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Department
of
Public Safety pages:
"Gazette"
coverage:
"Poarch tackles parking crunch (8/11/04)
"Parking crunch hits home; alternatives key to future" (7/14/04)
Thanks to Carolina's master plan, the University's main campus will benefit from state-of-the-art facilities while preserving the beauty that has meant so much to Tar Heels down through the decades.
But building that future will mean changing the way Carolina faculty and staff think about getting to work. To accommodate growth and make campus more walkable, the University plans to rely less on parking spaces and more on alternative transportation. (See links at left for more information.)
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In fact, it's already happening.
The 2004-05 academic year will begin with 893 fewer parking permits issued than the previous year. To ease that pinch and the squeeze to come, Carolina officials project that the mix of ways employees get to work will have to change as follows by 2008:
Permit parking, 54 percent (from 72 percent in 2001);
Park and ride, 11 percent (from 7 percent in 2001);
Transit, 17 percent (from 6 percent in 2001);
Carpool, 9 percent (from 6 percent in 2001); and
Bike, walk and other, 9 percent (unchanged from 2001).
The need for this shift comes against the backdrop of the master plan, which was shaped by input from a broad range of faculty, staff and students. The campus consensus stressed creating a pedestrian-friendly environment and providing alternatives to getting to work by driving alone and parking on campus.
The first stage of the 50-year blueprint boasts $1.3 billion in construction projects, making it one of the most ambitious growth plans in U.S. higher education. One key driver of that growth was the investment North Carolinians made in the University with their approval of the higher education bond referendum in 2000. A resulting development plan negotiated with and approved by the Town of Chapel Hill is guiding the building boom through 2008.
Along with other growth initiatives, the development plan spells out the specifics of an overall transportation strategy. The strategy stays true to the master plan's goal of providing employees transportation alternatives.
That goal is becoming particularly essential as the building program shifts into high gear. While new parking decks in the development plan will result in more parking spaces on main campus, the growth in spaces for faculty and staff will not keep pace with expected demand from a burgeoning workforce.
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ON THE WAY The parking deck included in the Rams Head project should open in January 2005. The new deck will accommodate student permit holders displaced during construction, and the remainder of the deck will be hourly pay parking for employees, students or visitors. This will mark the first time that employees and students have been allowed to park in hourly pay locations. But while new parking decks such as this one and others called for in the development plan will result in more parking spaces on main campus, the growth in spaces for faculty and staff will not keep pace with expected demand from a burgeoning workforce. (Click for larger image ) |
Campus planners project an increase of only 313 employee permit parking spaces when the development plan is completed. That compares to the 3,094 that would be needed to maintain the parking ratios available before the plan began.
Planners have prepared for the these numbers in recent years through efforts such as partnering with the Town of Chapel Hill to provide fare-free bus service and opening additional park-and-ride lots. And a Commuter Alternatives Program gives employees incentives to choose options other than parking on campus as the way to get to work.
Such efforts have earned Carolina national recognition as a campus taking the lead on growing in environmentally responsible ways.