In 2023, 65% of the over 30,000 undergraduate students at the University of Georgia relied on personal or public transportation to commute to campus. There are currently 19,000 parking spots available, with more being added each year to accommodate the growing student population.
In addition to the 900 spaces introduced in 2022, last year UGA created 1,300 parking spots at the STEM deck, park-and-ride lots on College Station Road and at the Softball Complex, the former Holiday Inn property, the Veterinary Medicine lot and the Hull Street Deck, with permits ranging from $10–40 a month. Despite the construction of these new spaces, UGA Transportation and Parking Services (TPS) were only able to fulfill 78% of all permit requests, an 11% decrease from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
With parking in higher demand, enforcement is getting stricter, extending another hour until 6 p.m. for many lots. South Deck entry now requires the student IDs of permit holders instead of the basic hang tags previously issued. The change adds a level of difficulty for students seeking to sell or exchange their parking passes, which has always been prohibited. North Deck and Tate Deck switched from physical tags to a license plate recognition system.
While parking expansion feels like a never-ending project on UGA grounds, the Georgia Institute of Technology is embracing the opposite route. Tech’s new Comprehensive Campus Plan, launched in November, details the goal of a “car-free campus core” to cultivate a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly environment. Tech projects a 26% increase in on-campus students, faculty and staff over the next decade.
Could UGA follow suit? With an average walkability score of 27 out of 100, Athens is considered a car-dependent location, and most errands require a vehicle. Though limited, UGA has made attempts at promoting alternative forms of transportation, such as biking, public transit and carpooling, to reduce traffic on campus. For instance, TPS created the Alternative Transportation Program to incentivise the use of such travel modes. The program issues special permits allowing for free days of parking in designated locations. In partnership with Lyft, there is also the option of UGA Ride Smart, a program that gives students a 50% discount (up to $7.50 per use) on qualifying rides. However, it is only applicable on up to four rides a month.
For getting around campus, UGA offers the Bulldog Bike Share service. These GPS-enabled, electric pedal-assist bikes are available for rent at multiple hubs across campus. Individuals can pay directly through the Lyft app—$1 to unlock the bike and $0.25 per minute of use. Last year, over 15,000 total trips were taken with Bulldog Bikeshare.
If one prefers to have their own bike, they can sign up for UGA reCYCLE, a need-based bicycle recycling and redistribution program developed by TPS, UGA Office of Sustainability and local nonprofit BikeAthens. This program collects abandoned bikes found on campus and refurbishes them for UGA students and employees in need. All requests are handled on a first-come, first-served basis. Students can obtain a referral from Student Care and Outreach as well as the Fanning Institute.
UGA’s Campus Transit is another prominent transportation mode for students. Students can track buses on the system’s 12 routes live using UGA’s mobile app. With ridership and fleet size second only to MARTA in the state of Georgia, Campus Transit carries a greater volume of passengers than any other university transit system in the country. According to TPS, approximately 4.3 million people utilized the service in the 2020 fiscal year. After a steep decline due to the pandemic, ridership rose back to 2.5 million in 2022 and 2.9 million in 2023.
“Numbers indicate a slow and steady climb toward former ridership numbers, and our data suggests that ridership is expected to increase for FY24,” TPS stated over email.
Aside from biking and buses, the use of electric scooters is also on the rise. E-scooters, like bikes and skateboards, must follow all traffic rules and keep off of sidewalks. After the pandemic, more students have been purchasing their own e-scooters, but this isn’t the first time that e-scooters have been spotted in Athens. Five years ago, shareable e-scooters from companies like Bird and Lime did exist in the city. Unfortunately, the system was largely unregulated, and people would dump their scooters in random locations, cluttering the streets. The Athens-Clarke County Commission passed a temporary ban shortly after, leading up to a permanent ban in 2020. At the time, UGA confiscated over 1,000 e-scooters. While shareable scooters probably won’t be back any time soon, there is clearly a resurgence of the device on campus.
When asked about the efforts made to reduce campus traffic, UGA told Flagpole that it clearly advocates for the use of alternative transportation. Students are informed of these options through UGA’s website, social media and orientations. Meanwhile, nearly half of the $8.5 million investment for enhancing campus security is going toward outdoor lighting upgrades and security cameras to improve safety for pedestrians. UGA also stated that it has been working with Athens-Clarke County to establish a fiber optic network to consolidate traffic signals around campus into ACC’s own grid system. Other projects underway include the construction of pedestrian pathways around the I-STEM research buildings, paths from D.W. Brooks Mall to Barrow Hall and the new Poultry Science Building, an East Campus Greenway Connector (between East Campus and North Oconee Greenway) and a new traffic signal at the intersection of East Campus Road and Hooper Street.
Regardless of the endeavors promoting alternative transportation, parking expansion is not slowing down. The West Campus Parking Deck II has already been approved by the Board of Regents and will be completed in 2025. It will be 340,000 square feet with approximately 1,100 parking spaces. The budget for this deck is nearly $36 million, and it intends to serve residential communities along Baxter and Lumpkin streets. A new park-and-ride near the Veterinary Teaching Hospital is also in progress, with another 300–400 spaces.
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