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News :: Miscellaneous |
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We must Take Drastic Action on Campus Traffic Situation |
Current rating: 0 |
by George R. Carlisle, Jr.
Email: carlisle (nospam) soltec.net (unverified!)
Phone: 217/367-2506
Address: 406 East Green, Apt. 102, Urbana, IL 61802 |
26 Aug 2001
Modified: 27 Aug 2001 |
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What we need to do in order to reduce traffic and parking congestion on the University of Illinois Campous and Campustown Shopping District, in light of the current dwindling supplies of petroleum resources. |
WE MUST TAKE DRASTIC ACTION ON CAMPUS TRAFFIC SITUATION
August 25, 2001
George Richard Carlisle, Jr.
We have a growing problem with traffic on the University of Illinois campus, and Campustown Shopping
District, and already, just this week, as students have returned, it appears to have become substantially worse than in past years.
I agree that there is difficulty finding place to park on campus. I am not a student, but I do have certain shopping needs in Campustown that cannot be readily met elsewhere. I shoot color slide photography, and slide film is becoming increasingly harder to find. I used to be able to buy it at farm and Fleet or K-Mart, but they no longer carry it. Some other stores, if they carry it at all, only carry 24-exposure rolls, and 36-exposure rolls are more economical. In many smaller towns, only color print film is available. Kodachrome film is being phased out, and it is generally only available at camera stores. I therefore rely on Bates Camera for my film needs, both to purchase film and have it processed. So I have special needs to travel to Campustown , at least on a weekly basis. .
My Internet Service provider, Soltec.net, is next door, so it is convenient for me to make my monthly payment there, saving a stamp and envelope, when I am parked back of Bates anyway, to pick up or drop off film
I still smoke a pipe occasionally. The only tobacco I like is the pungent Latakia blend \"Smoking Mixture\" available only at Jon\'s Pipe Shop, also in Campustown. If I am in need of tobacco, I also try to buy it when I am otherwise in Campustown.
Figaro\'s has the best selection of Classical music Compact Discs, and they too, are in Campustown, so I do have shopping needs there when I want music compact discs. .The University bookstores also have some items not available elsewhere, such as the calendars and the student-staff directories.
But it has been increasingly more difficult to go to Campustown on account of the traffic. When I had film to pick up or drop off, and it was during a football game, the blockade of traffic made it all but impossible to reach Bates Camera, but at least they have parking out back. But I recall there was still no place to park, as many people decided to have a pizza at Papa Del\'s after the game, so the parking lot was full. On-street parking nearby is always full whenever the University is in session. Sometimes I have to feed a dime into the meters north of the old Burnham City Hospital building if free on-street parking, and the customer parking lots behind the businesses, are otherwise unavailable, when I am doing business in Campustown .
We must face the fact that we do not have the capacity to handle so many cars in the Campustown area. We need more frequent bus service from outlying areas. Most routes, other than on-campus, run only at half-hourly intervals. We need more frequent service during rush hour, particularly. That is an extremely expensive proposition in cities the size of Champaign-Urbana, whereas it may be feasible in a large city, as Chicago. We would need to have additional funding, such as an annual sticker fee levied on cars and trucks in order to make this possible. What with property tax caps in effect, we cannot expect to be able to fund more frequent service with the present property tax levy of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.
It will take much more funding in order to install the proposed light rail system on campus and the \"CUMMUTE\" trolley, from outlying communities, using existing lightly used rail lines west of Champaign, as envisioned by David Monk in the July 4 Parade. (The crude float was still in the former baggage room of the old Champaign Illinois Central railroad station, as of August 24, 2001)
Building more and more parking garages is also very costly and will only encourage more and more cars to jam the streets of the campus and nearby areas. We must take drastic action to reduce use of personal motor vehicles in this area. An effort toward this effect was with the University’s offering subsidized bus passes to those faculty and staff who agreed not to rent a parking space on campus. However, the half-hourly frequency is inconvenient for many and service is out of reach for those living in outlying communities and even in many parts of Champaign-Urbana. The idea was a sound one, that fewer parking spaces rented would make possible construction ofm ewer parking garages and surface lots. But we needed more frequent and expanded transit service in order for this to work well, nevertheless, a number of people exercised this option. Meanwhile, parking rental rates escalated substantially. Payroll deduction was instituted for faculty-staff, because it was difficult for some to pay the annual rental fee in advance.
