project citizen

Running head: PARKING AND CONGESTION

Parking and Traffic Congestions at San Jose State University:

A Public Policy Issue

Lacey Chalenor, Anna Kingsmith, Sasha Martinez, and Kenneth Rosales

San Jose State University

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PARKING AND CONGESTION

Parking and Congestion at San Jose State University:

A Public Policy Issue

As a new student to San Jose State University, one of the first things you are

likely to notice is the traffic on your way to school. It can often take upwards of 20

minutes to travel the four blocks from the exit off of I-280 South to campus. Once you

get there, finding parking can be yet another challenge. Talking to San Jose State

students, one hears horror stories of being an hour late to the first class of the term

because parking was so difficult to find. In short, the traffic and parking situation at SJSU

is having a significant negative impact on the lives of students, and therefore is an issue

that is in need of change.

Defining the Problem

Although the issues of traffic congestion and parking are inevitably intertwined,

they each have their own separate causal elements. Traffic congestion around San Jose

State is in part a factor of traffic congestion in the larger downtown San Jose area. For

many years now, San Jose has been listed in the Texas Transportation Institute’s Top 10

Worst American Cities for Traffic List (Texas A & M University). This statistic is based

in part on the average number of hours a driver in San Jose spends stuck in traffic each

year, but it focuses on freeway traffic. However, the traffic problems faced by students

are not limited to the time they spend on the freeway. In fact, for students who drive to

school around 9:00 am, the time when many morning classes begin, it can be even more

difficult to get from their freeway exit to campus.

The evidence of parking problems at SJSU is wide-ranging. A search of Spartan

Daily (the SJSU newspaper) articles on traffic revealed numerous articles from many

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different years detailing the experiences of students who were late to class because they

couldn’t find a parking space and explaining the ongoing parking problems at the

university (Spartan Daily). In the comment section of one article, a user even mentioned

that the Spartan Daily ran those same articles when he went to school in the 1970s. A

search on Youtube with the term “SJSU Parking” turns up several pages of videos made

by students who are frustrated by the parking situation at San Jose State (Youtube).

Scope, Intensity, and Duration

Further evidence for the parking problems at SJSU turned up in a survey our

group conducted of 100 San Jose State students1. 12% of respondents who drive to school

reported spending 20 to 30 minutes looking for parking each day, while 9% reported

spending 30+ minutes. Students were also asked to rate their feelings about the parking

situation at SJSU on a scale of one to five, with one indicating “I don’t care” and five

indicating “I’m very frustrated”. Almost half of the students surveyed reported feeling

frustrated or very frustrated by the parking situation, and 19% fell into the “very

frustrated” category. This demonstrates that the issue of parking at SJSU has some

element of intensity. Because our survey was designed to incorporate an average cross-

section of SJSU students, the results also show that this issue has a wide scope in the

SJSU population.

The duration of the parking and traffic problem at SJSU is a little harder to prove,

because the nature of the institution is that most students leave after four or five years.

However, in 1999 the Office of the President created a Parking, Traffic, and Transit

1 We wanted to account for the possibility that students with classes at different times might have different experiences. In order to ensure that a wide variety of students were surveyed, we split our sample of 100 into groups of 20, and each group was conducted at a different time of day, ranging from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm. See Appendix A for survey results.

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Advisory Committee to address the problems they were having in these areas. This

indicates that the problem has been going on for at least the previous decade, and likely

longer than that.

Why Is This a Public Policy Issue?

Having established that a problem indeed exists with the parking and traffic at

San Jose State, it is also important to establish that this problem is one that should be

addressed publicly rather than privately. According to Gerston’s Public Policymaking in

a Democratic Society: A Guide to Civic Engagement (2008), a public policy issue is a

question that “most people believe should be decided by officials at the appropriate level

of government” (p. 5). Issues of traffic and transit, from building roads, to creating public

transportation systems, to solving issues at problematic intersections, are typically dealt

with by public agencies. The majority of the public expects these issues to be dealt with

by officials in the government, and when they are not dealt with effectively, the public

often demonstrates their displeasure at election time.

In this case, the governmental body in question is San Jose State University. SJSU

is a public college, supported in part by funding from the state of California. The

university has established a precedent of dealing with issues of parking and transportation

around the university, as demonstrated by the creation of the Parking, Traffic, and Transit

Advisory Committee, the Transportation Solutions office, and the various partnerships

with transit authorities in the area2. The university has created policies in the past to deal

with parking on and transportation to campus, and therefore the public has a reasonable

expectation that they will address or decide future issues of parking on and transportation

to campus.

2 These partnerships will be further discussed in the body of this paper.

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Furthermore, certain policies that have been created by the university in the past

have contributed to the parking and transit problems occurring now. For example, each

year the Office of SJSU Parking Services issues 13,000 parking passes, while only 5,500

parking spaces exist for students to use with these passes (SJSU Parking Services). Even

accounting for the differing schedules of many students, there is still a clear disparity

between the number of passes issued and the number of spaces available, which

contributes to the difficulty students have in finding a parking space in a timely fashion.

There are a few initiatives put in place by the university to encourage carpooling and use

of public transportation, but these are not well publicized. Therefore, they do not do

much to minimize the problem.

