UGA budget cuts impact Athens Transit

ABH: "The University of Georgia will cut subsidies for students and employees to ride Athens Transit, costing the bus system $150,000 next year, officials said Thursday."

The Athens-Clarke government does not plan to cut service or spend more local tax money on buses, Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish said, because federal grant money will make up the difference.

Car Free Day

Three University of Georgia organizations are promoting next Friday as "Car Free Day," asking people to use alternative transportation to work and school.

The School of Ecology, in collaboration with the GoGreen Alliance and Students for Environmental Action, will station "commute captains" off campus and offer free food, drinks and prizes to participants.

Commute captains will be located at College Station Road and International Drive at 7:10 and 9 a.m. and at South Milledge and Oakland avenues at 7:15 and 8 a.m. to lead groups to campus.

Organizers will set up a refreshment stand at the front entrance of Memorial Hall between 7:30 and 11 a.m. with free food, drinks and a chance to win prizes including gift certificates for gear and a free bike check from Sunshine Cycles.

Parking it at UGA

The Red & Black compares UGA's parking facilities to those of its peer institutions.

“Parking is one of the biggest problems on most any large university campus,” [ University of Florida vice president of Business Affairs Ed] Poppell said. “On our campus we say, ‘We have enough spaces, but just not in the right places.’”

The saying is a result of one of UF’s initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and congestion on campus by enforcing certain regulations, such as the university’s “auto-free interior campus,” where only buses and service vehicles are allowed on the interior of campus from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“We have significant policies on our campus limiting what students can do and where they can park,” Poppell said. “We have also continuously increased the price of our decals, encouraging people to find alternative means of transportation.”

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the parking is highly selective. With 16,000 total parking spaces on campus, the school allows only 3,900 of its 28,136 students to park on campus. Unlike the University, UNC does not offer parking to incoming freshmen.

“There are a lot of folks who prefer to utilize the transit system,” said Randy Young, spokesman for the UNC Department of Safety. “We’ve gone to inordinate measures to make sure that the congestion and dependence on single-occupancy vehicles are attended to here on campus. We have 6,000 people on the Commuter Alternative Program.”

The program offers students an incentive to walk, ride bikes or use transit on campus by rewarding them with prizes and merchant discounts.

The University has a similar program called the Alternative Transportation Program, with a student participation of 1,200.

The program allows students who walk or take the bus* to receive 22 days of free parking per year in specified parking locations.

*ATP is also available for cyclists. With its campus pedestrian malls, campus transit, and bike racks, UGA certainly leads the county in supporting alternative transportation infrastructure.

Still, more can be done to encourage alternative behavior among a student body overwhelmingly conditioned to drive enormous SUVs for 2 mile errand trips. Increasing ATP participation should be a top priority. Given the comparatively low levels of participation, UGA has a ways to go before it can say it has "gone to inordinate measures to make sure that the congestion and dependence on single-occupancy vehicles" are minimized.

Indeed, since its inception, the Alternative Transportation Program has grown more restrictive, due to concerns that the program was being abused. Instead of marginalizing a good idea, UGA ought to develop creative enforcement solutions and then widely publicize the program's availability and benefits. Fewer cars means less need for bond-financed parking decks, which means less congestion, both on our roads and in our air.

Unfortunately, other considerations tend to distort the University's thinking on these things.

Walking to school

A video from streetfilms on the recent International Walk to School Day:

Timothy Rd Elementary observes Int'l Walk to School Day

From the ABH:

Each year schools across the country organize a Walk to School Day to promote physical activity, identify areas in the community that need safety improvements and reduce traffic congestion and pollution.

As a youngster, Okech walked five miles each way to get to his school in Kenya. Before Wednesday, Okech's daughters didn't walk to school often, though they live less than a mile from Timothy Road Elementary.

"Walking's good, but I find we're becoming more Americanized now because we're like, 'Oh, it's a short distance. well, let's jump in the car and drive,' " Okech said. "It's not good."

This year, the Timothy PTA - led by Heesacker - created a Safe Routes to School committee to organize monthly walks to school to ease more students and parents into the practice, while advocating for more crosswalks and crosswalk lights to make the trip safer. The first came Wednesday, but others are scheduled every month through April.

And tonight, the Clarke County Board of Education plans to approve a seven-school Safe Routes to School plan that asks the Athens-Clarke government for more crosswalks and signs, caution lights and sidewalks.

The county received $110,000 from the state Department of Education to fund part of one project envisioned in the school district plan - improving the Five Points intersection to benefit Barrow Elementary School students.

