University of California, Berkeley
OP-18: Support for Sustainable Transportation

Secure bicycle parking provides 10 covered bike parking facilities and at least six bike rooms (within buildings) on campus. The campus has six electronic bike lockers available to commuters, as well as for visitors. At least eight campus buildings have shower facilities that are available to cyclists, in addition to a bicycle commuter shower program open to all campus commuters at the recreation sports facilities.

The campus has an extensive bicycle parking program and has been investing in safe and secure parking for over 25 years. The campus provides more than 4,000 short-term bike parking spaces (racks) at convenient locations around non-residential portions of campus. Nearly all buildings have some bike parking within 50 feet of entrances. In 2017, we will be conducting a bike rack inventory and utilization survey to update and offer a geocoded database of all bike parking facilities. Both short-term (racks) and long-term (cages, rooms) bike parking areas are available within 330 feet of building entrances at all residential buildings managed by the campus.

The campus has a network of bicycle ways as defined in our campus Bicycle Plan: http://pt.berkeley.edu/planningdocs/uc-berkeley-bike-plan-final. This plan also specifies how the campus network integrates with the city's extensive bicycling network, which is also part of the regional network. The campus landscape master plan outlines policies related to providing continuous pedestrian and bicycle paths throughout the campus.

The San Francisco Bay Area has instituted a public bike sharing program that campus affiliates can participate in. Ford GoBike is the region’s bike sharing system with more than 7,000 bikes and 70 stations across the region, with locations in San Francisco, Redwood City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Jose with stations being added to Berkeley and Oakland this year. The system is intended to provide Bay Area residents and visitors with an additional transportation option. The regional bike share program offers 10 bike share stations within 1/2 mile of the central UC Berkeley campus. Parking and Transportation is working with the Associated Students of the University of California on a grant to provide free FordGoBike BikeShare memberships to Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) students along with free or reduced-cost memberships to the general student population. EOP students will be given a free year of BikeShare memberships with the possibility of subsidizing (75-100%) of a students' second-year BikeShare membership. UC Berkeley is piloting an electric assist bike share program with 100 bikes for intercampus and intracampus travel. The program is geared for not only more direct routes to campus buildings but also reaches parts of the campus where Ford GoBike does not have any stations.

The campus offers a deeply discounted unlimited ride pass for local transit to faculty, staff and students. Subsidies on tickets for other transit providers are also offered for faculty, staff and students. Faculty and staff can purchase transit through pre-tax payroll deductions. Faculty and staff are eligible for a guaranteed ride home program (free rides home in the event of a personal emergency) and discounted daily parking on days when they need to drive alone. Since 1998 students have included a student transit fee as part of their registration fee. This has supported the unlimited ride pass and the campus shuttle program for over 18 years. More than 36,000 students pay for and receive a discounted AC Transit pass. Over 22,000 students and over 800 faculty/staff used their subsidized AC Transit passes in October 2016. Average monthly Bear Transit ridership exceeded 53,000 boardings by October 2016 - a 12% year-over-year ridership increase. The AC Transit pass is valid for travel on all of the system's 151 routes, including between the East Bay and San Francisco. The campus operates an extensive day and night shuttle system, Bear Transit, servicing the campus and the vicinity. Anyone can ride our shuttles, which provide convenient transportation between campus, Downtown Berkeley BART, parking lots, Clark Kerr campus, the Hill area, residence halls, Richmond Field Station (RFS) and north and south sides of campus. Shuttles are free to faculty, staff and students.

The free Guaranteed Ride Home Program offers up to 6 emergency taxi rides or car rentals each year for commuters using transit, ridesharing, walking, and bicycling. The Guaranteed Ride Home program also includes reimbursements for use of transportation network company (Uber/Lyft) services. The program is provided by Alameda County to all UC Berkeley employees to return home, within 125 miles.

The campus incentivizes carpooling by offering deeply discounted carpool parking permits and free reserved carpool parking spaces. The carpool parking system is designed to allow students and faculty/staff to carpool together. Free ridematching is available through a regional service for ongoing carpooling arrangements. The campus offers RideAmigos website services free of charge to faculty, staff and students for additional ridematching options. Faculty and staff carpoolers and vanpoolers can purchase fares and permits pre-tax. Faculty and staff are offered discounted daily parking on days when a ridesharer needs to drive alone.

UC Berkeley has a variety of car sharing services on, or just adjacent to campus including Zipcar and Enterprise Rent‐a‐Car. Each service provides its members with short‐term car rentals. The vehicles are conveniently located on campus as well as the in city of Berkeley and throughout the region. Each car-sharing service offers its own unique fee structure, eligibility requirements and philosophies. Each service provider offers a program for students ages 18 to 21, to serve a younger population that is sometimes not eligible for rental cars. Members can use the cars available on campus or throughout the network. The campus is now offering a car share program for university business. The GIG program also offers students and staff one-way car-sharing options between campus and homes in the East Bay.

The Stadium/Maxwell Parking Garage provides 8 L2 vehicle chargers for campus faculty, staff, students and visitors. The Upper Hearst Parking Structure provides 2 L1 chargers for faculty and staff. The Telegraph/Channing garage and Oxford/Fulton garage are near public charging stations.

UC policy allows managers and supervisors to offer telecommuting options to employees. Some departments on campus offer this option. This is available to both faculty and staff. A recent transportation survey shows almost 3% of employees telecommute 50% or more of the time.

UC Policy allows managers and supervisors to offer condensed work week option to employees. This condensed schedule can be on a fixed or variable arrangement.

UC does provide some faculty housing that is walking or transit distance to campus. The campus built a condominium complex and sold them at less than market rate near campus for purchase by faculty. The transportation incentives offered by the campus encourage employees to live near campus or conveniently located near transit hubs.

Since the 1980s the campus has provided incentives for alternatives to driving alone. The campus has invested in a large number of student residence hall and apartment units in walking or a transit ride distance from campus. This has been instrumental in the more than 90% of students commuting by sustainable transportation methods. For over a decade the campus has participated in the regional bike to work day, attracting hundreds of cyclists each year to celebrate active transportation. Students have also opened a bicycle repair shop on campus. The campus manages its parking in an effort to support and make sustainable transportation attractive. All parkers must pay to park - no free parking is offered. The campus only has 5,500 parking spaces to support a daily population of over 45,000 people. Students can only buy a parking permit for campus by exception or if they live more than 2 miles from the campus. The campus Long Range Development Plan limits the number of parking spaces that the campus can build during the time frame of the plan. The campus Long Range Development Plan also prioritizes new campus-built housing to be located within the Housing Zone - a zone defined as being a 20-minute transit ride to the central campus.