The evidence presented thus far has demonstrated that the parking and

transportation situation at San Jose State is having a significant negative impact on the

lives of students, shows scope, intensity, and duration, and is an issue of public policy

that the students of SJSU have a reasonable expectation for the university to address. As

will be discussed further in the body of this paper, our group also sees this as an

opportunity for the university to address a larger global issue. SJSU has demonstrated a

track record of environmental initiatives intended to reduce the school’s impact on the

environment, such as the Environmental Resource Center, SJSU Sustainability Week,

and their waste diversion program that includes recycling and composting 88.6% of

waste created on campus (SJSU Environmental Resource Center). Therefore, the bulk of

the solutions and proposal we will investigate in this paper are aimed towards the goal of

increasing sustainable transportation options for San Jose State students. By doing this,

the university would not only be addressing the current problems of parking and

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transportation, they would also be investing in the sustainability of the university, which

is an appealing draw for many students, and also investing in the health of their students,

the city, and the environment in general.

How Have Other Public Agencies Addressed This Problem?

Parking and transit at universities is not a problem strictly limited to San Jose

State University. The problems of inadequate parking and limited public transportation

options are issues that plague many universities and urban cities. The fact that San Jose

State University is located in the heart of a bustling downtown area only seems to

exacerbate the problem.

In order to try to find solutions to our problem I have looked into what other

universities and urban cites have done. One of the problems that can cause parking

congestion is when there are more parking passes given out then there are available

spaces. This can lead to frustration and overcrowding when students are fighting for

parking spaces that will not accommodate all of them. This frustration is compounded by

the fact that parking permits are expensive, but even with all the money you pay for them

you are not guaranteed a parking spot.

Solutions at Other Universities

The following are examples of solutions that San Jose as well as other places

throughout the nation use and that may be options that we would like to use to solve our

parking issue. Many colleges have utilized parking garages like SJSU, but often they run

out of room to build and the only solution can be to build up. But how high is too high

and when does it become an issue of safety? Safety is not the only factor in building

more parking garages or adding levels to existing garages. The construction process can

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be extremely expensive and take several years for completion. Many universities do not

have the money or time allotted to tackle such a project.

Limiting parking options.

Some universities have gone a completely different route and banned student

parking on campus. Columbia University in New York is one of the schools

implementing this no parking for students program. They do have a few exceptions, such

as offering parking for handicapped students and for night classes. Columbia began this

program because they have no room to accommodate the parking garages they would

need for staff as well as students, but some universities are implementing this program

for other reasons. Duke University in North Carolina prohibits student parking for

aesthetic reasons. They think parking garages would change the appearance of their

school and want campus grounds to look prestigious instead of overrun with giant

concrete structures. These schools suggest that students utilize on-street parking around

the campus, which can be a nuisance to neighbors of the university.

Incentives for alternative transportation use.

Many universities have offered incentives to those students who do not use

parking. Students who bike to school do not have to pay parking fees and are also given

free places to safely lock-up their bikes. University of New Hampshire has started a free

program called the “Cat Cycles”. With this program a student can check out a bike for up

to a week to ride around campus, which helps to discourage them from parking their

vehicle on campus property. At the University of California Santa Barbara they pride

themselves on being a green campus, which in turn is also a solution to campus parking

issues. One way they accomplish this is through the Transportation Alternatives Program

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(TAP), which wants to make biking around campus a more comfortable and appealing

experience. They have safe bicycle lanes throughout campus as well as lockers provided

for those who need to store items.

Carpooling to school can also have benefits, not only for the environment but also

for students’ wallets. The University of Washington offers free parking to those who

carpool to school. It has decreased the amount of single-person parking permits by over

32% in the last ten years, which also reduces parking space congestion. It saves the

students who take advantage of the program $192 each quarter.

Off-site parking.

San Jose State, as well as Rice University in Texas, has off-site campus parking

lots with shuttles that run back and forth to various locations on campus. Rice seems to

have been very successful with this endeavor because they have more frequently running

shuttles. It has unfortunately been a complaint of some SJSU students that they have to

wait too long for the limited amount of shuttles available and many have deemed the off-

campus garages inefficient.

Solutions in Other Urban Areas

Using technology.

Some urban areas have come up with inventive solutions to parking problems,

which could benefit SJSU quite a bit since it could help the downtown area as well as the

college. Seattle has been using e-park to improve parking issues in their busier areas. E-

park “uses dynamic message signs to provide shoppers, visitors and tourists with real-

time space availability and direction from main access roads to available parking spaces”

(“Seattle.gov Department of Transportation,” 2010). The goal of these signs is to reduce

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the time people spend circling for parking spots, as well as to improve the traffic

congestion.

San Jose and other urban areas are beginning to utilize parking web pages on the

Internet. These web pages can offer maps of the area and where all types of parking are

located, parking rates, and most importantly up to date information on parking garages.

For example, the San Jose Downtown Parking web page lets you move your mouse over

the map and click over parking garages and it will give you an up to date amount of

parking spaces available. Like the e-park system they are hoping this will reduce circling

and congestion as well as give people the option to take public transportation if the

parking is too impacted.

Payment methods.

