As requested by OSU, the Consultant Team reviewed the potential of transportation alternatives to reduce parking demand in the District.
One possible solution to relieving parking pressures in the District is to require more parking customers to use peripheral parking on OSU’s West Campus, and then use the Campus Area Bus Service (CABS) to ride to their ultimate destinations. OSU has constructed several thousand surface parking spaces on West Campus, and at present these spaces are primarily allocated to “C” permit holders.
Until recently, the University’s parking supply on West Campus was largely underutilized. In fact, the occupancy counts conducted during the development of the 1998 T&P Plan showed that, at peak times, the largest lots on West Campus were less than 75% full. However, more recent occupancy counts conducted during the winter quarter of 2000 showed that these lots were more than 85% full at peak times, and that some were more than 90% full. In parking management, lots having occupancy of 90% or more are considered effectively full, because parking spaces are not readily available and require some searching. Therefore, a future shift of a significant portion of OSU’s parking customers to West Campus is not possible unless additional land is identified for this use.
CABS offers a number of routes that serve the District, including busses to and from West Campus, a Core Circulator shuttle, and busses to student residences in neighboring areas east of High Street.
The T&P Plan recommended significant transit improvements to make riding the bus more attractive, and since 1997-98, ridership on the CABS system has tripled. New routes and more frequent service have increased ridership and helped to reduce the need for faculty and staff to move their vehicles to different destinations on campus throughout the day. The improvements made to CABS are also a reason for increased use of West Campus parking. Data on boarding passengers for stops in the South Campus and Health Sciences District for the 1999-2000 year are shown in FIGURE 1.
While ridership has increased, parking demand in the South Campus and Health Sciences District has not diminished, as evidenced by garages operating at capacity and consistent demand for parking permits. In addition, it is unlikely that exponential increases in CABS ridership will continue in the coming years. The frequency of service has reached a level where adding more busses would result in diminishing returns on the investment. Therefore, while T&P should continue upgrading CABS to the extent possible within existing budgets, the bus service cannot be counted on to relieve significant portions of future parking demand.
In addition to the CABS system, another transit alternative available for members of the OSU community is the bus system managed by the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA). COTA operates several routes that pass through the District, including stops in both the Health Sciences and South Campus Areas.
As a result of a student initiative, OSU students pay a fee of $9 per quarter for unlimited rides in the COTA system. (This fee is $13.50 per quarter for professional students.) While this reduced fee offers a considerable savings and is a benefit to the OSU student community, it has not significantly reduced student parking demand. Also, on an annual basis, this fee is comparable to what students pay for West Campus parking permits, so it appears students have little financial incentive to switch their mode of transportation to COTA.
Meanwhile, OSU and COTA have had discussions about a reduced rate for faculty and staff as well. A five percent discount for OSU faculty and staff has been approved by COTA’s Board, and implementation plans are underway. Presently, faculty and staff, as well as other COTA riders, have to pay $37 per month for a local pass and $50 for an express pass. These fares, when projected on an annual basis, are considerably more than OSU’s highest yearly parking rates for both “A” and “B" permits. Even with the proposed discount, it appears that there is no financial incentive for faculty and staff to use COTA, which limits COTA ridership among these groups.
The SCDP and the T&P Plan both encouraged improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists to increase the viability of these transportation alternatives. T&P, in conjunction with other OSU departments, should continue to promote adequate bicycle paths and pedestrian access where possible. However, it is unlikely that even the most ambitious program to encourage the use of bikes and/or walking will adequately reduce parking demand to postpone the construction of new parking facilities.
The OSU campus is vast, and the distances between different areas on campus and between residences of students, faculty, and staff and their ultimate destinations are such that biking or walking to class or to work takes a considerable amount of time. In addition, bicyclists and pedestrians must compete with traffic on busy roads, a situation that will only be aggravated with the construction of new ramps to and from State Route 315. Furthermore, the climate in Columbus is such that biking and walking are not desirable for a good portion of the year. Finally, during customer interviews, students and staff expressed safety concerns when asked about using transportation alternatives besides parking convenient to their destination.
At present, T&P offers relatively few incentives to encourage faculty, staff, and students to pursue ridesharing. This situation results from a number of conditions, most notably the fact that previous incentives for ridesharing were eliminated because of low use by OSU’s parking customers. As with the other alternatives, it is unlikely that new ridesharing incentives will reduce parking demand to the extent necessary to avoid construction of parking structures. Since faculty and staff have differing work schedules and come from different locations in the Columbus area, those who would carpool are probably doing so already. Further, operational and enforcement difficulties related to ridesharing programs make it difficult to monitor on this or any other campus.
T&P should do the following to encourage the use of transportation alternatives:
In summary, OSU should continue to pursue transportation alternatives to the maximum extent possible, but the unfortunate reality is that these alternatives will not significantly reduce parking demand.
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