From the Cornell Assemblies
Transportation Advisory Committee
Minutes from Friday, October 24, 2008
12:15 PM - 1:30 PM, 316 Day Hall Boardroom
M. LaFalce welcomed everyone and asked for introduction around the table.
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.
M. LaFalce was nominated as committee chair and the appointment was unanimously approved.
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.
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:
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.
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:
Cornell incentives to faculty, staff and professional and grad students:
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.
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:
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:
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:
There is a bike committee (Pedestrian, Bike Safety) that meets on Monday mornings and has members from:
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.
M. Hardstone said she would like to improve some of the programs Cornell already has:
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.
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