Success signs for transportation program

BY BARBARA PALMER

Improvements to the campus alternative transportation program -- which has added a fleet of new shuttle buses, a full-time transportation demand management coordinator and cash prizes and other financial inducements to employees to use alternatives to driving alone to campus -- seem to be paying off, said Brodie Hamilton, director of Parking and Transportation Services (P&TS).

Under the terms of the General Use Permit passed in 2000 by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, which regulates county land use, Stanford is required to keep the number of "net commute trips" on and off campus during peak travel hours from growing to avoid paying costs associated with traffic mitigation measures.

In 2002 and 2003, the first two years in which measurement was possible, the campus reached its no-growth goal in the number of net commute trips -- which is good news, Hamilton said. "Things seem to be working."

Since 2001, P&TS has significantly improved its alternative transportation program, including hiring a bicycle program coordinator, adjusting Marguerite shuttle bus routes and adding a transportation demand management coordinator, Robin Rolls, who provides services like consulting with employees on alternatives to driving alone to work. The Clean Air Cash program offers $160 a year to eligible employees who forgo buying a parking permit, and P&TS has added a Commute Club, which gives additional benefits to commuters to lure them out of their cars or into carpools and vanpools, including drawings for prizes and bonuses for signing up other employees.

A program that offers eligible employees free passes for train, bus and light rail travel to commuters has been the most successful component of the incentive program, Hamilton said. (Information about the "Go Pass/Eco Pass program is available at http://transportation.stanford.edu/ under the "Alternate Transportation" link.)

A survey last year showed that Caltrain ridership had grown from 4 percent of employees in 2002 to 10 percent in 2003, he said. In the same period, the number of employees who reported that they travel to work alone in a vehicle dropped from 72 percent to 66 percent. "That's a huge shift," Hamilton said.

So far, so good, Hamilton said. It's critical that commuters and campus residents continue the trend, he added.