INPIRG releases report on transportation trends at American universities

Millennials are pushing a national trend toward carless universities, and IU is among the most progressive.

At least, according to the Indiana Public Interest Research Group, which released a report Thursday on university transportation policy around the nation.

“University campuses must get the most value out of their limited land and they’re actually aware of problems associated with being overrun by cars,” Rory Carmer of the INPIRG Education Fund said in a press conference at the Indiana Memorial Union on
Thursday.

The report, called “New Course: How Innovative University Programs are Reducing Driving on Campus and Creating New Models for Transportation Policy,” can be found on the group’s website, inpirg.org.

IU-Bloomington and IUPUI were the only IU campuses listed in the report as campuses that provide discounted or fare-free transit programs.

Carmer cited many ways in which IU is stepping away from relying on a personal car to get around, including the IU Safe Ride Program, ZipCar and the campus and city buses.

Bloomington mayor Mark Kruzan said these resources haven’t been cheap.

“The University has invested heavily in mass transit as well as in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and safety throughout campus,” he said in a press release.

“IU leaders have instituted policies and practices such as creating its cutting edge Office of Sustainability, and a myriad of other examples. IU is making it easy for staff, faculty and students to decrease vehicular dependence, empowering everyone to make smarter choices.”

Carmer said bigger communities would do well to observe and implement similar programs.

“Universities act as an important laboratories, testing what cities and suburbs can do in their own, broader communities,” Carmer said. “Policy makers of the municipal, state and federal level should shift resources to alternative transportation modes to meet the needs of the millennial generation.”

She said millennials will put pressure on legislators to make the move.

“The habits that people adopt in their younger years have a way of persisting as people grow older,” she said. “There’s a generation of college graduates for whom it will be normal and desirable not to depend on a personal car.”

— Ashley Jenkins