One of the most common parking practices in cities and urban areas are parking

meters, pay stations, and parking garages. These are mainly designed for short-term

parking for those users who are running quick errands and not for those who live or work

in the area. Pay stations have been making these spots more accessible for all by

accepting currency in bill form as well as some that allow credit card use. Parking

garages are often a better choice for those people who need to park for longer amounts of

time or for daily use. You can often purchase monthly passes or put money on smart

cards to be used for long periods of time. By purchasing for longer time frames you will

save more money than if you pay daily. Businesses in urban areas will often provide

passes or smart cards for employees.

Shared parking.

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Shared parking is another popular practice in busy areas. For example, parking

lots can share 50 spaces for a business that employees people over that amount, because

odds are that not every person will be there everyday. This lot can also share spaces with

businesses that run at a different set of hours like bars, theatres, or apartments whose

renters are often gone during the daytime hours. This can maximize the total use of the

lot and increase revenue to the city that is earned by a shared parking lot.

Urban planning for combined live-work spaces.

Urban areas that also provide different types of living structures like

condominiums, apartments, and houses also provide parking for these places. Often

times they have free parking spaces or lots, but as we are combining work and living

spaces we may run the risk of more congestion and less available parking. Although, if

someone lives and works in the downtown area they may be more apt to walk, bike, or

take public transportation to work or run errands. This also means they will not use

additional parking spaces other than their own, and for some living in urban areas, they

may not have a vehicle at all.

All of the universities and urban areas I looked into had some sort of public

transportation, but it may be costly for some or inconvenient to those who live in certain

areas. In the Bay Area we have our local bus and light-rail system that are run by the

VTA, as well as Caltrain, and BART. Even with all these options available they still may

be too pricey for some students to use or inconveniently located to where they live or

their travel destination.

Public Transportation Issues

The Eco-Pass

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When we originally started thinking of solutions to our problem, we came up with

two possible options. One factor in the lack of parking is the low numbers of students

using public transportation. The Eco-Pass allows people to take the VTA buses and light

rail for free). So we thought that one thing that would help the parking problem at the

university would be to partially subsidize BART and Caltrain passes. That way students

traveling from far away would not have to drive to the university. Another option we

came up with was to build another parking garage. This would provide the University

with a lot more parking spots, increasing the chances for students to find parking.

Subsidizing BART

We decided to research and compare the options of parking garages vs. public

transportation and see which one, if any, would be best to solve our parking problem. We

started off by looking into subsidizing BART and Caltrain in a similar way to the current

Eco pass system. Unfortunately, when it came to BART a couple problems presented

themselves. First off, BART does not have monthly passes; their payment system is pay

as you go. “BART fares are set with a mileage-based formula, therefore time-based

passes (e.g., weekly or monthly) are not available” (bart.com). The amount one pays

depends on the distance one travels. In addition, BART does not currently come to San

Jose, which means that anyone taking BART will still have to go pretty far out of their

way to get from a BART station to the University. Until BART comes to San Jose, a

route addition that is planned for the future, subsidizing it doesn’t seem to be an effective

choice for solving the current problems at SJSU.

Subsidizing Caltrain

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However, unlike BART, Caltrain does have passes that businesses and

universities can purchase. According to the Caltrain website, “The GO Pass program is

open to companies of any size. The total cost of participating in the 2011 GO Pass

program will be the greater of $155 per employee or $10,850. The cost is pro-rated if the

company joins the program for less than a full year” (Caltrain.com). The university has

about 30,000 students (sjsu.edu), which means that purchasing a GO Pass for every

student at the University would cost more than $4.5 million annually. This is a lot of

money to pay considering that not every student would need the GO Pass. Some students

would never need to take Caltrain, so it would not make sense for the university to pay

that much to subsidize it for every student. However, this does not mean that the

university should not subsidize it for those students who need it. This would make it

slightly different than the Eco-Pass in that the Eco-Pass applies to all students and this

would not. We suggest something along the lines of subsidizing the pass just for students

who need it. They could submit an application explaining that they need it. It would be

funded by an increase in student fees, or could be paid for by increasing the current price

for parking passes at San Jose State3. This would be much more effective and cost

efficient for the University.

Parking Garage Options

In relation to building another parking garage, there seemed to be quite a number

of complications. We researched how much it cost to build the 4th Street garage in

downtown San Jose in 2003. According to the fact sheet from the San Jose

Redevelopment Agency, the total cost for the project was $57.9 million

3 As mentioned previously, we’ve chosen to discuss the costs of each of our proposals in a separate section in the conclusion. This section will go into more detail about how we would pay for our proposal.

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(SJRedevelopment.org). Although our garage would be different, the cost would

probably be about the same, if not more. Estimates of the cost would need to account for

the fact that there is currently no space for the university to build a parking garage. That

means it would not only have to pay to build the garage but to buy out land around San

Jose State. In addition, real estate prices for the land that would need to be purchased

have probably also gone up over time.

After learning this information, we thought one possibility might be to build up.

We figured this way we would not have to buy out other land but it would serve the same

purpose of building a new garage, providing more parking spaces. However, the problem

with this is that it is not very safe to continuously build up. In addition, both building a

new garage and building off of an existing one would cause more problems in regards to

pollution and traffic congestion.

We attempted to contact members of San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency, the

developer for the 4th Street garage. We contacted Richard Keit, head of Industrial

Development Opportunities, and Christine Velasquez, head of Downtown San Jose

Business Improvement Programs. We contacted them for advice on building a new

garage or the possibility of building on to an existing one and how much it would cost.

