Gainesville (Fla.) RTS has provided bus service for the University of Florida since 1996. Students pay $7.88 per credit hour to ride the buses fare-free.  The university has been instrumental in helping the transit agency upgrade its buses and operations.

Gainesville (Fla.) RTS has provided bus service for the University of Florida since 1996. Students pay $7.88 per credit hour to ride the buses fare-free. The university has been instrumental in helping the transit agency upgrade its buses and operations.

To accommodate increasing ridership and tightening budgets, university transit systems run by both private and public operators are adding more onboard technologies to increase efficiency and seeking support to expand or maintain services via public-private partnerships. Some public operators have also been able to maintain services by expanding bus pass deals to small businesses.

Still, with nearly every state making cuts to higher education and more students enrolling in colleges and universities in over a decade, - including older students returning to school to increase their job prospects - public transportation resources are being spread thinner year by year.

Budget cuts, rising enrollment
This year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report that concluded that state tax revenue is still declining and budget reserves are mostly depleted, causing at least 43 states to make spending cuts to higher education. However, many universities and colleges are facing significantly higher enrollment numbers and have had no choice but to raise fees. In particular, the report states, "Florida's 11 public universities raised tuition by 15% for the 2010-11 academic year. This tuition hike combined with a similar increase in 2009-10, results in a total two-year increase of 32%."

Additionally, while enrollment in degree-granting postsecondary institutions went up by 9% between 1989 and 1999, enrollment spiked 38%, from 14.8 million to 20.4 million, between 1999 and 2009, according to a recent National Center for Education Statistics report.

Transit industry consultant Bob Bourne, founder of Bourne Transit Consulting, has seen firsthand how state budgets are impacting university and college transit systems.

"The states are hammering the universities in general, and that's been going on for well over 10 years all over the country," he says.

Dovetailing with that are the state cuts to transit systems. Bourne points to Wisconsin as a prime example.

"The [states are] reducing the percentage they pay of the cost. Local transit authorities have to find a way to make that up and some are making it up with service cuts," he says. This can be especially dangerous because, for a system that has a high university ridership, reducing service will be ineffective, he explains. He has also seen increased student enrollment at universities nationwide.

"[The systems] have to have a better-than-30-minute interval. The burden's on the local transit system to re-work their agreement with the university to try to replace some of those lost city funds so they can maintain their service level," says Bourne.

Conversely, Bourne says, some university bus systems are struggling because they under-utilize free ride systems, and consequently, the students are not hopping aboard. Students tend to avoid using buses with a frequency of 30 minutes or longer, or are not well-coordinated with class start and end times.

Fast, frequent, free
As Bourne sees it, university transit systems that run "fast, frequent and free" — systems with relatively straight routes with frequencies of five to 20 minutes that students board for free and pay for through tuition fees — are the ones that will continue to be successful and gain financial support. Champaign-Urbana (Ill.) Mass Transit District (MTD), in particular, has had success using this model to serve the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he says. Between the school's three available routes, buses run every five minutes. Since the frequency was increased in 1989, from every 30 minutes, ridership has been rising steadily. The students pay a $50 fee per semester for unlimited, fare-free service, Bill Volk, MTD's managing director says.
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First Transit and the University of Alabama sought input on a transit system name and vehicle design from the students, in an effort to get them on board with a plan for a new campus bus service and eliminating parking at the campus core.

First Transit and the University of Alabama sought input on a transit system name and vehicle design from the students, in an effort to get them on board with a plan for a new campus bus service and eliminating parking at the campus core.

Onboard tech upgrades
Onboard vehicle technology is especially important to student riders, who tend to be younger and are often attached to their phones, Scott Conroy, First Transit's director of operations, east region, says. "They need to know minute to minute when everything's going to happen," he adds.

Ralph Clayton, assistant director of transportation services, University of Alabama, agrees. "[With] this generation, you have to have the technology available to support your bus system," he says. "Students are tech-savvy and they may not be as patient as some groups, so you have to provide them the tools to see where the buses are and provide feedback."

First Transit, which has several university transit contracts, puts the latest onboard technology at the forefront of all its offerings, including features such as AVL systems and talking bus technology is a minimum standard, Conroy says.