There was also talk of van-pool service, but this never materialized. That might have been more practical for some offices not on as many bus routes and where enough employees desiring to participate lived in the same general direction from their workplaces to make it feasible. When oil prices declined, the idea was dropped. Perhaps we need to reconsider it now.
The price of gasoline is only going up, and it will more and more, as supplies of petroleum dwindle and secondary and tertiary recovery of wells exhausted of primary-recovery petroleum must be reactivated. I cannot blame the OPEC countries for cutting back on production. They are trying to protect their own future. Otherwise, they could be \"out of business\" in 25 years or so. I wonder how many of the students, now congesting the streets of the campus with their cars, polluting the air and exhausting our precious resources, will still be alive the day when the last drop of petroleum is consumed. What will we do then? Mine the landfills for discarded plastic pop bottles to re-refine into petroleum?
Although gasoline prices are escalating, perhaps one cent per gallon surcharge should be imposed, similar to an agricultural commodity checkoff plan, to fund research for alternative fuel sources.
I was talking with one, who was running for a local office ,at an Illinois Student Environmental Network function last spring. I wondered how we could possibly endure a rationing of fuel like we had in World War II? That was before my time, but I have heard about it secondhand. Somehow, with an allocation of only five gallons per week for the average person. people pulled together and survived. I know my parents did not have much of a honeymoon when they got married. My father was drafted during his sophomore year at the University of Illinois. During the war he received a short furlough in the fall of 1945 to help harvest on the farm near Carthage, IIlinois and tacked the wedding on to that. They were able to only go to the campus here for a brief honeymoon in an aging car, \"Old Mehitabel.\" Tires were rationed and people patched old ones to make do.
Everyone seemed to have pulled together and made the necessary sacrifices for us to win the war. Nowadays, I am appalled at the things students throw away when they move. I have salvaged many items like that. Many of my ordinary household items and utensils are such salvaged materials. . Some such items I contribute to fundraising rummage sales.
When I see all that waste, I do not think that an annual impact fee for motor vehicles is out of line, if such fee would fund better Mass Transit Service and other infrastructure required to keep the vehicle congestion under control.
Parking fees are an issue, but perhaps we need such a stiff fee to pay just to drive a car that enough will find other transportation, and so parking will not be such a problem. We do not have the space in the older parts of town and Campustown for more traffic lanes nor additional surface parking lots. That is the issue we are having the most difficulty getting across to the motorists, that there simply is not enough parking space, not traffic lane capacity to go around, and buildings and other physical barriers preclude any economically feasible increase in capacity.
We need to consider other ways to restrict the number of cars students bring to Campus. I would like to see a lottery system, similar to ticket lotteries to Assembly Hall or Foellinger Auditorium events, to reduce the number of students to keep cars on campus. We must, of curse, accommodate special needs students, such as all those eligible for handicapped parking permits. These should be exempt from all such impact fees, provided that the handicapped designation is legitimate, such as proof from a medical practitioner and cross-checking with authorities registering vehicles for handicapped-parking licenses or hangtags. We must also provide for the occasional students who become disabled during the school year, by virtue of an accident, surgery, etc., who may not have been eligible for handicapped parking at beginning of school year but require it later. There are few enough of these cases that they can be handled on an individual basis when the need arises.
We need to provide shuttle bus service to remote parking lots for students who do not win the right to keep cars on campus from the lottery, but have demonstrated needs to have access to a car, such as having to go home weekends to help family members or whose employers are not accessible by mass transit.
The traffic to sporting events and other special campus activities, such as Mom\'s Day weekend, cause an influx of a large number of vehicles, which overwhelm the capacity of our streets and parking areas. There is little need for bus service to Memorial Stadium during the week, but on a football Saturday, there is greater need for shuttle bus service. I would like to see remote parking areas, such as the malls, Country Fair, Lincoln Square, become \"Park and Ride\" lots for football and basketball fans. There is at present only limited shuttle service provided by some eating and drinking establishments in hopes of attracting patrons before and after the games. We need more.
Some people with limited mobility might appreciate shuttle buses that stop much closer to the Stadium and Assembly Hall than where one could park. Often, people must walk quite a distance from where they can find parking for a football or basketball game. Service from Lincoln Square parking lot could meet needs from students living in this area. Service from Country Fair would cover those in the west end of Champaign. Service from Sunnycrest could cover southeast Urbana. Service from Market Place could cover the housing complexes there, and also provide a place for those coming in from out of town and reducing traffic congestion between the Interstate highways and the arterial streets leading to Campus.
