University Assembly Transportation Advisory Committee

Transportation Advisory Committee
Minutes from Tuesday, December 13, 2005
12:15 PM � 1:30 PM, 310 Rhodes Hall

Present: Marisa Lafalce, Judy Eckard, Yael Levitte, David Lieb, Tim McConnochie, Helen Steh, and Paul Streeter

Excused: Jim Gibbs

The meeting was unofficially started by David Lieb.

Membership

Several members did not attend. D. Lieb reviewed the current membership and asked T. McConnochie if the names were correct. T. McConnochie said to put Sean Boutin in as UA liaison and not to assign Pawel Brodalka to anything.

D. Lieb went to the November UA meeting to represent the TAC (not Transportation Services). He said the committee belongs to the UA and the UA needs to develop TAC�s agenda for the year.

Also discussed were the UA forums on sustainability. D. Lieb suggested they take several recurring topics and give them to TAC to work on.

Developing Agendas

Y. Levitte asked what TAC has discussed in the past. T. McConnochie said the issues he was most interested in were:

• The situation that requires Vet students to have parking permits when they work night or weekend shifts that run over into daytime hours.
• The affordability of parking for grad/professional student who are mostly commuters.

D. Lieb said that another topic was vehicles parking on sidewalks. H. Steh noted there were issues around parking on weekends.

Y. Levitte asked if the committee responds to events such as t-GEIS and free student bus passes. D. Lieb commented that those two issues should have had committee input. However, they were initiated during the summer when the committee doesn�t meet. Y. Levitte asked if there was a role for TAC in these projects. D. Lieb agreed that there was. People should also check the t-GEIS web site (tgeisproject.org), J. Eckard noted that we can have the transportation planner come to a meeting and give a presentation on t-GEIS and he can ask for your feedback.

Y. Levitte asked if they should go to their constituencies and ask for feedback.

P. Streeter noted that TAC is an offshoot of the UA. D. Lieb agreed it is a sub-committee. P. Streeter commented that they did not give us an action plan. D. Lieb said, �Yes, that�s right�. He mentioned that the Adhoc Committee on Sustainable Transportation is a broad-based group � faculty, staff and students representatives. The UA wants to get those committees together in the same room to share information.

T. McConnochie said that he was sure the UA would like TAC to come up with our own list of items to address this year.

M. Lafalce said it would be helpful if there was more progress � either on membership or a UA directive. She noted that there is not even a quorum to do anything.

H. Steh said that there was a meeting last year that was a very interactive meeting on what we want this campus to become and we took a more global look.

D. Lieb said that because of the membership turnover, every year we have an education factor.

Y. Levitte said that we could circulate email for agenda items.

P. Streeter asked to give him an example of something TAC gives input on. T. McConnochie said that there was the issue of having handicap parking at CCC. H. Steh said that someone on TAC gave an idea for a solution and we were able to implement it.

J. Eckard noted that the presidential appointments provide expertise and continuity to the committee.

H. Steh asked if we should be holding meetings if the UA doesn�t give us an agenda. Y. Levitte said if we don�t come up with our own items we are missing an opportunity. Here are a few items we could talk about:

• disabled parking
• alternatives to SOV (single occupant vehicle)
• cost of parking

She noted that we could create a list serve for TAC. T. McConnochie said that we should make a list of topics.

M. Lafalce noted that so much of what Transportation does is reactionary. She�d like to hear move about:

• How does the process of construction involve Transportation � work related to parking.

P. Streeter posed the question � Have we lost site of what Cornell needs are related to a (functional) campus such as on campus shuttles? Are we going to maintain the TCAT relationship as we progress forward?

Ideas presented:

• ZipCar model
• Student bus passes (free)
• Student Carpooling
• Marketing material � distribution schedule

The next TAC meeting has been scheduled for Monday, January 30, 2006 from 12:15 PM to 1:30 PM. This meeting will be held in B-16 Day Hall.