"It's expected," he explains. "Universally, schools set high standards and constantly seek to improve. It's the nature of what they're doing. The expectation is their customer base, the students, are improving every day, learning, getting better. The expectation is that staff will be knowledgeable, vehicles will be serviceable."

The most widespread technological tool in the university community is Transloc, a real-time automatic vehicle location (AVL) system that refreshes data every second or nanosecond. "Instead of telling students how long they have to wait, it tells them where the buses are and allows them to make a decision about what to do until the bus is there," Conroy says. "It provides information that empowers students to make decisions. It doesn't tell them to just wait."

AVL and smart phones in the last two to three years have contributed to increased student ridership, since riders only need to type in their bus route to find out where the bus they are waiting for is located. Bourne, who rides buses with students to observe passenger behavior, says, "They're texting and updating Facebook. [AVL is] a big benefit to campus ridership because now people can multi-task while riding, which you can't do while driving. If you ride a campus or city bus [linked with] a university, you're going to see that half the people on it are using their phones."

At Rutgers University, First Transit also integrated Digital Recorders Inc.'s Talking Bus, a GPS positioning base system that announces upcoming stops, taking the guesswork out of where to get off the bus.

"It is extremely useful for new students and allows people to focus on other things on the bus," Conroy says.

Digital security cameras are another popular request from universities, due to student and parent concerns about safety. The contractor also includes automatic passenger counting technology to provide more information to the school about student riders and routes.

"The more technology we can bring to bear to make the system successful, safe, friendly, the better the students feel about it," Conroy says. "We want them to feel like it is theirs and it works for them."

Despite budget cuts, universities can't sacrifice transportation technological amenities, Conroy says. "It enables their day-to-day business. One of the curses of the tough economy is that more people are getting on the bus and there's less money to pay for it," he explains

In the case of higher education, Conroy adds, since there are more students than ever, utilization of the buses is up.

"We've seen more busing than less in the last five years. Technology can promote efficiency in the systems, whether it's AVL or passenger counting, to ensure the institution is getting maximum value for every dollar they spend," he says.

Partnerships
Bourne adds that many university transit systems are able to continue their success through tough times with the support of public-private partnerships. He points to the University of Chicago as a good example, since it uses a contract carrier for some of its routes and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) for others. "That's probably the best example of how to meet your needs through the public and private sectors," Bourne says.

Additionally in 2006, Tuscaloosa Ala.-based University of Alabama (UA) partnered with First Transit on an initiative to get students out of their cars.

UA's Clayton says the success achieved in bringing a transit system on a traditionally car-centric campus and making the campus core pedestrian-friendly was a team effort. The university's President, Dr. Robert E. Witt, announced plans to grow the campus and student population. He wanted to make the campus more pedestrian-friendly by building infrastructure to support the growth, taking away most of the parking at the inner core of campus, and creating a bus system. The plan was to push vehicles out to the perimeters of the campus and bus students in from parking lots, enabling them to get around during the day without having to move their cars to get from class to class.

"We have to give a tremendous amount of credit to the University of Alabama," Conroy says. "When [the university] created the transportation system...[it was] a complete car culture, with a great deal of concern over parking space."

UA chose 22 new, 40-foot Nova LFS heavy-duty transit buses. "For [it] to really catch hold, we wanted to have a good product for them," Clayton says.

Additionally, UA partnered in August with the local Tuscaloosa Trolley Authority on a university shuttle route that picks up students for free at apartments to campus and downtown that the UA system hadn't been able to service before. Due to this partnership both UA and the agency have seen an increase in riders.
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Like the University of Florida and Gainesville RTS relationship, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison (Wis.) Metro partnership has helped get new innovation and technology on the road, including about 16 hybrid-electric buses.

Like the University of Florida and Gainesville RTS relationship, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison (Wis.) Metro partnership has helped get new innovation and technology on the road, including about 16 hybrid-electric buses.

Embodying school spirit
To get students involved and feeling a sense of ownership in the new transit system, First Transit and UA met with student and faculty groups to discuss the benefits the transit system would offer and design a graphics package for the buses.

"It's been very important to higher education institutions to embody the spirit of the school," Conroy says. "At some, like [UA], you see the school color, crimson, everywhere. You see that bus and you know it's from the University of Alabama."

