Transportation demand management on UNC's campus: evaluation, best practices and recommendations for reducing single-occupancy vehicle use
Creators: name: Watterson, Bergen C.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2011

description: Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is an increasingly popular response to growing concern over traffic congestion, pollution and parking shortages. Instead of simply increasing the supply of roads and parking spaces when congestion peaks and parking is hard to find, transportation planners and public officials have turned to strategies to decrease demand for the facilities. TDM is designed to reduce the demand for single-occupancy vehicles through a set of strategies aimed at changing travel behavior. These strategies can include incentives, disincentives, policies and regulations, land-use planning practices or transit choice improvements. State and local governments, as well as individual employers, are implementing TDM programs to help solve congestion problems in their region. Universities and colleges serve as residential and employment centers for great numbers of people. Increased car usage and the parking facilities to accommodate them can be seen as a threat to the peaceful, people-friendly feel of many college campuses. Whereas many local jurisdictions engage in TDM to reduce traffic congestion, many universities' primary motivation for TDM lies in parking shortages. "Multiple factors - lack of land for new parking lots, the high costs of building parking structures, pressure from surrounding communities, and the desire to preserve air quality and campus green space" - are leading many universities toward implementing TDM programs (Toor and Havlick 2004, 3). Many campuses struggle with the problem of increased demand for parking and financial or physical inability to construct new facilities. These universities often conclude that it is more feasible for them to manage demand for parking than it is to construct more. Universities often resemble small, compact cities, complete with residences, concentrated employment, sports facilities, cultural venues and central open space. These types of campuses are particularly well-suited for TDM programs because of their density of employment and residences. TDM programs on campuses are often run by transportation and parking or planning departments and include a wide variety of strategies to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips and demand for parking. What is unique and challenging for universities is to create programs that will appeal to both students and employees, who have different motivations and needs. Examples of campus TDM strategies include universal transit passes, raising parking rates, campus shuttles, carshares for use during the day for employees and twenty-four hours a day for students, and campus bike-share programs. Most universities have some combination of TDM strategies, and others have comprehensive multi-modal programs that integrate many. This study examines the Commuter Alternative Program, the TDM program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has been integral in reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicles arriving to the campus. In addition, the TDM programs at Duke University, the University of Washington, the University of British Columbia, and Cornell University are featured as case studies. The case studies include descriptions of the TDM programs at each university, successes, limitations and best practices. A comparison of the five universities reveals similarities and differences, common approaches and conflicting strategies.