However, they did not respond to our emails until after we had already come to

conclusions on our own. The information they did give us only reiterated what we had

already figured out in our research— that building another garage would be far too

complicated to be beneficial. They also reinforced our original assumption that building

onto existing parking garages could pose a safety risk. Unfortunately, we were not able to

get a quote from them about their estimate of the potential costs of such an operation.

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We tried contacting the parking services department for San Jose State to ask

them similar questions, but they never responded. Next we tried Calvin Worsnup, the

A.S. Director of Student Fee Affairs. We asked him for advice about which officials he

thought we could contact regarding these matters and he directed us to the Transportation

Solutions center on campus. However, the Transportation Solutions center was only able

to provide us with information about the current Eco-Pass. They told us what we already

knew, that the Eco-Pass was funded by student fees and provided free transportation for

students on all VTA buses and light rail. Considering the fact that all the experts we tried

to contact regarding this issue have failed to give us any valuable information in regards

to solving our problem, we decided to go with our best judgment about our options based

off of our own research.

After comparing all of our original options, none of them seemed as good as we

originally hoped. Building another garage would be too difficult, not to mention it would

not solve any short-term problems since it would take a while to build. Building on to an

existing garage would pose many of the same problems including the safety issue. Out of

the options that we researched, it seems that creating a system to subsidize Caltrain for

those students who specifically apply for the pass is the most feasible option.

Consulting the Experts

Transportation Demand Management

Our group has conducted several interviews and phone consultations with

professors from several universities and with a graduate student from San Jose State

University (SJSU) about SJSU’s parking issues and Transportation Demand Management

(TDM) systems. TDMs are policies to decrease car use and boost the practice of

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alternative transportation such as carpooling, public transit, walking, and bicycling

(Freeman 2010). The first individual that our group interviewed was Dennis Freeman, an

Urban Planning graduate student from San Jose State University. Transportation

Engineer and Planning Professor Eduardo Serafin from San Jose State University and

Kenneth Sulzer from University of California of San Diego were then reached through

the telephone respectively. Rachel He is a PhD Transportation Network Modeling

Professor from Santa Clara University that also contributed in enhancing and compiling

our proposal. Dennis Freeman was the first scholar that we interviewed and questions

such as what TDM practices are best used in the United States, and in other universities

asked.

According to Dennis Freeman, the best TDM used in the United States is in New

York City’s subway transit system (2010). New York City charges only four dollars to

travel from Brooklyn to Manhattan and offers riders a three to four minute wait time

(Freeman 2010). Most importantly, Freeman argues, is that New York’s high population

density and its compact city structure is susceptible to drastic traffic congestion (2010).

Therefore, this TDM practice is feasible because there is a demand for it (Freeman 2010).

The demand for public transit has also increased parking prices to a level where there is

no point to drive if alternative transportation is much more cost-effective (Freeman

2010).

Ironically, Freeman pointed out, the City of San Jose does everything backwards

when compared to New York City (2010). San Jose is a widespread city with low

population density and has great highway systems with wide roads within the city, which

in turn make it easy to drive (Freeman 2010). Making the automobile more accessible,

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San Jose’s parking comes cheap or even free in many areas such as in Santana Row and

on several curbside parking areas (Freeman 2010).

The Stanford Model

In contrast to San Jose’s parking codes and analogous to New York City’s TDM

approach, Stanford University in Palo Alto has carried out many successful strategies to

reduce their campus expansion and traffic congestion issues. Freeman states that Stanford

has the best transit system as a university in the whole country (2010). Stanford currently

charges their employees 726 dollars for parking permits on an annual basis for a type “A”

parking which is closest to campus. The other types, “B” and “C” are further away,

cheaper, and in high demand. Type “C” offers an annual parking permit of 282 dollars

(Freeman 2010). Daily passes for type “A” parking are 11 dollars and 4.50 dollars for

type “C”. In contrast, San Jose charges their employees only 81 dollars for semester

passes, or 162 dollars for the year (Freeman 2010).

Stanford University offers their employees a chance to join a commuter’s club

program called Clean Air Cash where they are forced to give up their parking permits, are

compensated 282 dollars, and are given cash rewards for proposing fellow staff and

faculty members to join. In the Clean Air Cash program, employees are awarded free

VTA Eco Passes and free Caltrain GO Passes, free rides on their local Marguerite Bus,

free reserved parking for carpool/vanpool, vanpool subsidies of up to 200 dollars a

month, Caltrain parking passes, zip-car credits, pretax payroll deductions for transit

passes, commuter checks, Enterprise Rent –A-Car vouchers, and daily parking vouchers

(Freeman 2010). Stanford’s Clean Air Cash program leads by example of great success.

Between the years 2002 and 2007, five years, driving to campus decreased by 28 percent

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and the use of Caltrain increased 342 percent (Freeman 2010). However, students do not

have the option of joining the Clean Air Cash program (Freeman 2010).

By comparison, SJSU lacks in several details to Stanford’s program. For

examples, employees must purchase an eco pass for 25 dollars every semester that only

provides service from Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)

(Freeman 2010). SJSU also offers a ride share program that allows employees and

students to carpool, a commuter check program that postpones employees up to 230

dollars a month to purchase public transportation tickets, and bicycle facilities (Freeman

2010).

Commuter Campuses

Subsequent to Freeman’s interview, we interviewed Eduardo Serafin through a

telephone consultation. Professor Serafin initiated the conversation by establishing that

SJSU is a commuter campus (2010). He recommended that students and employees

should park before peak hours. Typically, peak parking hours are between six through

eight in the morning and within four and six in the afternoon (Serafin 2010). To

encourage public transportation at San Jose State University (SJSU), the starting location

of a trip must be put into consideration because SJSU has a massive reach of students

(Serafin 2010). Origins of staff, faculty, and students are spread throughout 12 counties

surrounding Santa Clara County (Serafin 2010). Usually, the range of origins is about 50

miles (Serafin 2010). Therefore, many individuals at the peak of the 50 miles would have

to plan a two to three hour trip with three to four transfers of different transit systems and

modes (Serafin 2010). The inconvenience due to time, distance, hassles of transferring,

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and the aggregation of costs makes public transportation an unsuitable way to get to

SJSU campus. In essence, transit needs are poorly met by transit itself (Serafin 2010).

On the contrary, once Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) connects to downtown

San Jose, then SJSU commuters’ transit behavior will drastically change. Unlike Caltrain,

BART provides services to the East Bay. Caltrain only provides services to San Francisco

County, San Mateo County, and Santa Clara County (Serafine 2010). As a result,

individuals who have trouble taking public transportation from the East Bay will no

longer have that problem once BART is connected to San Jose (Serafin 2010). Serafin

added that once BART is established in San Jose, SJSU must be active with San Jose in

planning by creating a shuttle service directly to SJSU because the last mile is the most

crucial moment of someone’s trip (Serafin 2010). However, the first mile is as important

because both are determining factors of how punctual someone will be (Serafin 2010).

Alternatively, Serafin also suggested a Zipcar strategy for bicycles. Like the

Zipcar, people would purchase a card that allows access to a bicycle at any public

transportation station (Serafin 2010). He stated that bicycles are essential for Caltrain

travelers because of wide spread and low population-density areas such as San Jose

(Serafin 2010). Serafin did not recommend carpooling for SJSU for the reason that

commuter schools like SJSU have people who have busy work schedules that conflict

with others. However, he did not state that it should not be available or encouraged.

Transportation Pricing

Kenneth Sulzer from University of California, San Diego was another professor

our group spoke with by means of the telephone. Sulzer touched on pricing, UCSD’s

Transportation Demand Management (TDM) practice, taxes, and public outreach. Sulzer

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first started out with the topic of pricing. With pricing, he argued, one can be either

influenced or intimidated (2010). The most vital tool for parking is pricing (Sulzer 2010).

Since the issue of congestion is in parking garages at San Jose State University (SJSU),

Sulzer suggested to price people out of parking and to encourage peripheral parking lots

(park and ride) with a free internal SJSU bus system that runs on a frequent basis when

demand is at its peak, provides services throughout the day, and all days of the week

when classes are available (Sulzer 2010).

Sulzer spoke about University of California, San Diego’s transportation system.

He mentioned that year-long parking permits are extremely costly and that the pricing

mechanism depends on what is most convenient (Sulzer 2010). However, only 10 percent

of UCSD’s population makes up for public transit users (Sulzer 2010). The main reason

10% exists as public transit users is because UCSD has a subway system that stops

directly at UCSD making it substantially convenient (Sulzer 2010).

The main predicament of parking and traffic congestion is the vehicle. Kenneth

Sulzer pointed out that the cost of fuel is extremely cheap and the current gas tax level is

extensively low (Sulzer 2010). For over a decade, both state and federal gas taxes have

been 18 cents or 36 cents combined. For several regional areas, there is no sales tax for

gas, except in Santa Clara, but is cheap nonetheless (Sulzer 2010). Sulzer claimed that as

population increases, so does the demand for transportation, and therefore gas tax needs

to increase as well (Sulzer 2010). The gas tax money collected can then be funneled

directly into public transportation. Also, Sulzer stated that the United States does not

subsidize public transportation like several other countries such as Japan, England, and

China do (Sulzer 2010).

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Solutions are not viable if it is not sold or demonstrated to the public. Kenneth

Sulzer strongly adhered to promote public outreach about transportation solutions

through SJSU student body (Sulzer 2010). The student body, Sulzer points out, must

communicate with the SJSU population to come up with the right resolutions because

they are the ones being affected after all. SJSU affiliated individuals are the demand

(Sulzer 2010).

Flexible Scheduling

Rachel He was the last professor our group interviewed in person. He touched on

TDM procedures such as flexible class scheduling and carpooling and vanpooling.

Professor He felt that since SJSU’s peak hours are known, then the scheduling of classes

could be spread out. For instance, since SJSU’s typical peak congestion hours are from

six to eight in the morning and four to six in the afternoon, then perhaps distributing more

classes to late afternoon and early evening would create a constant, smooth flow of

parking instead of individuals infiltrating the parking garages all at one time (He 2010).

He highly encourages carpools and vanpools because the United States travel

demand for low population density areas pushes for vehicle use. Consequently, High

Occupancy Vehicle Lanes (HOV) need to be implemented throughout all the areas that

SJSU associated individuals will encounter (He 2010). With HOV, a lane that is specially

designed to be separated from the rest of the conventional lanes is available for people

who have more than one individual in a vehicle to avoid any traffic (He 2010). HOV

lanes will work only if SJSU provides an incentive for carpooling and vanpooling (He

2010). He suggests that SJSU should provide immense discounts or even free parking for

carpoolers and vanpoolers; reminiscent to Stanford University’s practices (He 2010).

