Students are sick of waiting, and they’re tired of walking.
Students and UF faculty and staff expressed their transportation transporation concerns at the first of two forums Tuesday with UF and the Gainesville Regional Transit System. The forum was held so residents could offer input for the transportation component of the 2010-2020 Campus Master Plan.
About 18 people attended the first forum.
Florida legislature requires state universities to submit a Campus Master Plan update every five years, outlining project and budget proposals. The transportation component is funded separately but is being run in coordination with the federally required five-year update for the Gainesville Urbanized Area 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan.
The Renaissance Planning Group, an independent consulting firm, has been contracted by the university and by RTS to manage these projects.
Whit Blanton, vice president of Renaissance and project manager for the transportation element of UF’s plan, said the coordination of the metropolitan and university planning holds great advantages, particularly cost efficiency.
According to Blanton, the university is paying Renaissance a little over $100,000.
During the forum, Doug Robinson, chief transit planner for Gainesville RTS, addressed areas for improvement within the campus and metro bus systems like comfort, convenience, reliability and sustainability.
He then discussed several proposed solutions including bus rapid transit. This would essentially be an express bus that would run faster using dedicated lanes and/or the ability to change red lights or delay green ones.
The possibility of a streetcar running from campus to downtown was also mentioned, but as a long-term goal.
Audience members were asked to draw in and make note of additions and revisions they would like to see.
Blanton said students could expect to see some changes as soon as the end of the year. The bigger the change, he said, the longer it will take.
Robinson said RTS is working on converting the entire fleet of city buses to run on biodiesel like the campus ones. He said this should be completed by 2011.
Correction 3/17/2010: Correction of a misspelling and awkward phrasing in the second paragraph.
