Parking & Transportation Services

Stanford runs one of the most comprehensive programs in the country to reduce university-related traffic impacts—it is an essential part of our drive for sustainability. Transportation, including commuters and university fleet vehicles, accounts for 16 percent of Stanford’s greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing the use of alternative transportation reduces those emissions and makes our community a better place to live and work: fewer cars translates to better air quality, less traffic congestion and noise, reduced pressure on undeveloped land and improved health for commuting students and employees.

Prior to 2002, the university provided a number of commuter benefits, including Clean Air Cash (a program to pay commuters not to drive alone), free shuttle service, free parking permits for carpoolers, reserved spaces for carpools and vanpools, vanpool subsidies, pre-tax payroll deduction for transit passes, an Emergency Ride Home program (for full and part-time alternative transportation users), a Freshman Emergency Ride Home program (for freshmen abiding by the “Freshmen No Cars” policy), and an extensive infrastructure serving the bicycling community. In addition, the university has had a parking-fee program in place for many years.

In 2002, the university began to expand the alternative transportation options and incentives in a planned effort to meet the GUP peak-hour trip limit. These efforts were developed and coordinated through the Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) department. The Commute Club was created to give new and existing alternative transportation users a sense of community and identity, thereby increasing both awareness of and participation in alternative transportation programs, as well as maintaining member loyalty. This program has grown from 3,706 members during the 2002 academic year to 6,755 in the 2007 academic year—an 82 percent increase.

 

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