University Assembly Transportation Advisory Committee

Transportation Advisory Committee
Minutes from Friday, October 26, 2007
12:15 PM to 1:30 PM, 316 Day Hall Boardroom

Present

Dan Brown, Judy Eckard, Marisa Lafalce, Yael Levitte, David Lieb, John Ludders, Ida Mahler, Arnim Meyburg, Sue Powell, Helen Steh, Ian Tse, Waiching Wong

Excused

Jim Gibbs

D. Brown called the meeting to order and distributed the meeting’s agenda. He asked that people introduce themselves since several new members were in attendance. He first noted that the University Assembly passed a resolution endorsing the t-GEIS and TIMS documents. September meeting minutes were previously distributed via email. No one had any changes, so the minutes were accepted as written.

t-GEIS

D. Lieb presented the draft t-GEIS power point presentation. He has presented this to all the assemblies, as well as various Town and City groups.

Process on Initiatives

Y. Levitte asked for progress reports on several transportation initiatives.

Car-Share

D. Lieb explained that Car-Share is a community program with participation from Ithaca College, City of Ithaca, MPO and Cornell and is called Ithaca Car Share Inc. They are working with Flex Car for a reservation system and insurance which includes an 18 — 20 year old program. The soft-launch is slated for November — December with a full-launch in mid-January. They will start with 10 cars and add 6 more in six months. Storage locations will be: Cornell, Ithaca College, downtown and Eco Village.

A. Meyburg (referring to the t-GEIS presentation) noted that it may be misleading in the survey results when the 80% is referenced - remember it is 80% of respondents_not all employees.

Y. Levitte asked how often are the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) programs revisited? She had several more questions:

• Where do they park on campus?
• Is there a way to incentivize parking according to distance to office/home?

D. Brown said that there are some parking lots that are virtually empty (i.e., Morrison Hall). He said that before Transportation builds more parking, the empty lots should be filled. H. Steh said Transportation often works with department representatives to limit the number of permits issued in a specific area and they often request central campus permits be issued to faculty only. M. Lafalce said that people do consider their options and often chose what is most economical. D. Lieb said Transportation’s goal isn’t to fill all of the parking spaces but to use reserves for swelling and shrinking demands — construction, conferences, and visitors.

Y. Levitte said the way parking permits are issued is wrong — by pecking order. She said there are economic and social issues to consider. D. Brown said that if TAC wants to “reshuffle” the pecking order they can certainly establish that. That policy can be changed and the current policy is what has evolved with the lack of involvement of this committee.

Election of Chair

D. Brown asked for nominations for committee chair. A. Meyburg nominated Marisa Lafalce and she was unanimously elected.

M. Lafalce asked that agenda items be forwarded to her.

The meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM.