MAE 124/ESYS 103:  Week 9 Assignment

Transportation Planning for UC San Diego: Trains, Buses, or Automobiles

The Week 9 Assignment comes in two parts:

(1) Complete the on-line CAPE evaluation for this class. 

At the start of week 9, you should receive an e-mail with a personal link to the CAPE evaluation site.  Take care of it now (or at least as soon as you the e-mail arrives)!  CAPE evaluations are really critical as a means for faculty and TAs to collect information that will make this course better in the future.  As you know, CAPE used to be done using printed paper forms, which together consumed lots of resources.  On-line CAPE is sustainable, and completely in line with the goals of this class.  To prevent CAPE from reverting to paper forms, you need to complete your on-line CAPE evaluations. 

(2)  Consider UCSD's Transportation and Parking System.

Transportation is a critical component in planning for sustainability, and ideas about transportation figure prominently in discussions of Smart Growth and New Urbanism.   San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) long-range transportation plan opens by stating, "Ask anyone what’s the biggest problem in San Diego, and you’ll probably hear `traffic.' However, if we have learned anything in the last decade, it’s that we can't build our way out of traffic congestion. This leaves us at a crossroads--the road less traveled may hold the key to how we commute in the future." The plan, entitled "2030 San Diego Regional Transportation Plan: Pathways for the Future" goes on to outline a broad-based "blueprint" for the San Diego transportation sytem. Among the current SANDAG transportation activities are efforts to widen I-5 (including adding carpool lanes that will bring commuters to the UCSD campus), reworking bus routes, extending the trolley north from Old Town to UCSD, and adding a Coaster station on Nobel Drive to serve the University Town Center area.

The UC San Diego Climate Action Plan that you considered for Paper #1 also has an extensive discussion of transportation goals including the following:

Undoubtedly the biggest component of the regional tranportation planning that is currently in the works is the planned trolley extension to UCSD, and you'll hear more about this from the May 27th guest speaker.  Although the trolley won't reach campus until 2016 or 2017, its imminent arrival is already influencing transportation planning on campus.  In particular, UCSD has made a decision not to build any new parking structures (except at the medical center) since demand for parking is expected to plummet once the trolley arrives, and therefore future parking permit revenue would be insufficient to repay the $30,000 to $40,000 per space costs of building a parking structure.

Given all this regional activity, how should UCSD advance its own transportation plans? Should UCSD build more parking structures, expand shuttle buses, persuade everyone to bicycle, support more alternative fuel and electric vehicles, or increase coordination with the regional public transportation system? If you were advising UCSD's Director of Transportation Services, what process would you advise using to upgrade commuting options for UCSD students and staff?  There are a broad number of issues that you could consider in your response.  For example, should the university try to influence where students and staff live in order to facilitate more sustainable commuting?  What options are most in line with the New Urbanism ideas of creating livable, walkable communities?  As always the answers you give are less important than the process you outline for gathering information and evaluating alternatives.  Your response should be no more than 250 words.

You should also read a minimum of 2-3 articles before you start writing.  Here's information on San Diego efforts:
Examples from elsewhere are also useful. First consider the case of Curitiba, Brazil: Second, consider the bus transit pass system adopted in the Denver area: