On the U’s busiest days, more than 4,000 students are biking, walking and skateboarding to campus. But there is currently no funding in the U’s transportation budget to accommodate their needs.
A coalition, including the Honors Sustainability Scholars, members of ASUU and the Bennion Center, wants to change this. They created a petition, which the group will present at the next ASUU general assembly meeting on Nov. 24, to ask that the U dedicate part of its funding to active transportation — any kind of transit that is not a motorized vehicle.
Katherine Nix, a senior in urban ecology and part of the sustainability group, said they would like this funding to go toward resources, such as sheltered bike racks, longboard and skateboard lockers, and resources to fix those modes of transit if they break down on campus.
Nix said her group started working last semester to improve options for active transportation and gradually recruited people from ASUU and the Bennion Center.
“Being a part of the Humanities Urban Ecology Scholars, we understand that active modes of transportation is so integral to student’s health, the communal health, the environment’s health and the economy’s health,” she said.
Nix said this will also help students who cannot afford a car and can only get to the U using active transportation.
“The biggest, number one reason everyone can get behind active transportation is the poor air quality in Salt Lake City,” Nix said. “The easier and more accessible getting to the U on a bike, the better it is for the air.”
The U has a master bicycle plan in place to increase ridership on campus though incentives. Nix, though, believes not having any funding behind active transit doesn’t support those ideals. Because the U does have these policies, she said the university should be the ones to fund the program.
“Student fees shouldn’t be raised,” Nix said. “We feel very strongly that the university should invest its resources for students instead of the students pay for something they should already have.”
Abdul Ozoya, the ASUU director for student services, works as a liaison between the scholars group, Commuter Services and the Bennion Center.
Ozoya said their primary objective is to restart the Utah Bike Collective on campus, which worked to promote biking by providing workshops on maintenance, easy storage and tools to fix them. It died due to lack of funding and infrastructure to support the initiative.
Ozoya said this initiative is important because it is “a creative platform where active transporters can be represented by their student government while encouraging all students to use green forms of transportation.”
Melissa Johnson, director of Commuter Services, said they are contributing to this initiative primarily through the $42 of student fees that goes toward turning UCards into TRAX and bus passes.
“We support and coordinate with pedestrian pathways because it’s really important for us, even if you’re coming to school in the car, you need to get from your car to the places on campuses you need,” Johnson said.
She said while they don’t directly work on sidewalks and maintenance, which falls under Facilities Management’s jurisdiction, they plan to work with them to coordinate alternative modes of transportation and parking. Facilities Management currently does not have any specific plans at this moment to improve pathways for active transportation.
“We are very committed to providing all different transportation options for the community,” Johnson said. “One solution doesn’t work for everybody.”
The petition needs 2,000 signatures for ASUU to consider it. As of Nov. 3, Nix said they had 504. If the bill goes through and the administration supports it, these kinds of upgrades could go into effect next fall.
Students can access the petition here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uoyHzavEiAM_BuaKbIpkFWdDC6BK6Pb1yFByhPzt67Q/viewform?c=0&w=1
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