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TDM at San Jose State

In terms of adopting Transportation Demand Management (TDM) practices for

San Jose State University (SJSU), it is vital to consider Stanford University as the main

option because of its great accomplishments. Stanford’s TDM Clean Air Cash program

included something that Professor Kenneth Sulzer from the University of California, San

Diego suggested and that is the manipulation of pricing. By increasing parking permits

prices at an astronomical level and offering free transit passes that included both Valley

Transportation Authority’s (VTA’s) Eco Pass and GO passes from Caltrain to their

employees, vehicle usage decreased at an alarming rate and Caltrain utilization increased

at an enormous figure in a matter of five short years. In addition, Stanford University

compensated their employees for joining the program and for recommending their

colleagues.

Stanford University also has a local Marguerite Bus that hauls students, staff, and

faculty in and out of campus, and to local public transportation stations. Caltrain parking

passes are issued to employees, zip-car credits are given to employees, and free

carpool/vanpool parking spaces are available at Stanford University due to

carpool/vanpool subsidies of up to 200 dollars a month. This proposal sounds costly, but

it is feasible with high demand of parking mixed in with demand mechanisms for pricing.

The substantial revenue obtained from parking permits can be transferred over to fund a

Clean Air Cash program for San Jose State University.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) should not be taken out of consideration, for

when it arrives to Downtown San Jose, San Jose State University, the main actor of this

proposal, should work closely with the City of San Jose to have a shuttle program that

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connects to campus. San Jose State is a commuter school and students and employees

come from all parts surrounding San Jose. BART serves all of the East Bay, San Mateo

County, and San Francisco County and for that reason, a transit pass that includes BART,

VTA, and Caltrain should be implemented to avoid increase in parking demand, parking

congestion, decrease in air quality, parking garage maintenance, and car dependency.

Free Carpool Parking

One part of our proposed solution would be to give students who carpool free

parking on campus. A carpool is defined as two or more persons driving together in a

privately owned vehicle. For those students who do not have any other option but to

drive to school this would help them save money, reduce their carbon footprint, and

hopefully allow them to be able to find easier parking by reducing congestion. If this

proposal is a success than it may mean less vehicles fighting for the limited 5,500 parking

spaces at San Jose State University. To be able to monitor the carpool parking and make

sure that every vehicle using it has 2 or more passengers, San Jose State University

(SJSU) has to hire parking attendants at the entrance to the designated carpool parking

area. In order to keep it contained they can begin by having the top floor of the South

garage as free carpool parking only. There must be at least two full time parking

attendants to monitor the entrance to this floor and enforce the two or more person a car

rule. If SJSU began with one floor of an existing parking garage, and hired two full time

attendants at minimum wage, then there would be a cost of roughly $30,000 a year.

Luckily, advertising this new parking incentive would be relatively free. The

majority of the advertising could be done over San Jose State’s web page as well as sent

out to each student through his or her MYSJSU email. There are free web pages such as

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511.org that help match potential carpoolers with people that are going to the same

destination or live in the same area. SJSU could work with a free website like 511.org, or

create one to match potential carpooling students. This would keep promotion of the

carpool program free or at a very minimal cost, so allotted money could go to other areas

of the proposal that need it more. If the carpool incentive becomes more popular they

could look into making the top floor of other garages reserved for this type of parking and

hire more attendants.

The actor in this proposal will be San Jose State University and the model of

University of Washington’s subsidized parking for car and vanpools will be used. As

was mentioned earlier in the paper, University of Washington was able to reduce the

purchase of parking permits by 32% in ten years, also reducing parking lot congestion.

The aim is to force students at San Jose State to choose to carpool and get free parking

instead of buying costly single person parking permits. This will hopefully lower the

amount of vehicles that park on campus. San Jose State sells about 13,000 parking

permits each year, with 6,000 being semester permits. If it is feasible to reduce it by

30%, the amount of semester permits could decrease to about 4,200 students who use

non-carpool parking spaces. This coupled with our other proposed solutions could reduce

vehicle parking at SJSU even further. We will discuss financing the money for this and

the two other proposed solutions later in the paper.

Providing Incentives for Bike Commuters

Along with increasing incentives for carpooling, our group also proposes

developing incentives for bicycle commuting. While public transportation use and

carpooling both cut back on carbon emissions, commuting by bike produces zero

23


emissions, so the use of this mode of transportation should be encouraged. The

importance of providing incentives for bike commuting in any program to reduce carbon

emissions is just beginning to be understood. In 2009, a qualified bike commuting

reimbursement was added to the package of transportation fringe benefits that are

provided as part of the Renewable Energy Tax Credit that passed in 2008 (League of

American Bicyclists). This addition allows corporations to provide bike-commuting

employees with vouchers to cover the cost of a commuter bike and other expenses

associated with commuting by bicycle, and deduct the cost from their tax liability.