We need to levy a special \"impact fee,\" perhaps by doubling the present parking fees for parking near the stadium, from those choosing to congest our streets getting there, in order to help fund additional shuttle bus service to the sports complex.
Have you noticed the little green signs along a few of the Campus streets? These signs, often with faded, soiled lettering , partly covered with remains of stickers, read thusly:
THIS ENTRANCE TO THE CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS IS NOT A
PUBLIC HIGHWAY. VEHICLES MAY ENTER IF OPERATED WITH DUE RESPECT TO THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS AND PROPERTY. ”
I wonder how much legal status does this statement convey? Could this be a disclaimer that would allow the University of Illinois to levy entrance fees, limit use of the streets in other ways? As far as I am concerned, the way I interpret these signs is that driving on the designated portion of the thoroughfare is a privilege and not a right. Therefore ,as with other privileges that may be taken away if abused, such as interlibrary loan services if materials are not returned on time,, I feel that we need to see if legally the University of Illinois is entitled to restrict passage on these streets or make vehicles pay for the privilege of entering the campus, whenever it is deemed that the conditions of permission to enter, as designated on the sign, are abused. Surely jamming the streets and creating accidents should warrant abuse of the privilege to use the designated street to enter the campus. The congestion and noise and pollution caused by heavy traffic may be annoying and threatening to some. Some individuals may be sensitive to the noxious exhaust fumes. Do these constitute infringements on the rights of persons, to such an extent that the number of vehicles driving these streets must be drastically reduced? Heavy traffic is battering the pavements. Surely that should constitute property damage, as indicated on the sign, being the street is property of the University of Illinois and not the public-at-large. Some normal wear and tear is expected with use, but the streets have suffered accelerated damage from the amount of heavy traffic they must carry each working day. Most people do not pay attention to these signs, as they are low-down and with relatively small, and barely legible lettering. But legally, these might be the key to allowing restrictions on the numbers of vehicles using the streets. We need to get some lawyers to interpret these signs and to take action to enforce the statements printed thereon.
In the long term, I would like to see every motor vehicle equipped with a transponder to automatically register fees, such as the \"I-Passes\" and \"Pike-Passes\" used by regular users of some toll highways. With this computerized system, we need differential rates for time-of-day: a low off-peak rate, a higher rush hour rate, and an especially high \"Special Events\" rate, such as for football and basketball games, perhaps even the major Krannert performances--marked with the car icon in the calendar, alerting patrons of possible parking congestion--in order to fund more mass transit service and to reflect the true social cost of using personal motor vehicles and the congestion, pollution and depletion of dwindling petroleum resources.
Like the high cost of cigarettes which do not cover their social costs, illness, loss of productivity, etc.; even with higher fuel and vehicle registration fees, these do not even begin to cover the true social costs for congesting our streets and highways with motor vehicles. We need to take some serious action now!
Campustown has been suffering due to severe traffic congestion. Instead of imposing an impact fee for motor vehicles, our City Fathers chose to impose an additional half-percent sales tax on restaurants and bars. More of these have been forced out of business in Campustown recently. The tax certainly cannot help the situation! What with little place to park, and such traffic congestion, these places are losing business. I know of one store selling novelties, herbal teas, etc., that has been forced to close its store and do its business entirely on-line, www.sacredspacestore.com . Others may follow.
The new 610 Technology Center will only cause further traffic congestion, what with its 8-story density. The back alley is narrow and will be difficult to enter and exit for tenants\' underground parking. The Boneyard is a physical barrier. Had I been the planner, I would not have located the building in that location for that reason, among others. It would be prohibitively expensive and disruptive to do so now, but a tunnel should have been built under the Quad and Campustown, for through traffic, and a pedestrian mall or street with only local traffic on the surface. This would be along the line of the street tunnel under several railroad tracks in Danville. But it cannot feasibly be built now, so we must find ways to reduce traffic congestion on existing streets.
I was hoping that, when the lumber yard at John and Oak Streets was destroyed by fire, a viaduct under the railroad could be constructed under the railroad tracks, that would make possible for Green and John Streets being a one-way couple of streets, such as State and Randolph and Church and University are, elsewhere in Champaign. However, I have been told that such conversion was not economically feasible.
But the city spent over $27 million with the Boneyard Project, to reduce flooding from heavy rainstorms a few times per year. The same money might have been better spent on such a project to reduce the flood of traffic nearly every day of the year! Because the railroad and Quadrangle are barriers to east-west traffic flow across town, it only makes further traffic congestion on the few cross-town streets we now have. We do not have any streets that go all the way across the two cities between Green Street and Florida / Kirby Avenues.
