A university transit system is not just the buses and shuttles that bring students to and from class. Strategic partners contribute crucial elements to the process, such as the ability to gain funding or conduct the research for future projects. We asked some university transit operators to tell us about some of their partnerships and how they help the service run.

Here are their responses:

“[Ohio State University’s] Campus Transit Lab, a living research lab designed in partnership with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science and Transportation and Traffic Management, [enables] students and researchers are able to use [real-time bus] data to test transit route design efficiencies, traffic impacts on transit routes and develop creative methods to proactively educate customers on the variety of ways to utilize transit.

We also partner with the [university's] Department of City and Regional Planning to provide on-the-job research opportunities and training to a graduate research assistant regarding the design and implementation of complex transportation systems on campus. As part of this ongoing partnership with the department, an annual campus transit survey is designed and distributed to look for trends related to commuting habits of students, faculty and staff.”

Nicole Hernandez, assistant director of marketing and communications, office of administration and planning
Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio

“At the University of Maryland College Park Department of Transportation Services we develop strategic partnerships with our local student housing developers. We write MOUs to provide bus services to each of these properties according to their positioning and strategy. In turn, we are able to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles that come to campus and reduce our campus carbon footprint.”

Beverly Malone, assistant director, department of transportation services
University of Maryland
College Park, Md.

“We have a wonderfully successful partnership with our local public transportation provider, Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority (NAIPTA). A collaborative effort between the university, NAIPTA and the City of Flagstaff for a grant brought Mountain Links to our community. Our campus Shuttle Services provided transportation to over 1.2 million riders last year. Mountain Link made it possible to serve an additional 576,563 riders last year (in its first year.)”

Erin Suzanne Stam, director, parking services
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Ariz.

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