In the late 1990s, Stanford University found a way to trim the mounting costs of providing a high quality education: Pay university staff to leave their cars parked at home. Locally, Northwestern Michigan College recently unveiled a new master plan, which calls for an additional 244 parking spaces to accommodate an expanding technical education program and double the amount of student housing. Are there any lessons local college officials can learn from the California university?
Traverse City will welcome two special guests for next Tuesday’s Getting Transportation to Work Commuter Summit. Mary Sell is the Commuter Services Specialist for GetDowntown Ann Arbor, and Jeff Tumlin is a national transportation expert and parking guru.
Efforts to make the area along M-22 north of Traverse City a coastal town center have focused on moving cars, not moving people.
With approximately 5,200 students enrolled at NMC, and with many commuting by car, some are exploring better ways to help alleviate the transportation burdens the spread-out region’s young people bear.
What if neighborhoods allowed anyone to park on their streets, charged a fee, then used the money to make improvements in their communities? The money could be used for sidewalk repair, installing streetlights, or making changes to roadways to encourage safer, slower driving.