Cars parked in G lot, September 26, 2007.
Dave Londres

Urban Design Plan Enters Third Stage

On April 14th and 15th, Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) held open focus groups presenting proposals made for improvements to parking and transportation on campus. The focus groups were held in cooperation with national consultants Martin Alexiou Bryson (MAB), a transportation and traffic engineering firm, and Cooper, Robertson & Partners (CRP), an urban planning firm. These latest proposals represent the third phase in a strategic planning initiative by PATS, to improve how students, faculty and staff move to and around campus. This third phase comes after open forums, held in March, where students and faculty were invited to share concerns and problems with the current systems.

With the growth of the RIT student population in mind, parking problems took the forefront of the discussion. According to MAB, RIT has run out of usable land for parking lots, citing RIT’s commitment to maintain a certain amount of wetland area. Among other options, MAB’s proposal for new parking garages received the most attention.

“Knowing that we had significant environmental constraints with building surface lots, the only way to meet that desire...is to consider parking garages,” said Paula Benway, Associate Director of PATS. “If you look at the future growth that the university will be undergoing in the next 5 to 10 years, we have some very difficult decisions to make. We’ll have a significant demand for additional parking and somehow or another, we’ll have to address that.”

Student reactions were mixed toward the idea of parking garages, with many concerned about the cost of garage spaces. “As a commuter student...I’m already poor...costs really add up,” said Aeryn Daboin, a fourth year New Media Design major. She noted that many of her friends already pay for reserved passes.

Other ideas presented at the focus groups included new bus lines, designed to better serve the demands of on-campus transportation. These lines would ferry students between apartment complexes and the center of campus. However, even with improved schedules and more convenient routes, some residential students, like Jonha Smith, a second year Illustration major living in a Colony Manor apartment, said they would still drive to class. “I just feel comfortable in my car,” said Smith, who says he bought a reserved pass.

CRP’s section of the presentation focused on the urban design aspect of the planning initiative. Their recommendations included landscaping features in parking lots to cut down on wind gusts, and how to better improve pedestrian flow on the Quarter Mile. One suggestion addressed the need for a more solid connection between the residential and academic sides of campus, with a new tunnel spanning the area between the Student Life Center and buildings 28 and 30.

The final proposal, the fourth phase of the initiative, will be presented to the RIT community in May, for review and critique, according to Benway. Once the community has made suggestions, PATS will begin drawing up a plan during the summer to present to the Administration.