UH Parking and Transportation Services has begun implementing a plan targeting multiple solutions to lower the 2-to-1 ratio of student permits to parking spaces.
“As a transportation and parking department, what we have to do is offer the infrastructure that supports students of all needs and economic points, with all of the environmental considerations in mind,” Assistant Vice President of University Services Emily Messa said.
Messa said the parking lot at Energy Research Park has 500 spaces available with an advertised 12-minute headway for shuttle buses.
“The great part about that is you don’t even have to come to campus,” Messa said, “especially if you’re coming from Clear Lake or Point South, you can get off an exit before everybody else and park at the ERP and use the shuttle.”
Director of Parking and Transportation Services Bob Browand said that, in an effort to decrease parking congestion, the University has also opened up a grass lot at Bayou Oaks for an additional 74 spaces.
Long-term solutions focus on building up an infrastructure to support more mass transit and alternative forms of transportation, in conjunction with adding more parking structures.
Two more parking garages are also being built to add to the existing Welcome Center garage. The east garage across from Calhoun Lofts has 1,500 spaces and is scheduled to open Nov. 11.
The third garage will be located at Robertson Stadium. It is expected to have 2,000-2,400 spaces, and completion is slated for July 2011.
The University is also searching for alternative resources for a fourth garage.
“We are attempting, and we’ve applied for some Federal funding, to help support the cost of a garage near the transit centers, a multi-mogul garage that we can tie into the light rail,” Browand said.
The University also partnered with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and signed up more than 600 students for the Metro Q Card, which allows students to ride Metro for half fare, Browand said.
University Services is also planning to implement a service called the NextBus program in order to increase Metro usage.
Messa said the NextBus program is a software management system for a fleet of buses, giving real time GPS updates through text messages, which reply with the next two buses’ predicted arrival times; it will also show if the buses are full.
University Services plans to start the program later this fall, and it will be fully implemented in the spring.
“For a lot of people, it’s a big leap, and we understand that, and it’s not just a University culture change, but this is a Houston culture change,” Messa said. “The car is pretty ingrained in our minds as Houstonians.”
The goal is to get 10 percent of the University population using some form of alternative transportation once the light rail comes through, Browand said.
“I wouldn’t mind using alternative parking and transportation options at all,” political science junior Tomer Mushi said. “I think we need more mass transportation, but there’s no one solution, and it really just depends on each individual student.”
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