Because buildings do not permit widening of the street, the conversion from four lanes to three traffic lanes, the center lane for left turns only, and one bicycle lane, will only cause further backups of traffic. Look at Springfield Avenue during rush hour! It is sometimes backed up several blocks from the traffic lights at First and Fourth Streets.
The \"traffic calming device\" at Sixth and John is a very expensive joke! In order to slow the traffic, they should have installed a toll collection device where motorists would have had to deposit coins or tokens instead. That would slow them down! Hopefully, it should make them think twice about even driving in that area if alternatives are available.
If Green Street in Campustown is converted to toll in order to discourage traffic, I would like to see a token system whereby those making substantial purchases in Campustown would have their tolls reimbursed in the form of tokens. The toll collection devices need to be able to accept such tokens. These tokens should also be useable on MTD buses and have a greater redemption value as bus fare in order to encourage use of MTD for shopping needs. I do hope, however, that this will virtually eliminate the street\'s being used for through traffic between Champaign and Urbana.
Those having bus passes and who receive toll-reimbursement tokens received for shopping, as if they must use their cars because the purchases are too large to carry home on a bus, should be able to submit such tokens, for a credit toward extension of their passes or reduction in the renewal cost. This should promote use of MTD service for shopping. I would like to see that system extended to Market Place and North Prospect shopping areas as well. The present traffic congestion is becoming quite serious, particularly during the busy Holiday shopping season. We need to take steps toward reducing traffic in these areas.
If we do not take action regarding the traffic and parking congestion near the University of Illinois Campus, we face having as serious a traffic problem as some of the larger cities. Air pollution is affecting some people with respiratory difficulties. The potential for fatal or crippling accidents between motor vehicles and pedestrians and cyclists increases. The congestion hastens the decline of the downtown and Campustown shopping areas, and only increases the problems or urban sprawl.
Back in the 1970\'s Energy Crisis, there were proposals of \"even-odd days\" or mandatory prohibition of driving each motor vehicle one day per week. For a number of reasons, these restrictions would be extremely difficult to enforce, and they would invite people to fraudulently register inoperative junked vehicles in order to gain increased allocation of motor fuel and/or permission to drive on days the primary vehicle was prohibited. Ration stamps for motor fuel were printed up, and I understand were stored in a vault in some Western state. I wonder where those stamps are now, if they are even still in existence? Those represent millions of dollars down the drain if the stamps were ultimately destroyed.
Those prohibitions fortunately never came to pass. However, had we had even some form of local impact fee imposed then, and had the revenue collected funded additional mass transit, it would have made all the difference. We are now paying the price for all this wasteful consumption of gasoline!
Laura Huth , of the Illinois Student Environmental Network, was one of the first people I gave this paper to, when that organization had a display booth at the Downtown Urbana Sweetcorn Festival, August 24, 2001. She tells me that they should have learned a lesson from the 1973 “Energy Crisis.” It does not appear that they have done so. I tried to campaign then, in letters-to-the-editor in newspapers and at a public meeting on Mass transit District service, for an impact fee or some type of toll system to fund more frequent Mass transit Service. At a public meeting, they seemed to pooh-pooh the idea, stating it couldn’t practically be done, etc. Had we levied even a modest annual sticker fee then--back when parking rates on campus were artificially low and license plate fees were still only $48.00 for an average car, and gasoline was still less than one dollar per gallon--we could have built up quite a substantial fund for more frequent Mass Transit service and a much better solution for alternative transportation infrastructure and energy sources
We are paying dearly for our failure to have the foresight to have instituted those fees back then. I was told back then that one day, we would face a far more severe energy crisis than that one was. I believe that day is right around the corner, and it is extremely high time—in fact the ‘’eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute” that we take immediate and serious action before it is too late! The students today may be those who tomorrow will have to be deprived of petroleum-based fuels. We need to take drastic action NOW to reduce severe traffic congestion and to conserve our ever-dwindling petroleum resources.
George R. Carlisle, Jr.
406 East Green, #102,
Urbana, IL 61802
217-367-2506
carlisle (at) soltec.net
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See also:
www.soltec.net/~carlisle
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Comments
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Just a minute there fella |
by Charles Bee
c-bee1 (nospam) uiuc.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
27 Aug 2001
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You can install a transponder that lets the state know where my car is when you can pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Er, OK, but you get my point. -- CMB |
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