Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) is planning a comprehensive strategy for automobile, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic for the next five to ten years. As part of this strategy, PATS plans on soliciting input from the RIT community at a series of public meetings.

Jonathan Maurer, Director of Business Operations for Global Risk Management Services, said an overall plan was needed, because “all of the pieces of moving people, including parking for cars, shuttle buses, walkways, enclosed tunnels, and bicycle and skateboard paths are interrelated.” He said, “The Urban Design strategy would look at the intersection of parking and transportation and all of these pathways.”

“We’re looking for sustainable, long-term solutions,” said Director of Parking and Transportation Paula Benway. “Once somebody gets here, they should be able to traverse the entire campus without a vehicle, no matter how the weather is, whether it’s 80 degrees in July or 10 degrees in February.” Maurer agreed, saying, “There’s a big difference between a car culture and skateboard and bike paths... That’s not a decision PATS will make on its own, but something that all members of the community will have to come to a consensus on.”

PATS hired the national design firm Martin Alexiou Bryson of North Carolina to come up with a final plan. The company requested information including the current shuttle bus schedule; a map of walkways, bicycle paths, and tunnels; and statistics on parking. The firm will also be provided information gathered from RIT students, faculty, and staff at a series of open houses.

“The first open house will be an opportunity for members of the community where we will be asking people what we are doing well, and what we can improve,” said Maurer. “We can build remote lots or tunnels. We can do more with tunnels. We can put in bicycle or skateboard paths... Is it worthwhile to start connecting the tunnels [between the academic side and the residential side]? There are a lot of things we could do, but because we have limited resources we have to make very discerned choices about what we want to do.”

RIT also faces an additional environmental challenge. According to Benway, due to wetlands legislation, “nothing of significance” can be built on land in the center of campus that is not already developed. Instead, future growth will probably take place on a tract north of Bailey Road. “That would be somewhat incontiguous with the main campus we know today,” she said.

“At the second meeting, we’ll have a better sense of what the costs are,” said Mauer. That meeting will be devoted to finding out, “What is the willingness of people to pay for these things?” he said. By the third meeting, Mauer said, PATS hopes to have a draft of the strategy to show to RIT. Mauer said that he plans to have the draft ready by May, although he said that the strategy may not be finalized until fall of next year.

The first set of open house meetings, which are open to all at RIT, will take place over two days in the Fireside Lounge. The first day will be March 17 at 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. and again from 3:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. More meetings are scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. the following day.