Transportation Survey

1. Transportation Survey Anya Breitmeyer Autumn Brice Jamie Ziebarth April 2001

2. Original Hypothesis We predict that if prospective Rhodes students were denied the opportunity to have cars on campus, then the entry number would decline significantly.

3. Revised Hypothesis We predict that as long as Rhodes does not increase in size the parking situation is adequate to sustain the need for transportation for the student body.

4. Previous Work Babson College Transportation Audit 1996 Examined Babson�s parking lots and cars by testing for air pollutants. This proved to difficult so they gathered information on registered campus cars instead. They compared findings to Regis, Wellesley, and Pine Manor colleges. Found that their campus had highest percentage of resident owned cars of all four colleges.

5. Previous Work cont. Cornell University 1996-97 They had a shortfall of 2,500 parking spaces for staff and students. Instead of building a new parking lot Cornell�s Transportation Demand Management Program proposed several alternatives to this problem of single-occupant vehicles. These programs were responsible for a 25% decrease of the number of vehicles on campus. OmniRide bus pass system � allows students to ride city and county buses for free. RideShare - When a car carries a certain number of people it may then qualify for a discount permit fee or rebate. Also, the car receives a reserved parking space. * Annual saving of 3,123,000 dollars!

6. Previous Work cont. University of Colorado at Boulder 1997-98 As an alternative to constructing a new parking lot they created a bus pass program. Students were required to pay a fee of $10 each semester to fund this program. This allowed them to ride regional buses for free. By 1997 the bus pass system was so successful that the students voted to raise the fee to $20 in order to provide more support. Student rides were estimated to be 1,500,000 that year. * Annual savings of 1,000,000 dollars!

7. Previous Work cont. Penn State Examined whether Penn State was moving towards a more sustainable transport system by looking at three indicators: Car Dependence, Green Space Converted to Parking Space, and Transport-Related Safety. Findings: Overall, Penn State�s Transportation System appears to be headed toward increased dependence on car travel necessitating more roads and parking facilities.

8. Research Design We emailed several people on campus: Dean Boone in Administrative Services and Dean Wottle in Admissions. A meeting was set up with Dean Boone to discuss his feelings on the present parking situation and Rhodes� plans for future student body growth. Damon Waitt, coordinator of environmental research for ACS, was emailed to ask whether other schools within the ACS have performed similar audits or planned alternative transportation. We also contacted several other ACS fellows by email in order to inform them of our study and ask for any input.

9. Research Design cont. Next the survey was created and distributed via campus mail. Campus Green was contacted and given surveys to fill out Surveys were then distributed by hand Brian Hummer was contacted and he designed a URL to be sent out to all students. Dean Richey was contacted and asked to send out the URL to students. The Admissions offices of Carleton, Dartmouth, and Middlebury colleges were emailed and asked whether freshmen were allowed to have cars on campus.

10. Transportation Survey What is your class standing (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior)? � Do you have a car on campus (yes or no)? � How often do you use your car (daily, 2-3 times a week, once a week or less)? � How many miles away is Rhodes from your hometown (less than 100, between 100-400, more than 400)? � Do you feel that living on campus necessitates having a car on campus (yes or no)? Why or why not? � Do you think that parking on campus is a problem (yes or no)? � Do you have trouble finding a parking space (yes or no)? If so, how often (daily, MWF, TuTh)? At which times of day (morning, afternoon, evening, late night)? � Do you use public transportation (yes or no)? Which types (cabs, buses, other)? �

11. Transportation Survey, cont. If so, how often do you use it (daily, 2-3 times a week, once a week or less)? � If Rhodes had not allowed you as a freshman the option of owning a car on campus, would you have chosen a different college (yes or no)? � If Rhodes provided an airport shuttle during the holidays at the following costs, would you use it? : � No charge (yes or no) $5.00 (yes or no) $10.00 (yes or no) I would not use this service. � If more parking becomes necessary in the future, do you think that a parking garage is a good solution (yes or no)? � What would induce you to use public transportation more often?

12. Student Responses What would induce you to use public transportation more often? �If it is easy to use, goes lots of places, cheap and on time.� �Available schedules.� �I wouldn�t they are too scary.� Are cars necessary on campus? �If I have no car, . . ., it is impossible to go anywhere in Memphis.� �Memphis is not a �walking city�.� �Your friends are bound to have cars.�

13. Research Findings Rhodes currently has 1373 parking spaces �on-campus� and 128 �off-campus.� The parking audit we received from Ralph Hatley showed on average that only 1247 were used. For every one car parked illegally on campus, three to four available spaces remain open in other lots on campus.

14. Discussion of Findings Rhodes students believe that there is a parking problem on campus. Since public transportation is not a viable option, the majority of students believe that cars are necessary. If Rhodes provided an airport shuttle during the holidays, students would be willing to pay for the service. Despite their complaints about the parking situation, most students would have attended Rhodes whether or not they were allowed cars on campus. Parking is only a student-perceived problem, since there are enough spaces to accommodate students, according to information provided by Ralph Hatley.

15. Comparison with Other Schools Rhodes is like many other schools in that they allow freshmen to have cars on campus. Since bus pass programs have been successful at other universities, it may be beneficial to consider this alternative to additional parking in the future if the need arises. The colleges that were found not to allow freshmen to own cars were: Notre Dame, Dartmouth, and Carleton *Carleton does not allow students to own cars!

16. Conclusions and Recommendations Based on the survey, we found that students believe parking is a problem on campus. Since a large percentage of students would like the option of an airport shuttle before and after holidays, and would be willing to pay for the service, Rhodes should consider implementing such a program. According to Dean Boone, Rhodes does not plan to increase enrollment substantially in the next ten years; therefore, additional parking is unnecessary.

17. Future Projects We propose that Rhodes take a closer look at the possibility of instigating a shuttle to the airport during holidays. This could be run as a work study program. The survey displays that 60-70% of students are willing to pay for the shuttle. With this it is anticipated that around 1000 students would not be forced to drive individually to the airport and waste money on the airport garage. This means that anywhere between 500-900 gallons of gas would be conserved. In addition we suggest that more students be polled to get more accurate data before instituting the shuttle service.