when bicyclists stake their claim to the roads.
“We definitely encounter a fair share of angry drivers, but nobody’s taken the physical route. Most respond pretty favorably,” he said.
Whitney participates to show motorists there is another way to get around and to celebrate the rights of non-motorized vehicles.
“We should reconsider the design of our cities and reconsider the collective policy for our lives and have a much more sustainable future,” he said.
The Big Picture
The U’s on-going parking shortage may be a piece from a larger puzzle.
“For 50 years, public policy and investment have been geared toward the automobile. Now we’re finding that to be a problem,” Bartholomew said. “The objective is not to get the car to work. It is to get the person to school or work. We need to change our focus.”
In communities, like those found in Utah, with a high work ethic, people tend to like the freedom transit provides, Werner said.
“I am encouraged by the number of people who have figured out how to use that time productively,” she said.
However, the Olympics will not motivate everyone to make a transition. U student Anne Robertson drives from Bountiful every day. She dislikes waiting in the cold for the bus, and TRAX runs the wrong direction for her.
Her solution to the Olympic parking problem will be the same one she uses now?arrive early.