While this addition demonstrates that public awareness of the importance of bike

commuting is growing, it is not currently an option for universities who wish to take

advantage of it. As the University of California Office of the President explains, because

universities are not corporations, they have no tax liability from which to deduct the cost

of this benefit (Takemoto-Weerts, 2010). Therefore, if universities such as SJSU wanted

to implement such a program, they would have to fund it themselves. One potential

policy solution to this problem is introducing an amendment to the federal legislation that

would allow universities to take advantage of the benefits. In February of 2009,

Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced an amendment which would allow

employees of universities and other employers without tax liability to fund their bike

commuting costs through pre-tax income (LOAB). However, this bill was referred to

Ways and Means and no action has been taken on it since it was introduced. Although

this bill is at the federal level and so somewhat outside the scope of this project, it

remains an excellent policy proposal for incentivizing bicycle commuters.

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The League of American Bicyclists (LOAB) has developed a tool for assessing

how bike-friendly communities and universities are. Currently, SJSU isn’t even ranked,

and the city of San Jose is very low in the rankings. This points to our next proposal: the

university should work with the city of San Jose to increase the area’s bike-friendliness.

LOAB bases their ratings on five categories: Engineering, Education, Encouragement,

Enforcement, and Evaluation. The only area for which the city of San Jose was

recognized was Engineering. This acknowledgement signifies that the city of San Jose

has a Bicycle Master Plan, which includes steps taken to accommodate bikes on public

roads, and there is decent connectivity between bike paths and lanes in order to navigate

San Jose. In the other four categories, San Jose is failing, which includes education

programs for cyclists, drivers, and traffic enforcement officers on cyclist rights and

responsibilities, events in the community to encourage cycling, Safe Routes to School

programs, availability of bike maps, evaluation metrics for the effectiveness of current

cycling programs, and more. There are a number of ways for the city of San Jose to

improve their bike-friendliness. One simple policy solution that has worked in other

communities (LOAB) is to include more information about cyclist safety and rights in the

state driver’s test. At the local level, training for law enforcement and traffic enforcement

officers should include information about the bike laws in the state and city, and the

rights and responsibilities of cyclists. All of these things make bike commuting safer,

which encourages a greater number of people to choose this option.

The same categories used to evaluate cities are used (in a slightly altered form) to

evaluate universities, and these provide some insight into steps the university could take.

Because SJSU already has a Transportation Solutions office that is tasked with increasing

25


use of alternative transportation among university students and employees, this office

would be the recommended actor for most of these policy suggestions. These suggestions

focus on slightly expanding the responsibilities of the Transportation Solutions office, but

probably not to the point of necessitating a new hire. The Transportation Solutions office

should work with the city of San Jose to create a bike map of the area for commuters to

use. This would not only give cyclists more information about the safe paths available to

them, but it would also highlight routes and neighborhoods that are lacking these safe

paths and potentially point the city towards areas where new bike lanes need to be

constructed. The Transportation Solutions office should also work with the campus police

to make sure that the bicycle lock-up units on campus are being routinely checked

throughout the school day4. Furthermore, SJSU could coordinate with bike clubs on

campus to improve the visibility of cycling in the campus culture, potentially through

events like a Bike to School Week.

Finally, there is one solution that comes up most frequently on listservs and

discussions about bicycle commuting (LOAB, bikeforums.net, bicyclecrazy.com, etc.).

They recommend having a facility on campus where bike commuters can shower, store

their clothing, and have access to other biking services and information. At San Jose

State, there is a wide range of possibilities for how this solution could manifest itself. At

the lower cost end, it could be as simple as giving qualified bike commuters free access

to a locker in the Event Center Health Club locker rooms, where they could shower upon

arriving at campus and store their belongings. If many bike commuters chose this option,

4 Incidentally, although San Jose State does provide four of these bicycle lock-up units on campus to increase bicycle storage safety, the locks are often out of order. In good weather, they are always full, along with the bike racks available, so students are forced to lock their bikes to trees and lamp-posts, which is technically grounds for having your bike impounded.

26


this could potentially necessitate expansion of the lockers available, but to begin with it

could rely largely on the facilities and resources already in place5.

If the adoption of this policy was successful, it could be expanded to building a

Bike Center on campus. This facility could include such things as lockers, showers, bike

storage, a place to buy bike accessories like locks and helmets, an on-site bike mechanic,

and bike rentals for students and staff of the university. This type of center has been

created at a number of universities throughout the country such as CSU Monterey Bay,

Michigan State University, and UC Santa Cruz6. At all of these universities, the bike

center is run through a committee like the Transportation Solutions at San Jose State

University, and is funded through fees similar to SJSU’s Associated Students Fees.

Transit Pass Voucher

Along with carpooling and bicycling solutions, public transportation is another

vital component in improving parking at SJSU. Therefore, building another parking

garage is not the best option to go with, but subsidizing for Bay Area Rapid Transit

(BART) and Caltrain for all students aren’t either. However, there is a solution that is a

combination of these elements. The university could purchase Go Passes only for

students who need to take Caltrain. This would be cheaper because the amount of Go

Passes the University would have to buy would be greatly reduced. They can do this in

the same manner that they subsidize the Eco-Pass. In addition, the possible solution of

raising the cost of parking around campus can help to pay for this as well as our other

5 The potential costs of this policy, although marginal, will be discussed at the end of our section on policy proposals, as are all of the potential costs discussed in this portion.6 Information about the types of amenities offered at these centers was gathered from the following websites: http://transportation.csumb.edu/biking; http://bikes.msu.edu/; http://bikecoop.ucsc.edu

27

http://bikecoop.ucsc.edu/

http://bikes.msu.edu/

http://transportation.csumb.edu/biking


proposals. Students who need a GO Pass would submit an application to verify where

they live. This would help to bring down the amount of drivers trying to find parking at

SJSU and would therefore reduce traffic congestion.

