University Assembly Transportation Advisory Committee

Transportation Advisory Committee
Minutes from Friday, October 24, 2008
12:15 PM - 1:30 PM, 316 Day Hall Boardroom

Present

Marin Clarkberg, Jim Gibbs, Melissa Hardstone, Marisa LaFalce, Lois Levitan, David Proctor

Present, ex-officio

Judy Eckard, David Lieb

Also Present

Lois Chaplin, Tanya Husick

M. LaFalce welcomed everyone and asked for introduction around the table.

Committee Membership and Charge

J. Eckard updated the committee on membership and the committee charge. She noted that a majority vote was needed (7) to pass a resolution; make recommendations to the University Assembly.

Selection of Chair

M. LaFalce was nominated as committee chair and the appointment was unanimously approved.

Meeting Day and Time

The committee agreed upon the third Friday of the month from 12:15 PM to 1:30 PM for the Transportation Advisory Committee’s meetings for 2008–09.

Ithaca CarShare

D. Lieb described the Ithaca CarShare program which went live on June 25, 2008. At this time, there are six hundred (600) applicants. Of those, two hundred and seventy (270) members have rented cars. Nissan Versas are placed at the following locations:

• on Seneca Street outside of Moosewood
• on Cayuga Street by the Tompkins County Library
• Ithaca College
• EcoVillage
• North Campus at RPCC
• West Campus on Stewart Avenue
• Tower Road near Corson/Mudd Hall
• Tower Road near Dairy Bar
• Collegetown on Central Avenue
• pick up truck by Gimme Coffee on North Cayuga Street

The University has purchased two thousand (2,000) memberships and have made them available to all students and TDMP faculty and staff participants at no charge.

Rental rates are $7.95/hour; 20ཱ/mile for the “Just In Case” or $4.95/hour; 20ཱ/mile for the “It’s My Car”. All they have to do is sign up and pay an application fee of $30 to cover cost of driver license check. All other Cornell community members will receive a 30ཅ discount on membership rates. Twenty (20) countries are represented in the membership and forty-eight (48) out of fifty (50) states. Their website address is: www.ithacacarshare.org.

Requirements include:

Age 20 and younger must have a clean driving record and parents’ insurance. Each member is given a car key to use with the electronic reader in the window. Late charges are billed at $1/minute.

L. Levitan asked if there is any restriction on passengers and what is the Cornell membership. D. Lieb said that there is no restriction on passengers and that there is about four hundred and fifty (450) Cornell members. Approximately 9ཅ of the applicants were declined.

M. LaFalce asked how are the car locations decided. D. Lieb said it was by best guess. M. LaFalce asked when are more cars purchased. D. Lieb responded that when average use of a vehicle reaches 8 - 9 hours/day in usage, that is the trigger point for a new purchase. D. Proctor asked what is the retirement point of a vehicle. D. Lieb said they don’t know, but probably 3 years or 50,000 miles. Right now the average trip length is 2 - 3 hours and 2 - 3 miles.

Vanpool

H. Steh spoke about the Community Vanpool Program sponsored by Tcat, and run by a 3rd party vendor. VPSI who has been in business 30 years was awarded the contract. Details of the program are:

• 7 - 14 people share a ride
• community-based program
• commuting trip begins or ends in Tompkins County
• size of van and miles traveled - determines the monthly cost
• requires a 30-day commitment
• one of the vanpool members becomes the driver/coordinator

Cornell incentives to faculty, staff and professional and grad students:

• $20/month subsidy
• free reserved parking near the primary driver’s workplace
• limited number of daily parking permits (10 permits/6 months) for each participant
• free CarShare membership
• free Tcat bus pass (10 ride passes every 3 months)
• Emergency ride 7:30 AM - 6:00 PM

M. Clarkberg asked how to sign up. H. Steh said sign ups are directly with VPSI by phone 1–800–826–7433 or website at www.vpsiinc.com. Once a vanpool has been established, then the Cornell participants need to contact Transportation in order to receive their incentives.

Bike Safety Issues

E. Strong, University Assembly liaison said that there have been three (3) meetings where bike safety has been part of the conversation. He noted the following need attention:

• Big Red Bikes - a bike share program
• covered bike racks
• narrow roads/no bike paths on roads leading to campus
• bike/bus encounters
• dismount zones on sidewalks
• night-time riding - poorly lit on campus and surrounding roads
• campus bike map on website is not user friendly

L. Chaplin, a consultant to Transportation on bikes and bike safety, said that bike share is out of the sustainability group and another student group. She said she has looked into programs like that and would like to meet with E. Strong about them. She continued by saying studies such as t-GEIS has identified these issues mentioned specifically on:

• infrastructure
• facilities
• incentives
• education
• marketing

L. Chaplin went on to say that Transportation has made efforts to increase bike racks but are still not meeting needs. Transportation needs to develop:

• a shared network (bike, pedestrians, vehicle)
• enforcement of appropriate bike behavior

There is a bike committee (Pedestrian, Bike Safety) that meets on Monday mornings and has members from:

• EH&S
• Judicial Administration
• Transportation
• Project Managers from PDC
• Police

Anyone interested is welcome to attend meetings on the 3rd Monday at 9:00 AM in 317 Riley Robb Hall.

E. Strong noted that a comprehensive plan was suggested by D. Proctor last year. He asked if there was any movement on that. M. LaFalce asked how that would relate to the t-GEIS. D. Lieb answered that bikes are a piece of t-GEIS but it is not a comprehensive plan. D. Proctor said that if Cornell is encouraging bike commuting, it needs to provide a desirable place to commute to.

L. Chaplin said that the TIMS (Transportation Impact Mitigation Strategies), a product of the t-GEIS, is a good start on infrastructure. CUEMS students are interested in starting a bike program and she has asked if the students would be willing to be “bike ambassadors”.

E. Strong asked why bike paths have to be on the roadway. D. Lieb said this is a relatively old university and its layout of infrastructure is difficult. The greatest risk to a cyclist is when the cyclist meets a crossroad, and is not part of traffic སྭ intersections are difficult.

M. Clarkberg asked about incentives. J. Eckard mentioned a new bill Congress passed allowing employers to give a $20/month incentive to bike commuters. It really relates to commuting costs, purchasing a bike, and bike parking (locker fees). Transportation needs to look at it more closely. She also agreed that Transportation can use the section of TIMS that refers to bikes as a basis for a comprehensive plan. M. LaFalce said TAC should have a future meeting to look at the TIMS as a follow-up.

Other Issues

M. Hardstone said she would like to improve some of the programs Cornell already has:

• Cost of bus passes, possibly making it free to all students.
• Tcat service improvements.

D. Lieb said Tcat is doing a Route and Service Study and to keep an eye out for public sessions where comments can be taken.

M. LaFalce said TAC would carry over the last three items on the agenda to the November meeting.