What issues are you currently struggling with?
Deciphering fluctuations in ridership
The most difficult issue in operating our shuttles is predicting and responding to spikes in ridership numbers and deciding if they are short-term anomalies or long-term trends, including changes in ridership for specific times of day.
Josh Cantor, Director
Parking and Transportation
George Mason University
Fairfax County, Va.
Balancing parking vs. transit needs
To provide an affordable transit system for students, faculty and staff, we heavily subsidize our operations by using revenues generated from other areas in our department. The main source of this revenue is our surface parking lots. Unfortunately, as the campus grows, our number of surface parking spaces declines. This puts us in a position of deciding whether money is better spent to build parking garages or to support our transit. We hope to be able to do both by increasing our permit prices.
However, should our increase in permit prices be too steep, people may be pushed into alternative modes of transportation and our revenues decrease at the same time as our expenditures are increasing. This, coupled with uncertainty about gas prices and the state’s economic situation, places us in a very difficult position.
David Heineking, Associate Director of Operations
Parking and Transportation
University of Arizona, Tucson
Finding more funds for transportation
We’re committed to continuing our focus toward transit and away from accomodating single-occupancy vehicles. Since we’re a self-supporting enterprise funded primarily by parking fees and fines, our challenge is to develop a new funding model that provides for needed transportation improvements but is not based primarily on parking revenue.
Casey Jones, Director
Parking and Transportation Services
University of Colorado, Boulder
Maintaining an aging bus fleet
Our main issue these days are bus maintenance problems. We have a very old fleet of buses and they have constant problems, mainly involving the brakes and transmissions. The good news is we have ordered seven new buses that should arrive next summer.
Jill Ferrell Rountree, Director
Parking and Transportation
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Ga.
Satisfying heavy parking needs
Balancing 15,000 parking spaces with 50,000 students, 20,000 staff and faculty and 2,300 events, all the while making coming onto the University of Texas at Austin campus a pleasant experience.
Charles O. Smith, Manager
Parking and Transportation Services
University of Texas, Austin
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