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:
- Improve bicycling programs.
- Improve local public transportation options and infrastructure.
- Increase telecommuting and use of flexible work hours
- Increase housing to accommodate more than 50% of the student
population
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:
- Proctor,
C., 2006., "Eco Pass interest riding high", Denver Business
Journal, 18 August 2006. A similar scheme exists in Silicon
Valley, and it differs
from the UCSD bus pass system, because UCSD pays for each ride,
while Eco Passes are annual bus passes typically purchased at a
discount for most or all employees of a company (or residents of a
neighborhood).