The seats were designed with a crimson stripe painted on the sides of the buses and a new logo, with input from the students, who also chose a name for the system: Crimson Ride.

"The bus itself is part of the fabric of campus now. Part of the strategy was getting students' ownership of the design," Clayton says. "We wanted them to be happy with it. It helps them to connect with the system and start right from the beginning to have pride in it."

Because UA and First Transit made student buy-in a priority, students got on board with the university's vision to keep the campus car-free and were eager to check out the new buses the first day they rolled out on campus.
In addition, because some students expressed concerns about passenger safety, with buses running late at night, First Transit worked with UA to install security cameras on the buses.

Ridership has been increasing steadily along with enrollment each year. UA currently averages more than 10,000 riders per day, up from around 9,000 last year. "We've had over a billion dollars' worth of building and infrastructure improvements to support this growth," says Clayton.

Students at forefront
Another partnership, this time between a public operator and a university, particularly its students, provided Gainesville, Fla.-based Gainesville RTS (RTS) with the ridership, funds and impetus to modernize its fleets and operations. The agency now uses biodiesel on all its buses. University of Florida (UF) student influence and support helped make that happen.

Chip Skinner, marketing and communications supervisor, says Gainesville RTS has a unique partnership with UF that has accounted for about 53 percent of RTS' operating budget in 2011. In 1996, RTS implemented four routes on campus. That continued to grow over the years to nine campus routes and a number of other campus-affiliated routes.

The university implemented a transportation fee, which goes directly to RTS, attaching a rate to each undergraduate credit hour. The current charge per credit hour is $7.88. UF's transportation fee just went up .33 cents, because students requested additional late night service.

Many UF students live off-campus, which also increased RTS' service outside of campus, one of the agency's main pushes. "It's a great public-private partnership with UF through this transportation fee," Skinner says.
At the students' request, UF funds 100 percent of RTS' Sunday service.

Students have to show their identification card for unlimited access. They can also ride, free of charge, the Later Gator late night service, which was instituted by UF to help limit the amount of drinking and driving.
The agency is also working with other educational institutions, including Santa Fe College, to generate more revenue and services.

This year, Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation allowing Santa Fe College to implement a similar fee.

"We'll enter into the same negotiations with them [as UF] every semester, letting them know the routes they're funding through their transportation fee, how they're performing, what they would like to see on the table for negotiation, whether they want to increase their per-credit-hour fee," Skinner says.

Santa Fe is currently capped at $3 per credit hour. The law states the college can go up to $6 per credit hour for transportation service.
UF also offers an employee bus pass program with a set charge per employee of $6.75 per year. UF's Shands HealthCare teaching hospital also covers faculty, staff and their spouses. As of last year, they also began covering UF retirees that live in the area. Santa Fe College will also implement a similar program.

UF students also helped RTS launch its biodiesel program, providing the agency with seed money. After the program's success, the agency received additional funding from the Florida Department of Transportation to expand the biodiesel program to its entire fleet, now powered by an 80/20 blend, late last summer. UF has also contributed to RTS' rolling stock. The agency is anticipating delivery in late spring or early summer of two new Gillig hybrid buses.

However, the partnership is not without its challenges. Skinner says disseminating information to the public about the extent of UF's financial support is important because the agency is often accused of catering to UF students. Many residents don't realize that the bulk of RTS' operating budget comes from the UF transportation fees, with the UF employee bus pass program covering more than a 50% portion. In addition, RTS's ridership was a little more than 10 million this year alone, with student riders make up about 71% of that total.

At public outreach events, Skinner explains, people are always amazed to learn how much financial support UF provides, including subsidizing Sunday service for the public as well as the campus.

"It's a constant battle [from] a public relations and communications standpoint, letting people know, yes, we do cater to the university somewhat, but the university also has the best interests of the city at hand, because the students are part of our general population," he says. "Without that funding, we would be a much smaller agency [and] wouldn't be able to have the expanded service we have, currently, versus what we had 20, 30 years ago."

Because of ridership increases and support from the university, RTS continues to receive substantial federal dollars to buy new rolling stock to increase its fleet size.

"We consider this to be one of the aspects that other transit agencies across the country could look at, reach out [to their own local universities and colleges], Skinner says.

Bob Miller, associate vice president of business at UF says that while the RTS service has been very successful, it required a period of adjustment.
With a population of less than 200,000, Gainesville historically hadn't had a robust transit system. Bus service was mainly for people who didn't or couldn't afford to drive, until the university partnered with RTS.

"With our students riding, we put a lot of pressure on them," Miller says. RTS had to expand and update its fleet to accommodate a university with nearly 50,000 students. UF worked with the agency to retrofit buses.

UF has held student enrollment steady, at 48,000 students annually for the last three years, mainly because Florida, like nearly every other state, is struggling with decreased tax revenues and high unemployment. The university has admitted fewer freshmen over the past three years to cope.
With the most recent federal funding installment, UF asked RTS to evaluate hybrid buses.

"The students are really excited about that," Miller says. "They encouraged RTS to begin using biodiesel. It's a little more expensive per gallon. The students even used a portion of their transportation fee to pay a subsidy to RTS to get them to at least use biodiesel for the buses on campus."
After the program's success, a city commissioner asked why biodiesel wasn't being used on the city buses.

"Students are really at the forefront," Miller says. "They are really receptive, at least while they're in a college town using public transit. Many of our students never rode a bus until they came here...living in a mini-urban environment pushes them to give public transit a try, and they like it."
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Expanding despite cuts
Schools in Wisconsin are being significantly impacted by the state transportation budget, which is decreasing by about 10% for fiscal year 2013, Joe Kapper, lead program and planning analyst, Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), says. Assuming the federal and local funding levels remain the same, the state will only be able to cover approximately 52.5%, as opposed to the 57.5% covered last year. The cuts affect many universities, including the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW).

Mick Rusch, Madison Metro (Metro) transit marketing and customer services manager, says that one reliable source of financial support is UW's unlimited ride pass program for students and employees, which was started in 1994.

Metro works with the Associated Students of Madison and the UW Department of Transportation on the program. The organizations contract with Metro for the pass programs and give free passes out to all the students and employees, and then get billed a flat rate for each ride.

"Those are really popular programs, and we get a lot of ridership from them," Rusch says.

Working with these two groups helped Metro come up with new fare strategies, which resulted in the pass program.

"It has been so successful that the students have not only been riding, but moving further away from the campus area," Rusch explains. "It's such an issue that people can find nice places that aren't crammed together in the downtown campus area."

The program's success enabled Metro to expand it to other city universities, hospitals and small businesses. A total of 80 colleges and businesses have now implemented the program.

Like the UF-RTS relationship, working with UW helps Metro get new innovation and technology on the road, Rusch says. In 2008, the university helped Metro purchase two Gillig hybrid buses for campus service. "The community received it so well that we bought 14 more last year," he adds. About one-tenth of Metro's fleet is now comprised of hybrid buses.
Additionally, Metro's IT department is working with a UW student group to put Wi-Fi on buses.

"That's probably something we never would have experimented with unless we were working with the university," Rusch says. "They've shown interest in expanding that program to other buses. We've also had a bunch of students approach us about using our data and creating phone apps. We never would have had the resources to create our own apps. They've created several. It has been a real benefit for our riders."

Despite the success of the bus pass program, Metro's resources are severely impacted. "The buses we brought on campus are full all the time. We have capacity issues throughout the area. There is also increased interest coming from outside the university area," Rusch says. Ridership throughout the system is up 7% since last year and Metro hit 13.6 million rides in 2010, which is its highest annual ridership on record since 1970.
One of the big obstacles for Metro is the similarly strained budgets and finances of its university and business partners.         

"The challenge is working with a limited amount of resources and making sure it serves everybody's needs," Rusch says. For example, due to limited funds, Metro considered cutting some late night service. The agency worked with UW students and staff to come up with a way to address the changes.
"When we took what we came up with to a public hearing, we were told [in] a lively, highly charged conversation that it didn't meet everyone's needs," Rusch says.

Afterward, Metro and UW students and staff decided against the cuts. "That was a good example of us working together, especially in a difficult situation, to identify everyone's needs and the best course of action to take," Rusch says.

About the author
Nicole Schlosser

Nicole Schlosser

Former Executive Editor

Nicole was an editor and writer for School Bus Fleet. She previously worked as an editor and writer for Metro Magazine, School Bus Fleet's sister publication.

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