Binghamton University’s Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) began offering a new car-pooling initiative to faculty, staff and commuting students on Oct. 24 that allows vehicles carrying multiple passengers to receive a free day pass for paid parking.
To receive a free pass, car-poolers have to stop by the information booth upon entering campus. Only vehicles with a current parking permit are eligible and the vehicle must be carrying three or more passengers with valid BU ID cards. In addition, only the first 20 vehicles to meet these criteria will receive free parking for the day. The pass will be valid for the day and will allow drivers to park in either a paid lot on campus or the parking garage by the Couper Administration Building .
The car-pooling program comes amid a wave of complaints about the relative lack of convenient parking on campus. Susan Crane, director of parking services, said that it is intended to help reduce the amount of traffic on campus, as well as provide incentives to carpool.
“We are trying to provide services that will decrease the amount of vehicles that need to park during peak times,” Crane said. “This is also an effort to become more sustainable.”
David Husch, director of transportation services, said he hopes that the new incentive, combined with continued regular commuter use and improvement of the Off Campus College Transport (OCCT) and Broome County Transit (BCT) bus systems, will help make parking more accessible on campus.
“The more people that utilize these alternative methods, the more traffic and parking congestion … will be alleviated,” Husch said.
There is no end date to the program and Crane has stated that the limit will stay at 20 cars per day. However, there is the possibility of expansion in the future if the program becomes popular with commuters.
Despite the incentive, many students are still concerned with parking availability. Kenta Tanimoto, a junior majoring in English, said that he thought the program needed to be expanded to more than 20 vehicles.
“The incentive is nice, but it’s very limited,” Tanimoto said. “It’s such a small number of vehicles that for most people it will not be beneficial. It needs to be expanded to be effective.”
Emily Chu, a senior majoring in English, was also skeptical of the new incentive and said that the program will mainly benefit early commuters since they are more likely to be one of the first 20 vehicles.
“Too many people commute,” Chu said. “This new program only helps people with early morning classes.”
As for the prospect of more parking, it is possible that TAPS will be implementing new parking soon to meet the growing demands of commuters. Brian Favela, the executive director of transportation and parking, said that TAPS is currently working with BU administrators to plan and approve a location for additional parking.
“Once a decision has been made, we will update the Binghamton University community,” Favela said.
In the meantime, some commuters are optimistic about the new program. Austin Ward, a junior majoring in computer science, said that he will be gathering a group of his friends to carpool from Downtown Binghamton to the University.
“The new incentive is fantastic,” Ward said. “It forces people to carpool, which will help reduce congestion. I am definitely going to start utilizing it.”