DOT Home
What's
Happening
Picture This!--Past
In
the News
Hot
Topics
Current
Projects
|
Picture This!
What's
new this week in transportation
U-PASS marks 10th anniversary
University of
Washington students Alejandra Calderon and Paul Somerstein flash their U-PASS's
with County Executive Ron Sims. More than 30 transit routes serve the University
of Washington, where for 10 years U-PASS has helped students, faculty and staff
get to campus without driving alone.
Amid reports of increasing regional traffic congestion, a
recently released survey shows that the innovative and pioneering U-PASS
transportation program has significantly reduced the number of students, staff
and faculty driving alone to the main Seattle campus.
"They are coming to campus by bus, bike, carpool and on
foot. The Huskies are really making the grade when it comes to fighting
congestion," said King County Executive Ron Sims, who joined University of
Washington officials on campus to thank students, staff and faculty for using
U-PASS.
According to the new survey, even though more people are
coming to campus every day, a larger percentage of these individuals are
choosing alternatives to driving alone due to the U-PASS program. In fact, the
percentage of the university population commuting to the main campus in single
occupant vehicles has declined from 33 percent to 25 percent since the
inception of U-PASS. Yet at the same time, the number of staff, faculty and
students at the University has grown by approximately 12 percent.
Put another way, 75 percent of the campus population of
more than 56,000 now commute by bus, carpool, vanpool, biking, walking or other
alternative transportation modes instead of driving alone. The practical effect
is that about 4,500 cars have been removed from the region's roads every
weekday.
The survey was conducted by The Gilmore Research Group
for the King County Department of Transportation, Metro Transit, and the
University of Washington.
According to other survey findings:
- More students, faculty and staff take the bus than
those that drive alone;
- A quarter of the population walks to campus;
- The number of people who carpool to campus using a
U-PASS has increased from 33 percent to 37 percent
of the population in the past two years;
- Sixteen percent of staff, faculty and students arrange
to regularly work from home or an alternative site
The University of Washington Seattle Campus educates more
than 35,000 students per year, and employs approximately 21,000 staff and
faculty. The U-PASS program was created by the University and Metro in 1991 as
part of the University's enhanced transportation management plan. The
University assembled a task force of students, faculty, and staff to develop
U-PASS. It was the first such university transportation management program in
the nation.
"As a large educational institution, we understand that
we contribute to the traffic congestion in this area," said University
Transportation Systems Manager Peter Dewey. "The University realizes the
importance of providing transportation options to students and employees. Our
U-PASS program reduces our impact on the community."
The success of the U-PASS program, and the idea of
putting a transit pass in everyone's hands at a greatly reduced price,
convinced Metro to extend the idea to employers. This widespread distribution
encourages the occasional rider as well as regular transit riders. Today Metro's
FLEXPASS program serves 130 employers and 118,000 commuters, of which nearly
44,000 are U-PASS customers. FLEXPASS was also the first employer-based program
of its kind in the nation.
"It worked at the University of Washington with U-PASS,
and now King County employers are finding FLEXPASS is a very effective way to
get their employees to work while minimizing the impacts on our road system,"
said Sims.
The U-PASS program offers a complete package of flexible
transportation benefits such as unlimited bus rides on Metro, Community Transit
and Sound Transit, free carpool and vanpool parking, subsidized vanpool fares,
merchant discounts, bicycle equipment discounts and access to a night ride
shuttle for individuals who live near campus. U-PASS participants pay a low fee
for a U-PASS sticker that is affixed to their University ID card and allows
access to the complete array of transportation services.
"The program has allowed us to minimize the use of our
parking facilities," added Dewey. "We currently have 12,000 spaces, fewer
than in 1983, despite 8,000 additional people. Without vigorously managing our
parking and providing commute alternatives, the University would have been
faced with adding approximately 3,600 parking spaces at a cost of over $100
million. With fewer cars on campus since the inception of U-PASS, the
University has created opportunities to make capital investments in buildings
supporting education instead of structures for cars."
Another Metro commute partnership, GoPass, offers
similarly comprehensive commute services for the three campuses of Seattle
Community Colleges. More than 1,500 students and 1,000 employees of North
Seattle, Seattle Central and South Seattle Community Colleges currently enjoy
subsidized transit passes, vanpool fare subsidies, Commuter Bonus Plus vouchers
for carpoolers and non-motorized commuters, discounted and reserved HOV parking
spaces, and a jointly funded transit route.
The UW survey was completed last fall, as a follow up to
the 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1998 surveys. Gilmore Research conducted the survey
to determine the level of use, awareness, and satisfaction with the U-PASS
program as well as effectiveness of information distribution. Between October
16 and December 11, 2000, a total of 601 students, 394 faculty and 391 staff of
the University of Washington were interviewed by telephone.
Related links
U-PASS program
[external link]
U-PASS annual report [external link: Acrobat .pdf file, 758KB]
King
Country Metro Employer Commute Services
Commuter
Challenge program [external link]
|