The intersection work - including raised crosswalks, countdown pedestrian lights and flashing signs that display cars' speeds - won't get started for another 15 months, according to David Clark, county transportation and public works director.

Bike rentals at UGA?

An undergraduate student is proposing a bike rental program at UGA.
Great idea!

UGA Campus Transit

The Red & Black features a story about campus buses and pedestrian safety. As a central campus employee, I see dozens of hair-raising near misses between pedestrians and buses on Sanford Dr & Baldwin St.
Folks, the physics are pretty simple:

Watch where you're going, and take a rest on the texting while you're mobile.

R&B editors also call for bike racks on Campus Transit.

UGA students reminded to obey traffic laws

Red & Black, the campus newspaper, reminds UGA students who bike or walk that they need to obey traffic laws and use some common sense.

I'll add that cyclists need to a) wear a helmet and b) be visible.

For you students who are driving around Athens, watch for pedestrians and cyclists. Give them plenty of room, and save your harrassing comments for Florida and Auburn fans.

Bike Recycling Shop featured in photoshow and interview on UGA's Grady College of Journalism website

http://www.gradyjournal.com/?p=1046

Nice feature on the BikeAthens BRP history, mission, and accomplishments created by Jeffrey Uzzel from UGA. Thanks Jeff!

School Board vote

In last night's school board meeting, the vote was cast to do away with "school choice," meaning that next fall students will attend their neighborhood school, rather than their preferred school.
The district started seriously considering this option back when gas prices were $4+.

After months of deliberation, the Clarke County Board of Education agreed Thursday to do away with school choice and accept a plan that could send up to half of all students to new schools next fall.

Faced with a projected budget shortfall of nearly $6 million over the next two years, board members approved the plan, which could save up to $1.2 million a year in transportation costs, by a unanimous 8-0 vote. Board President Charles Worthy was absent.

The change - which will assign each elementary student to a single school rather than allowing parents to choose from a short list of schools - will ease overcrowding at some schools and encourage more parent involvement, administrators said.

Many parents are understandably upset that their children will change schools, but, from a transportation perspective, this makes far more sense. It will save money and resources and will ultimately create more cohesive neighborhoods.

BikeUGA student org forming

New Student Organization: BikeUGA

Organizational meeting on 9/30, 5-6 pm @
B116 Life Sciences Building, UGA campus

See the flyer (pdf) and come check us out!

Emory Univ selling low cost bikes

Check out this article from CNN. Our neighbors down at Emory are really encouraging bicycle use!
UGA, take note and follow the leader!

Excerpt:

The school is selling discounted bicycles to students and faculty, adding bike lanes to campus roads and stocking bikes that can be borrowed for free.

The university is pushing its $250,000 "Bike Emory" initiative, launched a year ago, in hopes of convincing students and faculty that the eco-friendly bikes are a better alternative to their four-wheeled, gas-guzzling counterparts.

Cycling already has a foothold at many colleges, where hefty parking fees, sprawling campuses and limited roads make it tough to travel. Still, most students are reluctant to leave their cars parked.

"They're using them to drive from residence halls to class, which is a two- or three-block commute," said Ric Damm, an administrator and cycling coach at Ripon College, which is giving away $300 bikes to freshmen who leave their cars at home. "We thought, 'How can we provide an incentive to get them out of that behavior?"'

Moving drunks around

In a piece in today's Flagpole, outlining the stricter stance the ACC Solicitor is taking toward underage drinking, editor Ben Emanuel notes some possible transportation solutions to the motorcade of drunkards leaving downtown every night between 10 and 3:00 a.m.:

Also at the meeting, bar owners heard from Athens Transit Director Butch McDuffie, who noted that late-night bus service for downtown hasn’t been discussed much since a brief attempt foundered a few years ago. In a sign of the good that might yet come out of the revived HRP, though, the newly-assembled group was unanimous in its enthusiasm to renew planning discussions for late-night transit service to get downtown-goers home safely.

The group heard, too, from Matt Presnell, who with his brother started a local outfit of the company Zingo this spring. Zingo, now operating in eight cities across the country according to its website, offers customers an insured, sober driver with a fold-up mini-motor-scooter that fits in a car’s trunk for the ride home, giving the hired driver a way back downtown after getting the car and its occupants home safely.

Promoting alt-trans to incoming UGA students

Athens Living, a magazine-sized guide to Athens for new students distributed by The Red & Black, features a nice story on the benefits and growing popularity of biking and choosing other ways to get around campus. Thanks to R&B for the BikeAthens shout-out!

The magazine is not available online, unfortunately. JPEGs of the 2-page story below or here and here: