Public Transit for students & Faculty of Portland State University

In Comparison to other transit systems for other universities

By

Faisal Alderaibi

PSU Transit for Students & Faculty

PSU transportation and parking department have a contract with the TriMet transit, in which they renew once a year.

PSU Students may purchase a FlexPass, which is discounted 35% off the original price of 175 dollars.

Trimet offers a 20% discount and PSU subsidizes the other 15%.

PSU Student Body :

About 50% of PSU students use TriMet for transportation because they live outside of downtown.

About 30% Drive to PSU and pay around $300 for a parking pass, Or look for parking near meters with 3 hours minimum.

About 20% who live downtown near or around PSU walk to school or use “free zone” transportation.

Students & faculty should pay an affordable and reasonable price for transportation, or no fare at all using student or staff member identification.

Full-Time Permits

Student Part-Time Permits

Free-Fare Transit at UCLA

The percentage of commuters who use public transportation fell from 5.3% in 1990 to 4.7% in year 2000.

Financial aid from the state, federal and government is increasing, while passengers occupy only 27% of public seats on busses.

Unlimited access was a new arrangement made by universities and transportation agencies. This granted over 825,000 students and staff members free transit at more then fifty colleges and universities across the United States.

UCLA introduces BruinGo

BruinGo blue bus service runs throughout Santa Monica, California and most of West Los Angeles.

For evaluation, there is the experimental group for those who live inside the blue service line, and the control group for those who live outside.

According to the article of Fare- Free public transit at Universities, UCLA had three goals for its progam of BruinGo

BruinGo Goals:

Increase Bus ridership to campus

Reduce vehicle trips to campus

Reduce parking demand on campus

•Commute share increased from 7.6% in 2000 to 13.1% in 2001 after BruinGo started.

Percentage Of Faculty/ Staff using public transit

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Results: Unlimited Access reduced parking demand, increased students’

access to the campus, helped recruit and retain students, and reduced the cost of attending college.

Transit agencies reported that Unlimited Access increased ridership, filled empty seats, improved transit service, and reduced the operating cost per rider.

The universities’ average cost for Unlimited Access was $30 per student per year.

Student transit ridership increased between 71% and 200% during the first year of Unlimited Access, and continued to increase between 2% and 10% per year in subsequent years.

VIDEO

NYC Schoolkids a Step Closer to Losing Free Rides

Sources:

http://www.transportation.pdx.edu/students/home

http://www.uctc.net/papers/686.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1bOYLOdtho&feature=related

THE END