In terms of adopting TDM practices at SJSU Stanford’s accomplishments are an

admirable model. Stanford’s Clean Air Cash program included something that Professor

Sulzer suggested: the manipulation of pricing. By increasing parking permit prices and

offering free transit passes that includes both the Eco Pass and GO passes from Caltrain

to their employees, vehicle usage decreased significantly and Caltrain utilization also

increased in a matter of five years. In addition, Stanford University compensated their

employees for joining the program and for recommending their colleagues.

Stanford also has a local bus that hauls students and staff in and out of campus

and to local public transportation stations. Caltrain parking passes and Zip-car credits are

given to employees, and free carpool parking spaces are available at Stanford due to

carpool/vanpool subsidies of up to 200 dollars a month. This proposal sounds costly, but

it is feasible with high demand of parking mixed in with demand mechanisms for pricing.

The substantial revenue obtained from parking permits can be transferred over to fund a

Clean Air Cash program for San Jose State University. However, subsidizing carpool/

vanpool is the most viable solution for SJSU.

BART must not be taken out of consideration, for when it arrives to Downtown

San Jose at some point in the future, SJSU must work closely with the City of San Jose to

have a shuttle program that connects to campus. Like Professor Serafin mentioned, San

Jose State is a commuter school and students and employees come from all parts

surrounding San Jose. BART serves all of the East Bay (Contra Costa County and

28


Alameda County), San Mateo County, and San Francisco County and for that reason, a

free transit pass that includes BART as well as VTA and Caltrain must be implemented

to avoid increase in parking demand, parking congestion, decrease in air quality, costs to

maintain parking garages, and automobile dependency.

Most importantly, San Jose State’s Associated Students should prioritize fixing

the issues of parking congestion by creating rewards (free transit passes) and deprivations

(increased parking permit prices) from its inputs of demand (less parking congestion) and

supports (public transportation services). Also, as Professor Sulzer pointed out, the

Student Body should market the issue and have SJSU’s parking predicaments and

solutions disclosed at all times to meet the public’s demands and supports.

The total costs to this proposal would be an aggregation of $90,000 annually for

carpooling incentives because there are three SJSU parking garages and $5,274,185 a

year to provide San Jose State University (SJSU) with GO passes (5,364,185). However,

increasing parking permit prices can substantially decrease these costs. For example,

there are 3,027 employees at San Jose State University and they are allowed to pay $162

for annual parking passes (Freeman 2010). If SJSU charges employees a price of what

Stanford University charges of for their employees ($726) and assuming only half of

these individuals (1,514), purchase parking permits, SJSU would gain a total of

$1,099,164. This would bring the total costs down to $4,265,021.

There are about 31,000 students who attend SJSU. SJSU students currently pay

$384 dollars annually for parking permits (Freeman 2010). Assuming half of the SJSU

students use parking permits (15,500), SJSU would receive $5,952,000 annually.

Increasing the parking permits for students by a $100 will allow SJSU to have revenue of

29


$1,550,000 and revenue of $3,100,000 if permit parking prices were to increase by $200.

With the deduction of $1,550,000 ($100 increase) from total costs of $4,265,021 our

proposal (deducted from employee parking revenues), the difference would be

$2,715,021 and $1,165,021 with the $200 increase.

Finally, not all students will be using Caltrain as mentioned many of times. This

fact reduces the costs to a quarter of the actual costs if the University only provides

passes to faculty, staff, and students who live in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.

25 % of $5,274,185 for GO passes account for $1,318,546.25 and a total cost of

$1,408,546.25 with the carpooling incentives ($90,000). Therefore, if steps are taken to

find legitimate Caltrain users, the costs cut down substantially and an employee parking

price increase like Stanford’s model and a small parking permit price increase for

students is easily feasible. If SJSU wants to push for more solutions our group has

presented, the student parking permit pricing can be increased at a minimal level.

30


Appendix A

Survey Results

1) Do you drive to SJSU? Yes: 66 No: 34

2) If yes, on average how long does it take you to find parking? 0-15 min: 45 20-30 min: 12 30+: 9

3) If you take public transport to SJSU, what do you use?VTA (Bus/ Lightrail): 26Caltrain: 2BART: 1Walk/Bike: 7

4) If you don’t take public transport to SJSU, why not? Too much $: 5 Ride takes too long: 26 Not convenient to my home: 23 Other: 6 Not a convenient time: 3

5) On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = don’t care, 5 = very frustrated), how do you feel about the parking situation at SJSU? 1: 15 2: 10 3: 28 4: 28 5: 19

6) On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = don’t care, 5 = very frustrated), how do you feel about the public transportation options for SJSU? 1: 15 2: 16 3: 32 4: 24 5: 13

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paper ID: 163863276

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project citizen

Documents

issue of parking

parking situation

parking space

term sjsu parking

evidence of parking

san jose state youtube

ongoing parking problems

san jose state students1