West Virginia University has approved a new Transportation and Parking plan that includes recommendations to promote alternative transportation and further foster relationships with other transportation agencies.
Narvel Weese, vice president for Administration and Finance, said the plan’s recommendations were proposed by the Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee—a University-wide group which spent the fall 2011 semester reviewing and modifying recommendations from the original 2007 Plan. The plan recommends strategies to improve transportation and parking challenges.
“We are constrained by the amount of parking we can provide for employees, students, and visitors, so we have to be creative with alternatives to these challenges,” Weese said. “We’ve made significant strides over the past few years but know there are still additional things that we need to accomplish.”
Considerable progress has been made in addressing transportation and parking concerns since the adoption of the 2007 Transportation and Parking Plan. Most notably, a new Intermodal facility, Mountaineer Station, was constructed and opened in the fall of 2009. The facility promotes a variety of alternative transportation modes. The University has also hosted new transportation opportunities on campus such as Zipcar, an online carpool matching program called Zimride, and a vanpool program for employees.
Hugh Kierig, Director of Transportation and Parking, said “WVU’s efforts to improve transportation and parking further the goals of the University’s 2020 Strategic Plan. It is our sense that with this current plan we have identified areas that will see significant improvement as we move forward.”
Recommendations in the plan cover areas such as fostering and maintaining relationships with other appropriate transportation agencies and promote alternative transportation to meet the needs of students and employees. The WE Go! Campaign for Alternative Transportation encourages the use of alternative transportation that includes not only the PRT and public transit but also car-sharing programs, biking, and walking.
The Transportation and Parking Plan and a full list of the recommendations can be found at the transportation and parking website at http://transportation.wvu.edu/.
-WVU-
CONTACT: Hugh Kierig, director of Transportation and Parking
304-293-9095, Hugh.Kierig@mail.wvu.edu
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