Introduction

University campuses have unique transportation requirements that may be characterized with a high concentration of trips during multiple peak periods (i.e., morning, lunch and afternoon). These campuses are often one of the largest employers in small- to medium-size cities and it is therefore critical to coordinate campus mobility needs with the overall transportation system. Many colleges and universities recognize transit as an effective mode for meeting campus mobility and have developed transit systems to serve those needs. In the United States we are aware of at least 48 colleges and universities that have some type of campus transit program. Successful campus transit systems include several factors such as careful planning, understanding user preferences, efficient design of system services and coordination with existing city transit service. Universities are not homogenous (i.e., enrollment levels, campus locations, size of community) so they will have different needs. This study examines these factors for North Dakota State University (NDSU).

North Dakota State University is a major employer in the Fargo-Moorhead area. There are approximately 2,000 faculty and staff who travel to campus nearly every day to teach, conduct research, and facilitate information exchange for North Dakota and beyond state borders. NDSU has experienced a recent surge of on-campus growth, which impacts personal mobility on campus. The growth is due to a number of factors including: 1) development of new graduate programs which draw more students and requires more faculty, 2) the development of the Technology Park on campus, and 3) the new research programs being implemented. These factors have required the expansion of the land used to house the buildings and programs requiring students and faculty to travel longer distances on campus. Further, the architecture, landscape architecture and visual arts program are scheduled to utilize buildings in downtown Fargo, requiring students and faculty to travel to off-campus sites to take and teach classes.

The growth occurring on-campus is not met without growing pains. Mobility has become a greater issue. The additional students and faculty need to travel greater distances on campus. Parking has not increased at the same rate. Parking is typically a problem for most universities, but the tremendous growth at NDSU has accentuated the problem. To address these issues, the Small Urban & Rural Transit Center (SURTC), a research program at the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute on the NDSU campus, designed a research project. The overall project will address the transportation needs of the campus. This paper is a portion of the overall project. It contains the results of a survey conducted with the faculty and staff. There is also another paper that addresses the mobility needs of the students. The final product of this study will contain a literature review; additional methodology; the results from students, faculty and staff; conclusions and recommendations. The final report will be available this spring.